Darkoshi

I started playing the music files on my laptop in random mode, by means of my VLC script.
The first thing it played was the recording of grandma speaking about Boston. After only a couple seconds of hearing that, in my mind I could smell the sweet scent of unsmoked pipe tobacco; that was what I remember grandpa smelling like. It is funny how hearing a voice from the past can trigger the memory of a scent.

I had a set of Mr Sketch scented markers as a kid. I still have a few of them. When they dry out, I open them from the bottom and drip some water in to rehydrate them. The colors are no longer as bright and strong, but they still have their scents. Black "licorice", dark "green apple", purple "grape", red "cherry", blue "blueberry". I don't have the other colors anymore, but I remember how most of them smelled. Brown cinnamon, pink watermelon, orange, lemon, "raspberry". All except the light blue one shown in those search results. Mango? I don't remember that scent at all. I didn't even remember there being a light blue color. And why mango for blue?

M the 5 year old has been using the markers. The scent of their marks on the paper is still so strong I had to move the papers off this desk. Even though they are 40-ish years old.

I've discovered that heights bother me less at night / when it is dark. Today I cleared pine straw off the roof, using an extensible pole with a rake-like attachment while standing on a ladder leaned against the roof. The sun set before I was done, so I continued while wearing a headlamp (yay LED bulbs which can shine bright for hours without using the batteries up).

Usually doing the side above the garage feels scary to me. But today in the dark, notwithstanding the flood lights and headlamp, it didn't bother me. Doing this task after dark has another benefit - not having the sun glare in my eyes.

.

It reminds me of an amusement park ride I was on as a child. I'm not sure, but it must have been Space Mountain at Disneyland. It was like a roller coaster, but indoors and in the dark. Normal roller coasters terrify me due to my fear of heights. But this ride didn't bother me and was fun.

On a whim, I bought a ticket to an online stream of a symphony being held tonight at our local arts center:

HAYDN - Symphony No.88
SHOSTAKOVICH - Cello Concerto No.1
RESPIGHI - The Pines of Rome


Thoughts:

The discordant noise of an orchestra warming up is horrible to have to listen to! At least here at home I can turn the sound off. Sitting in the audience, I wouldn't be able to.

Here at home, I can dance and sway, and do hula hoop while listening to the music. And eat dinner. Those poor people in the audience have to just sit there. I remember the last such symphonic event I attended in person, which was a performance of music from Star Wars. I remember disliking that aspect of it, feeling the pressure to sit quietly and unobtrusively in your seat while listening.

Other than that Star Wars and possibly another Sci-Fi music performance, I'm not sure I've ever been to any other symphonic/orchestral style performances. I remember hearing the "Peter and the Wolf" music when I was in elementary school, but am not sure if that was a live performance somewhere or a recording.

All of the performers are wearing black face masks. The wind/brass instrument players push down the masks while doing their parts. Then they put the masks back in place. I'm impressed by that.

I wonder if there are any orchestras that wear a color other than black.

Do cellos come in different sizes? One is huge, 2 others are smaller. Or are they different instruments? (Looking it up, it must be a double bass.)

I am reminded of my brother's first wife. She had a cello and would occasionally play it. That was so long ago. I wonder sometimes how her life is going. Did she become a doctor or a scientist, as she had planned? Germans don't use Facebook much and seem to have more privacy protections, so you can't just do a search and find much info.

They've finished the first piece and switched out and rearranged some players. This cello player now in the front on a small riser must be a star performer. She is not wearing a face mask, but is making up for it with entertaining facial expressions. I like how she has her hair done up, and the muscles in her arms. It's an interesting combination together with the glittery black gown.

There's an unmanned "Zildjian" gong in the back of the hall, tantalizing.

Another switcheroo. The cellist bowed and left and came back and bowed some more, and bowed and left the hall.

More performers now. More discordant noise, but a nicer sort. Maybe the gong will get gonged!

They must have several cameras in place; they've been giving a good view of many different angles.

Oh I see, the gong is being gonged lightly in this piece.

Well. That was that. Wasn't really much my kind of music; only a few parts that spoke to me, possibly they reminded me of other music from my past. Of course, this was playing it through my TV speakers; I'm sure it sounded more impressive in person.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold
The series first aired in English in the United States on the Nickelodeon cable network from June 30, 1986 to June 29, 1990.

So I watched it when I was in high school. The song is the main part I remember liking about it.

Original opening and theme song:


Video title: Mysterious Cities of Gold
Posted by: Peter Gabriel
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcH_ZTF6smY
Date posted: Feb 20, 2006



New 2012 series - it looks quite good based on the below! I may have to watch it. Someday.


Video title: Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 2 English Theme
Posted by: Misha Wisha
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwvr6Lwhzyg
Date posted: Jul 25, 2013


The Mysterious Cities of Gold Opening Multilanguage Comparison

Below, a very good live performance of the theme song!


Video title: Mysterious Cities of Gold Theme
Posted by: Fil hill
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kvOSQQ1uE
Date posted: Apr 4, 2020



Here is a different song which seems to be based on the show. The video gives a good overview of the series:


Video title: Children of the Sun - Thomas Bergersen (Mysterious Cities of Gold )
Posted by: Astrotema
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UApLq2C_9rM
Date posted: Jun 28, 2017

OMG, thanks to MM, I search for "wicky wicky song" and YouTube plays me some of my favorite songs from the 1980s... I think I still have these on cassette, taped from the radio (and therefore somewhere in the converted files on my computer), but I never knew the artist or song names. ::grins and dances maniacally:: ::squee-screams::


Video title: Jam On It
Posted by: Newcleus - Topic
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1Qdcl4ja1Y
Date posted: Dec 25, 2014




Video title: Cybotron - Clear
Posted by: Zog26
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGqiBFqWCTU
Date posted: Oct 3, 2008



Video title: The Dream Team Is In The House!
Posted by: LA Dream Team - Topic
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf6avddadF8
Date posted: Jul 30, 2018


Yo baby, yo baby, YO!!

..

The roller-skaters in this video are awesome, like break-dancing on skates; I've never seen skate-dancing like this:

Video title: Roller Skate Vaughan Mason And Crew Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll 1979 By Vargas Rádios Amparo
Posted by: VARGAS RÁDIOS AMPARO
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PCuYhZzlNo
Date posted: Mar 8, 2018



Damn, this looks like fun:

Video title: Northern Cali Doin what they Love to do
Posted by: Quad Lovers Sk8 Entertainment
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KgNc6pj7mo
Date posted: Jul 17, 2018


But dang, how can they do all that without falling. I think I had a pair of skates when I was a small kid, but never got any good at it, and don't remember ever being in an indoor skate rink, much less with music.

Last weekend I went to a free concert in Finlay park, downtown. The band was Loose Ends featuring Jane Eugene, an R&B group from the 80s. I didn't recognize their name, but when I looked up some songs of theirs beforehand, at least one brought back nostalgic memories of my youth. So I thought I might enjoy the concert, and I very much did. They even had a meet'n'greet afterwards where audience members could buy CDs and get autographs and photos taken with the band.

I have a short clip of one of the songs that turned out pretty good audio-wise. I'll post it when I have time, if YouTube lets me.

I was at the concert with a family friend - it was her idea to go in the first place. After that concert was over, we met up with my mom and walked to the (tail end) of the Latin Festival which was taking place a few blocks away. We got to hear one or two songs over there before its last band wrapped up for the night. I bought a multi-colored flashing LED baton-type toy from a stall, yay!

The Wikipedia page for Loose Ends mentions several changes to the band members over the years, and seems to indicate that Jane is no longer with the group. That along with the "featuring Jane Eugene" part of the band name made me think that the other musicians playing with her here weren't original band-members, but I wasn't sure. I'm aware that band-members who have split up sometimes continue to perform separately under some variation of the original group name. Jane has a Twitter page and Loose Ends has a Facebook page, but looking at them, I was still confused.

Today I finally found an answer on this page:
https://citywinery.com/philadelphia/loose-ends-featuring-jane-eugene-11-7-2019.html
It lists the names of the musicians who perform with her; they aren't original band members, although Steve Nichol does occasionally make guest appearances.

There's a bit more info at the end of this page:
http://dance2.webdj.co/loose-ends-watching-you/
Carl McIntosh currently performs under the name 'Loose Ends Experience' or 'Loose Ends'...


Video title: Loose Ends - Slow Down
Posted by: koollatter
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKdnCSeJwQ


1986 Soul Train performance of Slow Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdPynoroCg



Video title: Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)
Posted by: 80's & 90's Forever
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WWHoVH4QM

A guest actor in the Babylon 5 episode And the Sky Full of Stars triggered a memory for me tonight. When I was a kid, there was a short-lived Sci-Fi TV series about an alien from outer space who wore an amulet. That's all I remembered about it, except that I liked the show and was disappointed back then when it was discontinued.

I looked up who the B5 actor was - Judson Scott, and I was right, he was the lead actor in that other series: The Phoenix
(He was also in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.)

The old show must have been very cheesy as it was cancelled so quickly, and I don't think there were ever any reruns. But even so, Judson Scott's character had qualities that were attractive to me back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvqGS4qrvkg&list=PL86ScMY7yuv0o-tnQnaab-240lTIMK8G2

I came across this old flyer in my things a while after posting about the Little Oktoberfest that used to be held by the American military housing area in Munich. The flyer is from the last year I lived in Germany, 1985.



Text Transcription:

Postwurfsendung
[ image of Fireworks ]
Traditionelles 29. deutsch- amerikanisches
"Kleines Oktoberfest"
in der amerikanischen Wohnsiedlung am Perlacher Forst LincolnStraße
BAYERISCHES BIERZELT
mit erstklassigem Musikprogramm täglich bis 23.00 Uhr
Täglich großer VERGNÜGUNGSPARK ab 13.00 Uhr
Ice Cream, "Hamburgers", "Hot Dogs" und andere amerik. Spezialitäten

15. Juni, 17 Uhr ............. Eröffnung und Bieranstich
20. u. 27. Juni, 14-19 Uhr ... Familientage mit erm. Preisen an allen Fahrgeschäften
23. Juni ..................... Erstmals in München Tagesfeuerwerk
29. u. 30. Juni .............. 15. Internationale deutsch- amerikanische Wandertage
.............................. (Start und Ziel im Bierzelt)
30. Juni nach 22 Uhr ......... Großfeuerwerk

Straßenbahnverbindung: Linie 27 bis Endhaltestelle Schwanseestraße, dann 10 Min. Fußweg, S-Bahn
Linie 2 - Haltestelle Fasangarten - Parkmöglichkeit nur an der Lincolnstraße

vom 15. Juni mit 30. Juni 1985
Veranstalter: Amerikanischer Verband für Freizeitgestaltung, München


...


My memories of the fest, in general:

In content, it was rather similar to the State Fairs they have here in SC every year. There were food booths, rides, games. There was a beer tent, but I don't remember much of that.

I remember there was a wall, maybe part of a building, on the outskirts of the area, where the men who had drunk too much beer, went to piss.

There was a dunking booth.
I think there was a test of strength game, where you'd hit down hard on something using a sledgehammer, which would cause something to lift up high based on how hard the hit was. Maybe when it got to the top, it activated the dunk. Or maybe the dunking booth was a different game, throwing a baseball hard at something. Maybe I'm getting memories mixed up.

There were the kind of games where you throw balls at a target, to try to win a prize.

They sold blocks of American ice cream in in box containers. I remember the Neapolitan flavor, stripes of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. The same stuff the we could buy in the military commissary. There were other American staples like hamburgers and corn on the cob - a lot of Germans came for the food.

They sold German Dampfnudeln, as mentioned in my other post.

One time, on one of the rides that spins you around up in the air and back and forth, around and around, my head slid off the side of headrest, and the momentum of the ride was so strong, that it was a hard struggle for me to pull my head back into place against the headrest. It was scary, but I think I was too embarrassed to mention it to anyone. I still wonder if that incident is why, as an adult, I find it hard to lean my head back to look upwards at tall things. My neck gets tired and achy very quickly when doing that. Or maybe my neck was weak to begin with.

One time, I went on a ride with my mom, which I wouldn't normally go on due to my fear of heights. The kind where 2 people are locked into a cage-like thing with 2 seats, and it gets pulled up high, and then the cage is spun around head-over heels a few times. It looked sort of like this Zipper ride, though I don't remember the whole thing rotating like that one. Maybe it did. Regardless, it was scary.

https://www.muenchenwiki.de/wiki/Little_Oktoberfest
http://munich-greeter.de/en/2014/07/amerikanische-geschichte-in-muenchen-teil-1/

Once I stopped mucking with and moping about the unlit lights, it only took me about 3 more hours to finish decorating the tree and the other room. I didn't use the tinsel, as the tree looks good to me without it this time. (Or maybe I just don't want to bother, in spite of having stored the tinsel in a special way last year to make it easier to put up). I also didn't put the batteries in the hallmark light & sound ornaments, and I skipped putting up my glittery painted mirror pieces. It all still looks good anyway. Now I just need to put away the boxes and clean up.

Tomorrow, probably going out to watch Star Wars 8 with Qiao.

It's odd, how a few years of vivid Christmases as a child have imprinted themselves so strongly on my brain. How even now, thirty years later, I still feel compelled to put up a Christmas tree and such, all because of those long ago memories, even though they are so vague now. They became a part of my core, and they still affect me, even though the Christmases of adulthood, or perhaps rather the *me* of adulthood, are so empty and meaningless compared to back then.

A memory of liking to crawl under the tree, and look up at it from below. At the orange, blue, green, glowing, bigger Christmas tree lights of back then.

A memory of playing chess. I suppose that has nothing to do with xmas. But it was in the same living room as where we had the xmas tree at xmas.

The American Armed Forces newspaper (Stars & Stripes) always had a coloring contest around xmas-time. They printed some holiday-themed image (outlined like from a coloring book), which you could color in and submit, in hopes of winning. I don't remember if there was any prize. I never won.

My mom baked German Christmas cookies, and I helped. Ground up hazelnuts, mixed into a dough, refrigerated, then rolled out and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Baked, then iced and decorated. Then stored away in sealed containers, sometimes with pieces of apple, to give them time to soften up.

The excitement of getting presents. Of listening for reindeer hooves on the roof (nah, I never did that; above us was another apartment or the attic, not the roof). Of looking out the windows in the evening, looking for Santa. And for reindeer and a sleigh.

Of going on a road trip to visit our German relatives. The chatter of the people; the glow of the lights. The cold, desolate German winters.

Making hand-made Christmas decorations in elementary school. Red and green construction paper, cut into strips, glued into links for a paper chain to put on the tree. Paper cut-out snowflakes! Wrapping yarn into a diamond pattern around two crossed pieces of wood.

The thick sweet egg-nog in the tall round rippled metal cans. Iced Lebkuchen. The spicy sweet scent of Gluhwein. The Adventskalender, with pieces of chocolate or little pictures behind each day's door. The Adventskerzen, another candle lit each week. The angels singing, the little bells tinkling, the big church bells ringing.

Some winter / Christmas scenes from the "The Dark is Rising" book also managed to entwine themselves into my Christmas memories, such that when I think of Christmas, I often also get memories of those scenes from the book.