Shirley's Mind Grapes

Shirley's Mind Grapes

The answers to questions nobody asked

1960s

Dailies 07/31/13

Dailies 07/31/13

Daily Doodle: Cat Daze

–

Song of the Day: You Beat Me to the Punch by Mary Wells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O1iq3yEqXU

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m singing lead stage left to the three other singers. I’m wearing a crisp cotton candy pink dress with a square neck and full skirt. My dance moves consist of flapping my arms with the movement stemming from my shoulders and alternately stepping my foot behind the opposite foot.

–

Blurb 1/365: Support and use public transit. I ranted today about inconvenient and inefficient bus systems: We’re lucky if a line runs more than once an hour. It’s not fair to the constituents or the bus employees. Not all of us constituents can afford a car to get us to available public transit. And the bus employees have to fight for available work time that sometimes has a forced 3 hour lunch in between. If there were more buses, people would pay money to use them and it would eventually start to fund itself. But it’s always pulling teeth to get things started because it seems nobody wants to give money without immediately getting something in return. The result of this is a perpetual cycle of underfunded public transit, almost useless bus lines and schedules (except for peak commute hours), and people having to PARK A CAR to take public transit. That defeats the purpose of public transit.

Dailies 07/27/13

Dailies 07/27/13

Daily Doodle: Turtle Flower Power

—

Song of the Day: My Cherie Amour by Stevie Wonder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Gu-CyE-NQ

—

Musical Pipe Dream: In the underground tunnel between the Powell and Montgomery Street BART stations, there’s a man singing with his well-timed clapping being the only accompaniment. It’s a late hour, so it’s not crowded. As I walk by, I see a woman who is sitting with her back against the opposite wall of the performer. She’s not actively crying, but has tears streaming down her face. She’s wearing a knit cap, peacoat, a skirt with leggings, and army boots. Staring at the floor, it looks like she’s looking at something miles away. The man continues to sing with natural talent. He has a few bills and mostly copper change in the hat he has in front of his feet. I’m not sure if it’s my train I hear approaching the platform, so I walk with wide steps while fishing in my pockets for my ticket. As I fly down the stairs, I can still hear the man’s voice singing and the echoes of his clapping.

—

Blurb 1/365: The same moment is different for every single being in the universe.

Dailies 07/24/13

Dailies 07/24/13

Daily Doodle: Rooster Roast

–

Song of the Day: Time of the Season by The Zombies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc7b62El_fk

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m standing while playing the keyboard. When comes the time to sing harmony, I lean into the microphone angled towards me. The keyboard stand is shaking as I’m jamming on the keys.

–

Blurb 1/365: “Well my family and I can’t live in good intentions, MARGE. Oh, your family’s out of control, but we can’t blame you because you have GOOD INTENTIONS.”—Hurricane Neddy

Dailies 07/23/13

Dailies 07/23/13

Daily Doodle: Pachyderm Packing Peanut

–

Song of the Day: Sinnerman as performed by Nina Simone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn5tiuZU4JI

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m playing the piano on a huge stage with several musicians. We’re magically keeping time with each other though hardly looking at each other for cues. Everybody’s sweating.

–

Blurb 1/365: “His name is Elephant, and he’s a pachyderm. His name is Elephant, and he applies Nutraderm.”

Dailies 07/11/13

Dailies 07/11/13

Daily Doodle: Happy Chip Cookie

–

Song of the Day: Mellow Yellow by Donovan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrbni0tVBZ8

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I feel like people are behind me so I look back only to see nobody there. I dismiss it as my imagination. I continue stepping to the beat and the man in the yellow suit and the woman with the pigtails pop out from behind another hedge and continue to follow me while dancing. The man in the yellow suit is doing sashays and pirouettes. The woman with the pigtails has her hands out in front of her with her elbows tucked into her sides and is advancing forward by doing the bunny hop. This continues as I keep feeling like there is somebody behind me, but I don’t see them no matter how quickly I turn around to look. Something must happen within myself before I can be allowed to meet these two.

–

Blurb 1/365: They call me. Hello, hello?

Dailies 07/07/13

Dailies 07/07/13

Daily Doodle: Reading by Fragile Light

–

Song of the Day: Johnny Angel by Shelley Fabares

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzNJSxlEknE

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m singing backup with two others. We are swaying in unison to the music with choreographed dance steps. We are wearing white bows in our hair and long white gloves that go to our elbows.

–

Blurb 1/365: Get in that right frame of mind and hang it up on the wall.

Dailies 07/05/13

Dailies 07/05/13

Daily Doodle: Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

–

Song of the Day: All I Have to Do Is Dream by The Everly Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbU3zdAgiX8

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m standing stage left in relation to the lead singer. I’m playing rhythm guitar and singing backup. My overall body language is rigid with slight movements from shaking my head and tapping my right foot to the beat. I mostly shy away from the microphone but lean in close for the parts of harmony.

–

Blurb 1/365: Every moment there is a choice that could have been made in an infinite amount of different ways. Instead of imagining what the infinite number of other me’s would be doing, I should realize that the current me can do an infinite number of things.

Dailies 07/03/13

Dailies 07/03/13

Daily Doodle: Sleepy Bao

–

Song of the Day: Rhythm of the Rain by The Cascades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmF_bG5IVnM

–

Musical Pipe Dream: I’m playing the xylophone on the back of a stage overlooking a dance floor full of kids from the 60s. My head is shaking from side to side in counts of two. I’m wearing a big, pink headband.

–

Blurb 1/365: What I lack in size, I make up for in speed; like Pikachu.

Dailies 06/28/13

Dailies 06/28/13

Daily Doodle: I See Music

–

Song of the Day: Unwind Yourself by Marva Whitney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym7IOodKeWI

–

Musical Pipe Dream: The drums sound so complicated on this track, I can hardly fathom a musical pipe dream. I’m sitting very close to a drum set, almost on top of it. The drum sticks are moving so rapidly they’re a blur. My shoulders roll as they shrug up and down to the syncopated beats.

–

Blurb 1/365: Have great weekends! If you’re working, it’ll be over soon, and afterwards you can relax however you want!