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Epiphany

Tonight as I drove up the turnpike jamming to some righteous tunes (channeling Wayne and Garth here), I had an epiphany as I listened to some George Harrison.  Particularly I was listening to “Got My Mind Set On You.”  This track was initially released by James Ray and written by Rudy Clark.  Interestingly, this is one of the few covers Harrison did during his solo career.  The track was produced by fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne and Harrsion.

While I’m sure you’re fascinated with the musical history that really wasn’t the epiphany I had while driving.  Rather as I listened intently to the lyrics, I became convinced the song writer wrote the song with travel hockey parents in mind.  Obviously, Rudy ClarK was insanely ahead of his time seeing as how the song was written in 1952.

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I realize this is quite the risky conjecture, but stick with me here.  Consider the following lyrics:
“But it’s gonna take money
A whole lot of spending money
It’s gonna take plenty of money
To do it right child”
As you may recall from my blog post $15 Billion,   it takes a whole lot of money to fund a youth athlete these days.  Clark clearly envisioned this when writing the above noting that it will take plenty of money to do it right.

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The next stanza continues to articulate the hockey mom life:
“It’s gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It’s gonna take patience and time, um
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right child”
Rudy Clark was obviously a clairvoyant song writer that saw the future of youth sports.   Specifically, he clearly saw that it  would be all consuming.  It would consume all of the parents’ time, money and patience.  I know, I know.  It is mind blowing!

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To be honest, in honor of Facebook’s latest acquisition, I’ve never heard the version from 1962.  Moreover,  I really don’t need to.  I love what Harrison and Lynne did with the track and its quintessential 80’s sound.  Without reservation, it is absolute perfection.  You’ll find the perfectly 80’s music video below.

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You know what isn’t absolute perfection?  Coming home from work to a laundry room flooded with laundry detergent.  Awesome, right?  The floor, usually white, is completely covered in blue, clean smelling liquid detergent.  It took a minute for the reality to sink in as I tried to figure out how this could possibly happen.  Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised since I live in a house of all boys, but even they can surprise you.   Who would have thought I’d come home to a Defcon 5 laundry detergent flood?  There is an upside to this insanity.  Yep, it is true.   My laundry room actually does not smell like hockey for the first time since early August, .   As a hint to all boys out there, these are not the types of surprises your mothers enjoy.   We like roses, chocolates, coffee, nice clothes or maybe a new handbag.

 

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Wheels up

Two years ago, the Mayor and I headed north with his best friend Andrew and his mom Michelle to a Selects tournament in Minnesota.  We were originally slated to go to tournaments in Minneapolis and Boston, but opted out of the Boston trip when the stars aligned and round two of the Stanley Cup put game four of Minnesota vs. Chicago there during our trip.  It wasn’t a tough choice.

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From the first minute of the trip, I knew it was going to be an epic weekend.  We were flying out of PBI on Zachary’s birthday.  When we got to the airport to check our bags at the Southwest counter, the customer service rep handed us a $200 in vouchers and a hotel voucher for a luxurious stay in Atlanta.  Lucky us!  We headed to security where we met up with our friends.  As we prepared to go through the queue, the boys felt compelled to ask if Doritos were considered a weapon.  Thankfully, TSA had a sense of humor that day.

As we waited to board, we watched in awe as several elderly passengers sat in wheel chairs waiting to get pushed to the baggage area.  The airport was not staffed to handle the volume of wheelchairs and they soon grew impatient.  No more than five minute had passed before they felt compelled to take matters into their own hands.  Soon they all stood and started pushing their chairs.  Only in Florida….

Finally boarding zone B was called and we were free to board the plane.  Our boys, on their way to their way to their first out of state tournament and their first Stanley Cup playoff game, were bouncing off the walls.  At the time, the Mayor had just turned 9 and Andrew was still 8 and only came with one volume level extra loud.  We got them calm enough to stand in line to get on the plane.

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As we walked down the aisle of the plane to find some window seats for the boys and ourselves, people stopped moving as our fellow passengers put their carry-ons on the overhead.  As luck would have it, we were stopped in front of a very attractive, young black woman wearing a white shirt and no bra.  Had this site only elicited giggles, it probably would have been okay, but we were not going to get off that lucky.  Nope the boys had to announce that they could see her nipples.  Oh the shades of red Michelle and I turned as they loudly shared their discovery with us.

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We continued filing to the back of the jet, but the boys could not believe what they just saw.  They were completely transfixed (pretty much like every other guy I know.)  As our flight took off and headed to Atlanta, the boys became distracted by discussions of hockey, jets and life in general.  Lucky for us, we would continue to cross paths with the women in the white shirt everywhere we went in the ATL terminal.

To be continued.

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Laugh Out Loud Funny

So far 2017, has been a real S#$t show for me and those I love.   When I saw today’s prompt was farce, I thought a moment about writing something serious about how history repeated is a farce, but that would be a bit boring and depressing.   Tonight I chose a different, lighter path.  A path that examines the farce as a sub-genre of comedy.  What I love most about comedy is how laughter positively impacts our lives.

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When life gives us lemons, it is easy to make lemonade or even a lemon drop shot, but sometimes instead of drinking the lemonade, we need to laugh.  Laugh at ourselves, laugh at a joke, or laugh at a movie.  Which brings us to the farce.  A farce is a sub genre of comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus likely improbably.  Not surprisingly as I pursued this line of thought, Monty Python stuck in my mind.  Who does farcical comedy better than them?

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I remember the first time I ever saw Life of Brian in all of its glory.  I died laughing for days.  Who thinks of this stuff?  The movie is provocative, hilariously funny and sometimes offensive.  Interesting fact of this movie is that George Harrison created a movie production company to make Life of Brian after the original production company had pulled out.  Life of Brian was a fantastic reminder that sometimes it’s okay to not take life too seriously.

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The first time my son watched Monty Python’s Holy Grail, he fell off the couch laughing as the “horrible beast,” a rabbit, attacked a member of their party.   The comedy of Monty Python is pure genius, however, I know British comedy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.  There are plenty of great American farce movies to keep you laughing for years like The Producers, National Lampoons European Vacation, and Old School.  When life gets tough, remember to always look on the bright side of life and be a little silly.  Life’s too short to always be serious!

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Daily Prompt: Farce