Author: Frank

Music…

Purple Rain

Purple Rain

Prince & The Revolution

and Words

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain

I never wanted to be your weekend lover
I only wanted to be some kind of friend, hey
Baby, I could never steal you from another
It’s such a shame our friendship had to end

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In middle school (Parkway, in Fort Lauderdale), we were the Cavaliers, though honestly we rarely referenced that name.  Once I started South Plantation High School, that changed; we routinely called ourselves the Paladins.  I always thought it was a bit unusual to attend schools themed after different types of knights but didn’t obsess over it.  I always thought of us as a pretty progressive school, certainly more so than a name like “South Plantation” suggests.  My high school is the one that you pass on the Turnpike while driving through Fort Lauderdale; our colors were purple and gold.

Today is the eve of my 40-year class reunion; my last one was 30 years ago.  My time in high school had its good and bad.  This post is a personal reflection on that time at South Plantation High School.  You may have attended South Plantation with me and had vastly different memories.  I hope we’re both mature enough now to accept that our experiences are different versions of the truth.

Continue reading “40 Years” →

Music…

Til It Happens To You

Til It Happens To You

Lady Gaga

and Words

You tell me it gets better
It gets better in time
You say I’ll pull myself together, pull it together
You’ll be fine

Tell me what the hell do you know?
What do you know?
Tell me how the hell could you know?
How could you know?

‘Til it happens to you
You don’t know how it feels
How it feels

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

They released Animal House in 1978.  I was only 10 years old and was still learning English.  I knew about the movie and naturally wanted to see it.  I wish I could tell you that my fascination with the film was about the comedy and the hijinks.  It wasn’t; it was about the titillation.  It took years before it played on cable television, and it exceeded my expectations.

Two scenes burned into my memory.  First, Blutarsky, played by John Belushi, climbs a ladder to peep at women at the local sorority.  Second, Kroger, played by Tom Hulce, debates whether he should have sex with this date, Clorette, while she’s passed out from inebriation.  The movie was set in 1962 at Faber College.  It has been decades since I last watched that movie, but those scenes remain clear in my memory.

Continue reading “It might’ve been me” →

Music…

traitor

SOUR

Olivia Rodrigo

and Words

Ooh
Ah

Brown guilty eyes and little white lies, yeah
I played dumb, but I always knew
That you talked to her, maybe did even worse
I kept quiet so I could keep you

And ain’t it funny how you ran to her
The second that we called it quits?
And ain’t it funny how you said you were friends?
Now it sure as hell don’t look like it

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a lazy Sunday night, I tuned in to an awards show on television.  I left the show playing in the background while I typed away at my computer.  The chatter continued, which I mostly ignored.  Occasionally, they’d pause the award presentations, and a performer came on stage.  Honestly, these performances did not linger in my memory beyond their time on stage.  The one exception was Olivia Rodrigo.

First, the stage transforms into a field under a clear night sky.  She emerges from a mythical doorway that opens from the star-filled sky.  She wears a simple white summer dress and carries an acoustic guitar strapped over one shoulder.  Next, she starts with the guitar, and her voice follows shortly after.  It cuts through the anxious audience’s silence.

Continue reading “You betrayed me” →

Music…

Somebody’s Out There

The Sport Of Kings

Triumph

and Words

Is it fate or random chance
How can I decide
Are we victims of circumstance
When destinies collide

All the odds are against you
But somehow you make it through
You can rationalize it away
But it all comes down to you

Half our lives we spend waiting
For the knock upon the door
When it comes, will it be the one
That I’ve been waiting for

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I first discovered Triumph after the release of their album Thunder Seven; it was released right in the middle of high school.  Triumph is an exceptional band, among my favorites, in fact.  They’re a little different from other bands in that they don’t seem to inspire the unreasonable, fanatical following that other bands develop.  Van Halen, Rush, and Led Zeppelin had fanatical followers.  ‘Their’ band was the superlative; any discussion to the contrary was heresy.

Right after graduating high school, Triumph released the album The Sport of Kings.  I thoroughly enjoyed both albums, but Thunder Seven had a bit more cohesion.  That said, this new album fit the bill perfectly for the start of my higher education.  It melded into the soundtrack of my life.  The energy and optimism of ‘Somebody’s Out There’ made it an instant favorite.  It was the album’s top single.  I occasionally wondered who would become my ‘somebody’.

Continue reading “Precious Cargo” →

Music…

I Love Rock ‘N Roll

I Love Rock ‘N Roll

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

and Words

I saw him dancing there by the record machine
I knew he must have been about seventeen
The beat was going strong
Playing my favorite song
And I could tell it wouldn’t be long till he was with me, yeah me
And I could tell it wouldn’t be long till he was with me, yeah me

Singing, I love rock and roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock and roll
So come and take your time and dance with me
Ow!

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I approached high school, I lived on the radio.  I discovered reading science-fiction and fantasy novels, and they nurtured my imagination.  However, music fed my soul.  As a multilingual, multicultural person, I used both reading and music to learn the language and get my bearings.  Naturally, I also had television, but that’s an entirely different beast.

My fascination with the radio started much earlier, when we drove around the beaches of San Juan during the afternoon siestas.  We rode in my dad’s blue Chevy Nova with our faces out the windows.  I imagine that I must’ve resembled a dog, but the warm breeze made me happy.  This is where we first listened to the radio.  Our parents eventually got each of us a promotional transistor radio shaped like a Pepsi can.  They ran on a 9-volt battery, with the volume dial on one side and the station tuner on the other.

Continue reading “I may love rock and roll but no longer love the song” →

Music…

Carry On Wayward Son

Leftoverture

Kansas

and Words

Carry on my wayward son
There′ll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don’t you cry no more

Ah
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I′m dreaming,
I can hear them say

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I remember the angst and the anger.  As I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, I lacked direction.  My dad passed away when I was nine years old, a year before I arrived in Florida.  In many ways, that single event sent me into a free fall for the years that followed.  Perhaps more accurately, it changed the trajectory of my life.  Life before that was not without its complications, but it was considerably simpler.

Though my dad had little to no education, he accomplished a great deal during this modest lifetime.  He became an accomplished chef through apprenticeships in Hong Kong.  He was skilled enough that they sponsored him twice…  First, he moved from Hong Kong to Spain; next, he moved from Spain to Puerto Rico.  He learned English and then Spanish on his own, without formal education.  He eventually opened his own restaurant in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.

Continue reading “Navigating the sea of the unknown” →

Music…

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Arrival

ABBA

and Words

No more carefree laughter
Silence ever after

Walking through an empty house
Tears in my eyes
Here is where the story ends
This is goodbye

Knowing me, knowing you (ah-ha)
There is nothing we can do
Knowing me, knowing you (ah-ha)
We just have to face it this time (this time, this time)
We′re through (this time, this time we’re really through)

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

My family left Puerto Rico in 1978; we moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  We spent the two summers after that move in Toronto, Canada, and Hong Kong, respectively.  As my sisters and I learned a new language, we did much of this through music.  As my mom shopped in Chinese mini-grocery stores, my older sister got the occasional record of popular music.  Each vinyl disc contained a collection of songs from a particular year, like 1977.

Though in some ways, the joke was on us.  These were definitely popular songs from that year.  However, the songs were not performed by the original artists; instead, they were covered by Chinese artists and repackaged.  A typical record like this would contain covers by artists such as the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.  In fact, for many years I didn’t know that the first version of Hotel California wasn’t the original.

Continue reading “The sweet voices of my childhood” →

Music…

Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin

and Words

There′s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she′s buying a stairway to Heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven

There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
′Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there′s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I arrived in Florida from Puerto Rico in the summer of 1978.  When I first arrived, I spoke mostly Cantonese and Spanish.  I studied English in Catholic school, but I failed that class.  Upon arriving in Florida, I started learning English for real.  In fact, I learned English through listening to music.  I spent many hours listening to the radio on stations such as Y-100.  It was in that way that I discovered bands like Led Zeppelin.

The prototypical Led Zeppelin song that dominated the airwaves is “Stairway to Heaven”.  Naturally, the radio played many of their other songs, but “Stairway to Heaven” was by far their most distinctive.  Yes, I found the song interesting, but many songs were interesting.  The 80s filled my ears full of many distinctive sounds and experiences.  You know how the adage goes, “You’re unique, just like everyone else.”

Continue reading “Epitome of debates in my school library” →

Music…

Wait for Sleep

Images and Words

Dream Theater

and Words

Standing by the window
Eyes upon the moon
Hoping that the memory
Will leave her spirit soon
She shuts the doors and lights

And lays her body on the bed
Where images and words are running deep
She has too much pride to pull
The sheets above her head
So quietly she lays and waits for sleep

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Nearly two decades ago, I called Peg at home on a weekend day.  We exchanged polite greetings, but I immediately asked her to put her husband on the phone as well.  Once they were both on the phone together, I asked them a question.  No, I asked them that question.  I told them that I had honorable intentions toward their daughter and that I was going to propose.  I wanted their blessing.

Years ago, I watched a scene from the movie Fiddler on the Roof with Paul Michael Glaser.  I noted a very clever conversation where he informs a father about his intent to marry his daughter.  However, he does not ask for permission to marry his daughter; instead, he asks for his blessing.  I learned a lesson from that scene and asked for their blessing, not their permission.

Continue reading “Quietly she waits for sleep” →