Mondays' Music Moves Me Family

This is a special 4M for me, this is a tribute in music to people in my family, those alive and passed.

The first is dedicated to my father, Ralph Richards, who died in April of 1975.  He was a great musician, he played for several local jazz bands and wrote several arrangements,  His most famous was an arrangement of Richard Harris's MacArthur Park. 
So in tribute to my father, here is ....
Barry Manilow, I write the songs.

Was he young back then, then again so was I.
Next up, a special song dedicated to my wife, yes it's Barry Manilow again.  You could say our life has had some magic associated with it.  LOL

This is a Magical version because it is the extended unreleased version.
This next one is my theme, has been since the song came out in the 1980's.  Sometimes you may wonder why I walk off cliffs unaware, it's because my ego is a bit bigger than my sense of reality.  So I warn you, you may have to TAKE ON ME, by ahHa.

Still amazing all these years later.

This next one is dedicated to my mother in law, who is a very strong willed individual who has a unique view and is willing to fight to present it.  Like a single Battlestar leading a rag tag fugitive fleet to find Earth.

What is interesting about this opening.  It is from a two part episode titled LOST PLANET OF THE GODS.  My mother in law has a quest to unify all under one banner to coexist, and be a planet of the Gods, no coincidences.  Ever.

This song goes out to my step daughter, and it could apply to my mother in law as well.  Helen ready says it better than I could.

I wish I could come up with songs for other members of my family, but I got a late start, pehaps I will add a few later on.  But right now this is how it stands. 

With love and respect for all of my families.

Monday's Music Moves Me Summer... really

Well we have a theme this week, that theme is summer.  I really do not like themes, because they can limit my sense of play.  I am off kilter when it comes to life, and especially music.


That being said, summer for me is one of those times of year you hunger for all through out winter, when it is cold.  Then when it arrives you want it over with.  


My first piece is called Summer, it is from the Four Seasons' by Vivaldi and it is very expressive, to say the least.

You will be amazed by the above video.


Although the game begins in what, February, it is something we all attend in the summer.  I am of course talking about Tennis... Not.  Baseball.  So go Rockies, er Cardinals, anyone but the Cubs.

Love the above video, because at one time or another, we have all dreamed of being on the field of dreams.

I am old enough to have heard this song every summer into the 1980's.  It is a classic and for a lot of people including my brother Geoff, hi Geoff.  He did this, and as far as I know still does.  So wax your boards and let's go Surfin USA.


So there you have it, my tribute to summer.

Can't believe it, I won.  Wooot woot.  Things is a happening...

A Matter of perspective

Sometimes, it is just a matter of perspective.  You can see a movie a hundred times and it is just a favorite,,, then suddenly you watch movie again, read a book or listen to a song and there is a BOOOM.


Well for me this happened recently.  What brought this about, is that nearly for a month I have been living in a hotel in Denver with a T.V. that has ten channels, maybe 12.  With the exception of USA and Discovery, there is very little else to watch; however I rented the entire fifth season of HAWAII FIVE-O and have been watching these with vigor.


Now I have always been a huge fan of the original series, Jack Lord was and still is the only Steve McGarett, his pacing and timber of voice just is unique 


The fifth season was for me a surprise, yet one I found myself still familiar with.  How could this be?


Before I left Colorado originally last year, a new channel came on the scene call R-TV, this shows classic television series from the '60's to the 80's.


I had started watching Five-O on R-TV.


But what really struck me this time as I sat and watched were how many well known actors played against type in this series.


William Shatner, played a crooked Private I who marched wits against McGarett.  There were guest stars like Dirk Benedict, in a walk on part, amazingly enough Benedict actually could act, this was before he became locked into the personification he used in Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team.


Richard Lawrence Hatch, yes that was his name back then also played an a typical character of Gar, a hippy who with his girl friend, would steal children then sell them, so they could be "free" from the rules.


Three episodes strongly stand out so far in the fifth season run.  The first is "The Child Stealers"   which I mentioned above.  What stands out in this episode is that this is still happening today.  You have people who will sell children for many reasons, freedom, inability to care for the child, the list goes on and yet here in 1972-73 we get an episode that looks at this and in a very cool manner.


You sit and you get into the head of Gar "Hatch" his girlfriend "Nina" played very well by Meg Foster and the lawyer who brokers the children played by Richard Anderson, who also played Oscar Goldman on "The Six Million Dollar Man"


Hatch was so cool and believed what he was doing, that it didn't seem like he was acting, again he actually played a part because he hadn't been type cast yet.  Either that or it was that he used his full name.


But Five O did some other things, in their fifth year that were ahead of their day.  In an episode titled "V is For Vashon"  we see for what may very well be the first time a homo sexual character is introduced into a story line.  The character involved is a State Judge and he has kept this secret, and has been blackmailed to change his testimony or this secret will come out.


Granted it was not a positive image, however it was impact-full because in 1973 this was something that wasn't discussed in public and not used as part of a television series or movie, especially one that many family members watched.


But the episode that captivated me most, so far is one titled "The Listener"  


"The Listener" gets under your skin so fast that you want to pull your hair out, because you are a victim and you have no idea at first how, or why this is happening.  Your secrets, the secrets of your patients being recorded and used to black mail you.


What is so disturbing about this episode is that it can still happen today, and with the improved technology it can be more invasive and harder to defeat.  This is just one of those stories that haunts you, because it is current and yet it is from 39 years ago.  Back when computers used punch cards, there were  no cell phones and when Crime Scene Investigations used powder to collect finger prints, and you used a magnifying glass to check ridge patterns.


The technology has changed, the way we live may have improved to some point, but people are the same.  And there are those out there who would do what "The Listener" did, and the unfortunate thing, not everyone has a Steve McGarett who can out smart the bad guy in the end.


Now not all of the fifth season was as dark and moody as "The Listener" , "The Child Stealer's", or "V is for Vashon"
You had some that were down right humorous, such as "I;m a family crook...don't shoot" which starred Andy Griffith as the head of a family of thieves.  


Or the compelling episode "Death Wish on Tantalus Mountain"  This episode featured Ricardo Montalban as a wealthy race car driver who is in love with Diana Muldaur.  Montalban faces the possibility someone is out to kill him, and he faces a challenging mountain he intends to defeat in his souped up race car.


What made Five-O so powerful by the fifth season, the principle characters were established, the story lines were crisply written by an established team and it had the clout to pull punches like a homosexual character before the time it was talked about, or even accepted in passing.  A psycho who taps a psychiatrist to blackmail him for his perceived injustice, or a family of grifters who hit pay dirt just to have everything fall apart.


There will never be another series like the original Hawaii Five-O and that is fortunate, because it makes it one of the most powerful, and fun series to come back to again and again.


So "Aloha" until next time.


SPOILER WARNING, this gives away the end of "The Listener"  You are warned.

  Another spoiler warning, for the end of "The Child Stealer's"  Richard Hatch was young, and you can't tell it as well from this clip, but he could act.

V for Vashon...a chilling statement and set up for the second of three part episode.

Pig in a Blanket, an episode that haunts us today, because this is unfortunately how many see police today.

I know intense stuff, but I have been putting this off for a week.  Be grateful I hadn't finished season Five or I might still be writing.


Again, "Aloha, until next time..."

You really know that you are getting old when...

You take a walk about to clear your head, while looking for work online and you find yourself surrounded by buildings that look like they were part of the original STAR TREK T.V. series.


For those not in the know, I returned to Colorado, two weeks ago thinking I had a job lined up... that didn't happen.  I have been looking religously daily for work.  


Well I had been online since six this morning, for three hours straight and I needed to get some air.  So I decided I would take a short walk about, take my camera and get a few shots.


What I came across is a building that I knew of, but never had been to, much less seen the whole building when I had lived in Colorado previously.


The buildings are two different structures.  One is The Civic Center Cultural Complex, and the second is an extension of the Denver Art Museum building.


Both look like something that Captain Kirk and his crew would have beamed into back in the day.


Enough words, here are some pictures, taking you where this Coloradoan had never been before...

Monday's Music Moves Me Music of Love

By now, many of you know that I am bit off kilter.  I mean I get my postings backwords, when it comes to The 4M's.  I mean last week should have been music from your wedding and this week is the free bee.  How the bee got free inside the studio I do not know.

Drum beat.

Anyhow, so this week is music of LOVE.  Yes, Love that's what it's all about.  So be perepared this could get a little strange.  What am I saying, I am strange.

This first one, I discovered this version early last week, I have always loved this song ever since ROBINHOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES, the video was fantastic and Bryan Adams, I thought had the ultimate version.  But now, well I think this version is just the cats whiskers.

I was hoping to do our song, which is Barry Manilow's Could it be Magick, and what do you know?  I found this version, now granted it is a bit different, but it is our song.


This next one is by one of my favorite movie music composers, mainly John Williams.  The piece is titled Across the Stars and it is the love ballad from STAR WARS Episode II.  The song is so beautiful and in a way expresses how when people love each other that nothing will keep them apart, that their love will be strong, if not stronger than before.

And one last piece

Yes Pierce Brosnan can sing, so can Meryl Streep.  This song is so true.  When you are apart you really need each other more.


So there you have it.

Mondays; Music Moves Me Spirit,Soul and Transformation

This is a bit strange, but coming from me, well that shouldn't surprise anyone.  My day was a bit strange so why shouldn''t the music I choose reflect that?

Part of the strange feeling comes from the fact that for a week and two days I have been back in Colorado solo, in order to find work.  So this music reflects the sudden isolation and the fact that I am asserting myself again in a new old place.

The first is the complete opening credits from the 1960's series the PRISONER.  The series was set in the village and he must maintain his sense of self and being a free man, in a system set to force compliance and obedience with no real individual freedom, a struggle I have faced many times, and one we all face.



The second piece represents that we all can be a hero, that we can rise from the limitations of the world and accomplish amazing things, even if we have to sometimes see that we have made mistakes and have almost lost the most important aspects of our lives.  That no matter how overwhelming the odds we can accomplish remarkable feats.



And of course it is love that gives us the courage to overcome all the struggles we face, so we do not remain a Prisoner, and so we can overcome the darkness that tries to crush us.



So there you have it.  My week and life in music.

Hope you enjoyed, until next week....

Oh and this is just for fun.