Category: Memory

Music…

Carry On

Crusader

Chris de Burgh
and Words

Whatever the words that you hear
Somehow the meaning is clear
We’re all on the same ship together
Moving on

From the first time that life could be heard
To the last sounds of men on this earth
The question is always the same
Where are we going? where are we going?
Carry on, carry on

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

The scene starts quietly in a recording studio.  A few notes start to sound from the piano as Tom Sullivan holds the microphone as if it were his lifeline.  He sings the first few verses; you notice his eyes looking into the distance as he focuses on his words.

Tom was born prematurely in 1947 and was put into an incubator.  This procedure saved his life, but doctors didn’t yet know to to appropriately calibrate the equipment.  There was too much oxygen in the chamber and the developed a film over his eyes that robbed him of sight.  Tom was not born blind, but he has been blind his entire life.

Continue reading “If you could see what I hear” →

Music…

Feels like the First Time

Foreigner

Foreigner
and Words

…

It feels like the first time
Feels like the very first time
It feels like the first time
It feels like the very first time

I have waited a lifetime
Spent my time so foolishly
But now that I found you
Together we’ll make history

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

It was 1982; I was a freshman in high school.  I knew next to nothing about baseball.  Popular team names, like the Dodgers and Yankees, sounded familiar but that was about it.

And then something happened to capture my interest.  A little team called the Atlanta Braves had a dismal record the year before yet started their season defying the odds.  I was lucky that Ted Turner, the then owner of the Braves, used his television network TBS to broadcast most of their games.

Continue reading “A Season of Faith’s Perfection” →

Music…

Así Nacemos

Soy… Julio Iglesias

Julio Iglesias
and Words

Con los ojos cerrados, (with our eyes shut)
Como presintiendo (as if we anticipate)
Que horrible es el mundo que vamos a ver… (the cruel world that we’ll see)

Con el llanto en los labios (with a cry on our lips)
Como lamentando (as if we lament)
Llegar a una tierra que buena no es… (arriving to an awful place)

Con las manos cerradas, (with our hands clenched)
Como preparados (as if we prepare)
A dar duros golpes; morir o vencer… (for a fist fight, victorious or dead)

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I was about seven years-old at the time; we still lived in Puerto Rico.  Meanwhile, my dad got each of us a different album from Julio Iglesias in cassette.  This one (“Soy…”) was mine.  I’m not sure why he decided to get us these cassettes nor if any of us had an appreciation for music, especially since I still struggled to separate Spanish and Chinese words, but nonetheless this one was mine.

Yet this simple gesture started a lifetime of memories…  disjointed, yet stitched together like colors in a kaleidoscope.

Continue reading “My first album” →

Music…

Bringin’ on the Heartbreak

High ‘n’ Dry

Def Leppard
and Words

Gypsy, sittin’ lookin’ pretty

The broken rose with laughin’ eyes
You’re a mystery, always runnin’ wild
Like a child without a home
You’re always searching, searching for a feeling
That it’s easy come and easy go

Oh, I’m sorry but it’s true
You’re bringin’ on the heartache
Takin’ all the best of me
Oh, can’t you see?
You got the best of me
Whoa, can’t you see?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I was riding the 545 express bus one morning on the way to the office from Seattle.  I listened to music on my Zune HD.  Browsing through the music, I turned to a playlist of ‘Everything I had liked’ and started it.  I continued to listen to music on my pair of Etymotic headphones which drown out most outside noise.  I looked quietly out the window while we passed different landmarks in the city.  The playlist, currently on shuffle mode, starts to play the next song.  In this case, it was Def Leppard’s “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak”.

Continue reading “The birth of an idea” →