Music Monday: We may never pass this way again

Today's post is late, but that's because it became something else this morning on my way back from an interpreting gig. The song I was going to post isn't as meaningful right now...so here we are.

Seals and Croft's We May Never Pass this Way Again is important to me as it was in the soundtrack to a play I was in at uni - one of my favs, The Shadowbox. But today, a dear friend of mine lost her mom, and it just came all the way back to me. The play is about three families living in hospice, and at the time I couldn't really understand my character. But now, having lost both of my parents, I do..and I hope I can be a light in this awful dark for my sweet friend as she navigates her new normal.

(Lyrics in the video.)

Music Monday - Tomorrow is Today

So back when I was in college, I was in a play my senior year called "The Shadowbox." The director chose wonderful music for the opening, intermission, etc. and most of it dealt with the same theme of the play - a look at families in a hospice, each dealing with impending death in different ways. I didn't know anything about anything back then, but boy did I think I was ready to play a 40-something mother of a teenager who was visiting a husband dying in hospice care. 
This song drifts in and out of my life, as do my other two favorites from that play, but today this one spoke to me about my upcoming Nanowrimo project - the sequel to Rift, and the continuing story of a young woman going too far into her gaming universe to be able to hang on to her real life. I've been thinking about Em and Alex a lot lately, and Lex, Alex's avatar in the game and alter ego. And this line sort of jumped out at me in the car: And someday, when your dreams are leaving you, I'll still believe in you. There's sort of a Peter Pan and Tinkerbell quality about videogame characters - do they exist when no one is playing the game? Do they remember things and people? 
If Em stops seeing Lex as a sentient being, does he revert to binary code?
Anyway, this is from what I think to be one of Billy Joel's greatest albums, Cold Spring Harbor, and it always takes me back to a dusty theatre in a small college in Tennessee...I wonder if my Maggie is still walking the boards and still grieving a life she hasn't quite lost yet?

Tomorrow is Todayby Billy Joel
I've been livin' for the momentBut I just can't have my wayAnd I'm afraid to go to sleep'Cause tomorrow is today
People tell me life is sweeterBut I don't hear what they sayNothing comes to change my lifeSo tomorrow is today
I don't care to know the hour'Cause it's passing anywayI don't have to see tomorrow'Cause I saw it yesterday
So I listen for an answerBut the feeling seems to stayAnd what's the use of always dreamingIf tomorrow is today
Still I'm waiting for the morningBut it feels so far awayAnd you don't need the love I'm givingSo tomorrow is today
Oh, my, I'm goin' to the riverGonna take a ride and the lord will deliver meMade my bed, I'm gonna lie in itIf you don't come, sure gonna die in it
Too late, too much givenI've seen a lot of life and I'm damn sick of livin' itI keep hopin' that you will pass my way
And some day if your dreams are leavin' youI'll still believe in you
I don't care to know the hour'Cause it's passing anywayI don't have to see tomorrow'Cause I saw it yesterday
Though I'm living and I'm singingAnd although my hands still playSoon enough it will all be over'Cause tomorrow is today

Not a Music Monday: A Memory Pivot

Early Poster of the Cast of Friends

So, I somehow forgot that today was Monday. I was behind on my #onepanelvss until late into the afternoon. I kept thinking it was Sunday and wondering why Hubs hadn't called his family yet. I kept forgetting it was Memorial Day because, for us, it is Get Ready for the Deck Guy to come measure and help us plan our deck reno.

So no music today. Instead, this is The One Where Nancy Remembers, also known as I watched the Friends Reunion and laughed and cried...and finally understood why that show was and is such an important part of my life.

Is it problematic? Sure - most shows from that time period are, especially sitcoms like Friends. Could the cast have been more diverse? Of course it could have. Is it a product of its time? Absolutely. And do I love it, even though there are episodes I won't watch for some of the reasons I've just listed? YES.

Friends premiered on NBC in September of 1994. I premiered in my First Adult Job/Internship in June of 1994. I was just a bit younger than the characters in the show, but what they were experiencing was, as one of the creators said in the Reunion show, that time when your friends are your family. I was firmly in that age group at the time.

I had a family. They lived in Georgia and I lived in West Virginia. For a year, I had friends that were far, far away, and I was the loneliest I think I've ever been any time before or since during that year. So I decided to try this show that I'd seen advertised (because TV was my outlet, don't judge me) and at first, I hated it. I hated it for reminding me that all my friends were in Georgia and Tennessee and Ohio and everywhere that I wasn't. But I stuck with it, and soon I could see bits of all my friends in these characters that the six actors brought to life, and as cheesy as it sounds, I didn't feel so alone.

In fact, one of the Friends fans that spoke about the impact the show had on her said that she didn't have family, but these six people became her family. That's what it was for me, and that's why I get teary still at the last episode. I am blogging about it now, because if I try to talk about it, well, could there be louder ugly crying?

So I get that maybe it hits differently if you are watching now, in your late 20s and early 30s, and are trying to make it fit into your life and your world. I know that it is dated and that some of it is more than cringe-worthy. Thankfully, we are more aware now. Our world is so much bigger than it was...wow, this is hard...25 years ago. I don't want to go back to any of that.

But I won't apologize for putting that show on and laughing until I cry at some of the bits or remembering being a scared 22-year-old sitting in an apartment in West Virginia, watching a group of friends and feeling not quite so disconnected from the life I'd known and the life I wanted for myself for a half-hour on Thursdays. I can look back at her, and see that she eventually got her own Central Perk, her own home, and friends that are her family.

Music Monday: Road Trip Mix Tape

I heard this song in the car recently, and I was immediately transported back to many happy road trips during my uni days. Summer isn't really what it was back then - and not just because of the pandemic or the fact that I'm not in my early twenties or working at a summer camp. So it was nice, for a few minutes in the car, to sing along with this classic and pretend I was still 21, still naive, and still looking at that side of middle age.

Also, from now until we have to start being SERIOUS ADULTS AGAIN because it is AUTUMN and we are looking for CARDIGANS, Music Monday is going to take a hiatus in favor of Road Trip Mix Tape. Don't know what a mix tape is? Oh, my sweet summer child...it was a playlist, but because I'm old, we're going to go full-on nostalgia and call it a Mix Tape. Enjoy.

Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Got out of town on a boat goin' to Southern IslandsSailing a reach before a followin' seaShe was makin' for the trades on the outsideAnd the downhill run to PapeeteOff the wind on this heading lie the MarquesasWe got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making wayIn a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call youBut on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away
Think aboutThink about how many times I have fallenSpirits are using me, larger voices callin'What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgottenAround the world (I have been around the world)Lookin' (lookin' for that woman girl)Who knows she knows (who knows love can endure)And you know it will
When you see the Southern Cross for the first timeYou understand now why you came this way'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so smallBut it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' daySo I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin'And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain)I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin'She is all that I have left and music is her name
Think aboutThink about how many times I have fallenSpirits are using me, larger voices callin'What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgottenI have been around the world (I have been around the world)Lookin' (lookin' for that woman girl)(Who knows love can endure)And you know it willAnd you know it will
So we cheated and we lied and we testedAnd we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to doYou will survive being bestedSomebody fine will come along make me forget about loving youAnd the southern cross