music – The Corrigan Encore

Soundtrack of Our lives

September 18, 2023 John Corrigan

The band named Soundtrack of Our Lives, is a Swedish rock band their most popular song was Second Life Replay.

The song is pretty good but I love the bands name. When i was younger I played the pc game Sim City. In the game Sim City you are the mayor/planner/terraformer of a city. You build up land features, zone the land and manage the people on that land through city policy. The one thing I truly loved about the whole process was the music that played in the background of the game. As you built streets, rivers and lakes you were treated to Jazz music. I would listen to the jazz and go to work.

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything
Plato

I love all kinds of music. The book titled And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street was Theodore Geisel’s first published book. The format for the book was said to have come from the sounds of an Ocean Liners engine on a transatlantic trip the author took.

“Everything in Life is Vibration”
Albert Einstein

Everything on earth vibrates and creates a frequency. There really is a sound to everything. The right music can make life that much better and the right music is whatever you like at a specific time.

My taste in music is eclectic and I think if people are truly honest that most peoples taste in music is also eclectic. Depending on what headspace we are in or want to be in there is music for that.

This week let’s all listen to a style or genre of music we have never heard before. There was a former work colleague who listened to a heavy dose of Celtic punk music. Until I rode to lunch with this guy I had never before heard of this music now if the mood is right I quite enjoy some Flogging Molly.

Enjoy life and the sound of all of it.

Two things

August 17, 2023 John Corrigan

Yesterday evening, I was finishing up my work for the day at a site. As I was walking through the hall I noticed a bulletin board on the wall. The board had a rainbow and the words “be a RAINBOW in someone else’s cloud” written on it.

On the way home from this site I noticed some pretty dark clouds forming and I felt what I often do when I see the clouds like that a little foreboding then a little excitement. Storms are chaotic that way. Of course when asked everybody will say they want sunny and 70 weather its amazing and bucolic even. But storms come and they are in their own right pretty incredible.

Two songs came to mind when I thought about the bulletin board and the storm clouds. One was an REO speed wagon song called Riding out the storm. In the song riding out the storm, the band sings about times in life that seem like storms will come and it will be ok we will be ok if we just ride them out.

I also thought about A Doors song called, Riders on the Storm. In the song Riders on the storm the band sings about a chaotic life and what it is like to navigate this with help from friends and loved ones (kind of like being a rainbow). This is what I thought the Doors song was about however I did two things and went down a rabbit hole with the lyrics from this Doors song and totally forgot about the lyrics from verse one in the song. In my defense the song starts with the chorus so verse 1 was easily forgettable for me.

Verse 1

There’s a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If you give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road

Pretty dark right? I totally forgot about this part of the songs lyrics. I have found myself doing this often in songs and literature I read where I do not remember the all the parts. SO art is of course subjective and in a gestalt manner I find the song by the doors Riders on the Storm to be uplifting and what I said before. I am not going to try and dissect the song anymore because I don’t want to get any darker and part of me thinks that the writers of Riders on the Storm may have just dropped acid before writing the lyrics. The song was written by The Doors.

So enjoy the song that is both uplifting and a little dark as well as this trippy video and be some ones rainbow or girl that can save everyone be a rainbow.

Close to you

March 3, 2023 John Corrigan

Promotions are a function of proximity. My oldest son started his career during the covid pandemic. He worked for his firm for a full year without ever visiting that firms office. Now that the world is entering the endemic phase of the Covid 19 virus he has of course visited the office but his in person schedule is still a little flexible.

There are business coaches who are now encouraging young people to get back into the office even if it is optional. Putting in face time really matters. People are social and physical creatures and connections matter. I have been reading and listening to many experts weigh in on the way the current and future workspaces look and every time I hear and read about the physical office and facetime I cannot help but think about the song (They Long to Be) Close to You by the Carpenters.

I am also reminded of a movie starring Bruce Willis called Surrogates. In the movie the whole world lives in their homes and send out surrogate bodies to the physical world to work and do their business. The movie is a dark sci fi movie and you learn the importance of connection to the visceral in the movie.

No matter how much human beings try to remove themselves from other humans and the physical world the fact that we are part of community and the physical world is inescapable.

The importance of showing up is often not given as much credit as it should be.

Happy Birthday Bootsy

October 26, 2022October 26, 2022 John Corrigan

Today is Bootsy Collins Birthday. Bootsy Collins was the Bassist for James brown and The Parliament-Funkadelic. Bootsy Collins is incredibly talented and a hard worker in the music community. The man hasn’t stopped making an incredible impact on music since the 60’s.

Today he no longer plays the bass in concert because of doctors orders but he still teaches musicians how to play the bass through a school he founded.

The goal for many workers is retirement but when you are doing something you are passionate about I don’t think many ever really retire. They continue to work in their passion and help others.

The major problem I see is that there are many folks out there not working in their passions. We have to pay bills and taxes and often our passions do not provide bill and tax money.

My hope is that everyone gets the chance to engage in their passions more often. I think if everyone was doing what they love for a living than living would be that much better.

When everyday is that day

April 1, 2022 John Corrigan

Happy Friday everyone or whatever day it is that you are reading this post. I am typing these words on a Friday and I feel like the song by the O’Jays titled “Living for the Weekend”. I plan on having a really good time downtown after work today I really do.

Let me just sit down
And relax a minute
Let me tell you about it

Aha, it’s Friday
Oh ho, thank God, it’s Friday
And I just got paid

Going across town
Gonna pick up my lady
Have a little bit of fun
Just ain’t no telling
Where I might end up

You might see me on the east side
Ha, the west side
I’m even going cross the bridge
‘Cause I, ’cause I, ’cause I hear
They really get down over there

Owe it to myself
(Well, well, I)
Gonna party
(Well, well, I)
Gonna party

I owe it to myself
(Well, well, I)
Oh, party, party

I’m just living, yeah
(Living for the weekend)
Woo hoo, said I’ma
(Living for the weekend)

I said right now, I’m
(Living for the weekend)
I said this evening
(Living for the weekend)

For the next two days
(Living for the weekend)
Gonna have a real good time
(Living for the weekend)

Gonna have a real, real
Real good time
(Living for the weekend)
Gonna party hard, hard

Come on, y’all
Let’s go downtown
Come on, y’all
Let’s groove, hey, hey

Monday to Thursday
I’m dead on my feet
Most of the time too tired to eat
When I try to read the paper
I fall fast asleep

But as soon as Friday rolls around
I lay all my weekly burdens down
I put on my glad rags
And paint the town

Friday night alive
(Living for the weekend)
Said, I’m living for the weekend
(Living for the weekend)
Don’t stop when I party down

Party hard, party down
Party hard, party down

Soon as on Monday
Rolls around again
I got to put all that
Partying to an end

Got to solve that same old grind
With those five day week
Sometimes, I get frustrated
Through the day, take off early
And a cut in pay

At the time, I don’t really care
Because I done took
All that I can bear

That’s when I party down
Party hard, party down

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Those are some amazing lyrics and I really do enjoy the weekends. I am beholden to no one (sort of) on the weekends and can spend my time with family and friends.

I worked at a factory a few times and experienced rigid scheduling, that was when I truly found joy in a weekend or days off. Later in life I took jobs that were less rigid in schedule and I still love weekends but I am finding some joy in my actual work.

I think that there is nothing wrong with loving weekends but if we are “living for the weekends” what is happening on the week days?

I have tried and continue to try to enjoy everyday and every minute week or weekend be dammed if I am breathing I am going to try to enjoy myself. I will always love that song and my weekends but I am going to also make it a point to love; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well and so should you.