AN ENCHANTED BOTTLE AND THE IVORY CUPBOARD
By: JLF
2/28/95
Help Me! Help Me!
I don’t know what’s wrong with me!
What is this strange feeling?
Is it a headache, a stomach ache
A new strain of flu?
Why do I feel this way?
What–wait…
Is this happiness,
is this what it feels like
to be happy?
I don’t have any worries,
And even the worries I can think of
Just don’t seem to bother me
This fine winter evening.
The music from the radio
Seems to flow into me
And through my veins,
Electrifying me and making me glow
all over.
I want to capture this feeling
into an enchanted bottle.
I want to seal it up tight
And lock it away in an ivory cupboard,
Where I can save it
For a dark, hazy day of sadness
When I can take out the bottle
And remember what happiness was like.
I haven’t felt like this in so long
in a sense too far gone from love
That don’t last forever
Something’s gotta turn out right
–“Got Me Wrong” by Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains)
[A million thanks to my friend Jill for helping me to identify this song from a pivotal time in my life many years afterwards. How I told her “I am looking for a song with the words ‘I haven’t felt like this in so long’, and she asked me if it was sung by two people, and figured out almost instantly it was Alice in Chains, I will never understand, but I am eternally grateful.]
Ya, ya I know. I am a day late. And $10 short. But I spent that $10 on two good movies this week that I wanted to share with y’all.
For our 16 year dating anniversary, my husband and I went to see “Warm Bodies”.
Photo: Summit Entertainment
Originally, I wasn’t interested in seeing it because I thought it was just zombie romance. But then I found out it was also a COMEDY! The studio bills it as a zomb-rom-com. There was enough blood and guts to keep my husband happy and enough romance and humor to keep me happy. I would describe it as most like a coming-of-age/first-love movie, like was common in the 80’s. (It also has an awesome 80’s soundtrack.) With a few brains thrown in to remember that they are zombies.
My husband was fascinated by the new twist on zombies. Of course, he also will watch Twilight with me, so I have a keeper. We both agreed we would want to own “Warm Bodies” when it comes out on DVD.
I also got the chance to go see “Safe Haven” with my Sister-in-Law. It was better than I expected. I am always leary of Nicholas Sparks movies. I still haven’t forgiven him for killing off Mandy Moore in “A Walk To Remember”.
This movie had a twist ending also, but it didn’t p*ss me off like “A Walk To Remember”. When the twist came, I realized my mom had read the book and told me that the twist ending had p*ssed her off. But as I didn’t realize she had already told me about it, it was a surprise to me, making the movie a little more interesting than if it had just been about the abused girl running from an abusive husband.
And now I think I need to dye my hair blond and cut it off into layers. Opinions?
Scene from Safe Haven Photo: James Bridges – 2012 Relativity Media
R.I.P. Mindy McCready (November 30, 1975 – February 17, 2013)
“Heaven help me to be strong
I can fight all that I’m feeling
But I can’t do it alone
Help me break this spell that I’m under
Guide my feet and hold me tight
I need ten thousand angels
Watching over me tonight.”
Ten Thousand Angels, Sung by Mindy McCready, Written by Steven Dale Jones & Billy Henderson (1996)
I learned that the song “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis exists. And that it is “F*ckin’ Awesome”.
To see if you enjoy it as well, check out the YouTube video below. I must say, this song really makes me want to go thrift store shopping (you hear that, lazyhippimama?). Maybe Goodwill needs to use it in their TV commercials or something. Or maybe Savers?
When I was a kid, my mom had the record (large, round, vinyl black thing with grooves) Rocky Mountain Christmas by John Denver. She played it every year at holiday time. Christmas starts for me with the first few tinkling notes of Aspenglow.
Rocky Mountain Christmas by John Denver on CD & record, and John Denver: Christmas in Concert on CD
I would be happy if it was the only Christmas album I ever owned or played.
My mom didn’t own any other John Denver records. My crazy friend knew that I liked this Christmas album, so then on mix tapes she would put other non-Christmas John Denver songs. She didn’t understand. It wasn’t so much that I liked John Denver, it was that I liked his voice with this collection of Christmas songs from this period of time. From my childhood.
John Denver sings nice, straight-forward renditions of the classics: The Christmas Song, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the seldom-heard Silver Bells, Away in a Manger, What Child Is This, Oh Holy Night (a spectacular version), and Silent Night. There is no Mariah Carey warbling.
The original songs on the album are some of my favorites. I already mentioned Aspenglow. Christmas for Cowboys paints a wonderful musical picture of a lonely holiday on the snow-covered plains. My husband likes Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas). A Baby Just Like You is my favorite. John Denver wrote it for his own son Zachary. I love to belt out “MERRY CHRISTMAS LITTLE ZACHARY!” at the top of my lungs.
I know, I’m weird.
Sometimes now I change it to be my sons’ name.
Inside cover of Rocky Mountain Christmas, featuring the lyrics to A Baby Just Like You (I used to love to look at the details of this picture when I was a kid)
Several years ago my mom bought the album on CD, so it was very nice to be able to listen to it again. The problem was, we had only one copy that we shared. (I have no idea why I never thought about burning a second copy. Oh ya, because that would be illegal.;)
Last year I found my own copy of Rocky Mountain Christmas on CD. I even found a concert version of the same songs. My mom is very happy I am no longer hogging her CD.
I still don’t understand why none of the Christmas music radio stations play anything off this album. They play other seldom-played artists. They always need different artists singing the same 12 traditional songs. And it would make me so happy.
A Christmas Together: John Denver & The Muppets – Also a nice album, but just not the same for me
I kept my mom’s record of Rocky Mountain Christmas all these years, even though there was no way to play it.
Last year, my husband and I picked up a Fisher Price children’s record player from the 80’s at a garage sale and a handful of records.
So, while I totally enjoy digital clarity, the ability to listen to it in my car, and load it on my iPod, I am playing the original record for my son as I write this. Sure, it is scratchy from 37 years of use and improper storage and probably a pretty dull needle. But it takes me right back to being a preschooler myself in my living room in our house in Riga, Michigan. In the terrible 70’s clothes that my mom dressed me in.
When you listen to the CD, you don’t have to see his dorky appearance.
I'm not stalking you. 