Mondays' Musical Memories Move Me

Musical Memories, songs that remind you of...

Well you will see.

First Up, The Beatles Yesterday.
When I was a teen, I liked this song, but I didn't know why, other than I liked the music of the Beatles.

When I was in my 30s' I got the meaning of the song, but sait that was a long time away still.

Now in my 50s' I wish I could go back to the teen age view, because this song I understand too well and it isn't in the future, it is my present now.

Next up a great uplifting song, from a musical gem not well known to us.  LIGHT SINGS, from THE ME NOBODY KNOWS

I never knew that the 5th Dimension recorded this song or performed it live on Television.  What a wonderful surprise.

Next Up is Joni Mitchell with a song that now again makes too much sense.

 h

I heard this song daily for a little more than a year, when I lived in Las Vegas in 1986.  If I were only as free as the Free Man in Paris with no debts and past issues that weigh me down.  But perhaps my wife and I will be that Free man again in just a little while.

Next Up SEAL Kissed by a Rose.

When I heard this song in the early 1990s' my life was going into turmoil that I would be lucky to survive.  Seal and his music gave me hope when my life was clouded  by emptyness and darkness and promised a  future with love, which has come to be.

Last song.

This song, Human, by the Killers is an amazing piece, that I only discovered this last year.  It ties together what all these songs are about and about where I am now,  This is about my search for identity.  Lifes' journey is for me about discoveriing the inner me, the person I do not know and am only now at 53 beginning to understand.

Hope you enjoyed.

Til next week.

Identity, A Life Journey in discovery of the self.

What is identity? Is it a name we have, that we use like a mask we put on for Halloween? “A mask we keep in a droor, who is it for?” The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby.


Is identity more than a name, does it run deeper? How is identity shaped? Is our identity a reflection of those we have known?





“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” 
― Oscar Wilde

According to Oscar Wilde this may be so .


But if we are a mimicry of others passion, a mere quotation then why do feel so deeply about things.


In my life, I have taken on aspects of other, people have influenced me in my beliefs, yet in the end I choose if I accept a belief or follow a path .


In all honesty I am nothing like my brother when it comes to beliefs, I have developed the ability to do certain numeric aspects in my mind and look at things from a financial aspect, but I still have my own passions and beliefs.


In some ways I think the Bard expressed part of this very well in Hamlet, when he said, “We know what we are, but not what we may be.”


Our identity is a life time search, to discover what our purpose is, to seek out what we are meant to do and to leave an aspect of our lives to be remembered by.


My personal identity has been shaped in part by others, my father and I building scale models, me building them as an adult to keep his memory alive. Sayings and music that were associated to people no longer part of my life, weather due to losing track of one and other or them passing on.
Harvey Feinstein said “Never be bullied into silence, Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no ones definition of your life, but define yourself.”


My step daughter Natasha DuPureur (sp) told me the same thing nearly six years ago, when she came to visit the man who was marrying her mother. My struggle is still defining my sense of identity. I struggle to find who I really am, for so long I have put on the mask to fit in and I have never really found my true self.


My identity at nearly 54 is as much a mystery as it was when I was 18. I know parts of me, my love of all types of music this is me, and a way I express who I am, My love of certain Television Programs, movies and books; this too is part of me and who I am.


But I still do not know the whole picture, who is Mark Richards/Tamirisc M Dagda?


Perhaps this last quote sums up where I am, where my sense of identity is. For now, I feel as though I am only beginning to know myself, to learn who I am truly and finding out I am more than words can express. More than I can try and put here now.


I am only now, at nearly fifty four years old beginning to discover me. I know I am more than the things that I collect and watch and read. I know that I am more than the job I do and the people who have been and are part of my life, yet I do not know yet, who I really am, what my identity is, But I think it is a journey and maybe before I leave this world, I will know myself, my true identity. Here is the final quote that sums this up.



“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

Time to go way back again Sherman, I still don't get it...

Tuesday afternoon or evening is date night for my wife and I, and we are fortunate to be close to a movie theater that right now has quite a selection of good movies.

In the past two weeks we have seen both "Divergent" and "Mr. Peabody and Sherman."

Now, for those of you who are not familiar with "Mr. Peabody and Sherman", this came from a two hour cartoon series that ran on Saturday mornings in the early 1960s"  The series features "The Adventures of Rocky the flying Squirrel" and Bulwinkel Moose" Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop and Son and of course Peabodys' Improvibal History.

The movie is well done, the animation is crisp and nearly 3D without the glasses and the story moves quickly.  As with the original series, Mr. Peabody and Sherman find themselves traveling through time to such events as meeting Leonardo Divinci and finding out why the Mona Lisa did not smile and why Divinci could not capture her smile, the Trojan Horse and Penny, Shermans' love interest, nearly marrying King Tut.

Things go wrong and the world faces total destruction, can Mr. Peabody and Sherman save the future and what do George Washing, Abe Lincoln and Bill Clinton have to do with this movie?

Here are two clips one from the original and one from the movie.  Enjoy

Every Dog should have a Boy and Rapunzel

Teaser for the movie and...

Getting back into the groove...Ten more, nine more...

Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is getting back into doing something that you loved and made you feel good all over.

For me this was working out.  No you didn't read that wrong I love working out.  I love how you can push yourself and learn that in all reality you have no limits except what you accept from people around you.

When I used to work out close to six days a week, I would upgrade my exercises about ever two or three weeks.  I would go from 3 sets of the preachers curl at ten repetitions at 40lbs, to 3 sets of the preachers curl at varried weights and maybe 1 rep of 10 one rep of 15 and one rep of 5.

I always varried Monday, Wednesday and Friday would be cardio and upper body, Tuesday and thursday would be cardio and lower body and Saturday would be a combination of the two.

A few years back when my wife and I moved to Missouri we stopped working out, we just did not have the funds and locations were not easily gotten to.  

So the weight came back and boy did it ever for me.

When we moved back to Colorado, the apartment we moved into was supposed to have an athletic facility available in 3 months from the day we moved in.  Well it took nearly a year and then it was getting the key and getting out of bad habits.

So I am back working out, but I need to find some better instructions on some of the weight traing I am doing, it has been nearly 3 years and I have forgotten everything I knew, well almost.

It's a journey and I intend to succeed and lost the weight I have gained and get back to my size 36 slacks and jeans and a small top again.  

Nothing and no one, especially myself is going to stop me.

What better piece of music to end this on and be a daily inspiration.

James Last Orchestra with their only number 1 hit.  Bill Contis' theme from ROCKY, Gonna Fly Now.

A movie that is captivating in every sense of the word.A

Last Tuesday, my wife and I saw perhaps the best movie this year, or for that matter the last several years.

The movie 'Divergent', based on the book by Veronica Roth.
Roth has created a world not so distant from our own and yet with its' own unique twists and turns.

The world is represented by Chicago, not the bristling, bustiling windy city we are familiar with but a city where there are no ports and where the main city is a walled city.  No one goes outside the wall and no one knows what is on the other side of the wall. 

Roths' world is one where individual freedoms have been replaced by  five factions. 

The Factions were created to place people in positions where they would serve society as a whole and by being in said faction avoid the conflicts that arose when people randomly worked without a structure or purpose that they would do for their entire life.

Each faction handles an aspect or responsibility that is necessary for society to function.  

Dauntless are a combination of police and military.  They are brave and fearless and are what I would call super Marines.  They are dedicated to defending their city and its people and will do what is necessary and follow any order to preserve the people.

Candor are people who always tell the truth, they can not lie it goes against their very sense of being.  They believe that truth is foremost and that deception and falsehoods lead only to conflict because people can not trust.

Abnegation.    The selfless, those who help those who can not help themselves, who vanish into the shadows and do for others without the idea or reward, for helping others is reward in itself.

Erudite  The intellectuals and politicians.  

Amity, The peaceful.

These are the five factions.  The group that you become part of after an IQ test at 16, that helps you determine your path, and a ceremony where by cutting your balm and bleeding onto a hot stone, you seal your place in society.

This is the setting for "Divergent", the problem with this ordered society... All is not as it should be, there are those who do not fit in, they can see beyond a single path or way.  They are divergent and they are the people who do the jobs no one else wants to do, but there is a problem.  

Yet these people pose a threat.  Why and how does Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) fit into this complex matrix?

That is just part of the complex tale that unfolds in this fast paced film.

A story told through mainly one family, the Priors' and two other main players, one a member of Dauntless only known as Four and  the other Jeanine Matthews played by Kate Wisnlet, best known as Rose in Titanic.  Winslets' part in "Divergent" is a dramatic departure and shocker.

There are plots within plots and plans within plans.  

You will be surprised by many of the events, if you have not read the book and if you have, you will be impressed by how well this book was adapted to the large screen.

Divergent is well worth the cost of admission and would be a film I would put on the short list for the Academy Awards, for Best Actor Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Screen Play and best Sound Track.

Ten Stars out of Five.  This film blows the lid off and makes you want more.  The good thing, with two more books in the series, we are guaranteed two more movies.

A fantastic Recipe from out of the blue

Two weeks ago, while at work I saw part of a recipe on Ion TVs' Sunday morning show.

The recipe was very bare bones, nothing amazing; however it inspired me.  So here is my take.  No measurements , just trust your instinct.

In a frying pan pour in a liberal amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, coat well. 

Toss in as many Baby Spinich Leaves as you like cut up into three segments Asparagus, use half a tomato cut into segments.

Cut into segments a third or more of red or green bell peppers, you can use both,

Keep mixing together.

Add in cut Mushrooms segments of Avacado, canned corn and mixed vegetables.  Keep mixing.  Don't let the Spinach stick to the frying pan. 

For additional flavor and protein take two to three Gorton Fish Patties that have been cooked according to instructions and cut up and stir in.  The breading will come off and add itself to the mixture and the Fish will take on the flavors of the sauces and veggies. 

Now add in two eggs scramble these in with the other ingredients and then add in your favorite Alfredo sauce and Six Cheese sauce mix in well with the other ingredients.

Reduce head and let simmer then serve hot.

You can add Parma cheese to give it a little extra kick and Salt and Pepper if you desire.

Takes 25 minutes to 35 minutes.

Mondays Music it's cloudy with a chance of....

Well it;s all about weather so let's get started with a song from when I was a young un...

Next up a surprise, because I am not sure which song it will be as yet.  Haaa.  I kill me.  Here is a very different rendition of this song done by the lady of the Blues Billie Holiday.

Next up we finally get out of the stormy weather, with this rendition of Blue Skies.

This last song kind of deals with the weather, it is more an honorable mention.  Version one is the one we all know and love.  Version 2 will be a surprise.

Now the version most people have not heard...

The last version is exactly how Tony Bennett recorded it.  He did not record the whole song, and this is a revamped version of the recording he did on his album, Tony sings the great hits of today.

Hope you enjoyed my weather forecast, and hopefully we all get some sunny skys and warmth,  Til next weel.