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 |  is paved with good intentions... |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Boys of Summer by Don Henley For "Barrel of Monkeys"  , Don Henley was a member of The Eagles who did the last song.I liked this song for ages before I realised that it was written by 'the guy from The Eagles'.  Whatever this song is actually about, it makes me think about summers gone by, memories of happy times, people I miss, that sort of thing. It makes me think about summers spent swimming at Tomarata Lake with my sisters and the Wintle girls. It makes me think of going to the beach and playing in the surf. It makes me think about taking my kids to Western Springs and watching them chase the birds and ooh at the eels swimming in the stream. It makes me think about driving the windy roads to the Coromandel with Steve. It makes me think about walking over the farm to Alan's house. It makes me think about watching the kids go down the slip n slide we set up in the backyard. It makes me think about sitting in the loquat tree stuffing my face with loquats. It makes me think about catching tadpoles in the dam and transporting them to the water trough near the house so that we could watch them grow into frogs. It makes me think about sitting by the old bridge trying (fruitlessly) to catch eels that we didn't want to eat anyway. It makes me think about driving to Vinessa's house with the radio turned up and yelling out the window 'It's Creedence, you're welcome' and how much that made Bonard laugh. It makes me think about picking watercress from the creek for Marmite and watercress sandwiches. It makes me think about driving to Pokeno for enormous ice creams that melted long before the kids could possibly eat them. It makes me think about that time when we were playing mini golf and Caitie just about brained me with a wayward golf ball. It makes me think about walking around Olympic Park with Caitie catching Pokemon. It makes me think about jumping off the causeway bridge into the estuary near Mangawhai. It makes me think about driving to Pukenui with this song playing loudly through the speakers, singing at the top of our lungs, windows down. |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Hotel California by the Eagles For "Barrel of Monkeys" , Joe Walsh who did the last song was a member of the Eagles.Two Fridays ago, my boss (let's call him Scott*) and the guy he refers to as his business partner (even though he's not technically a partner in the business) (Richard*) went out for lunch with a mutual friend at 12:30pm. At 5:15pm they came back, quite pickled. Richard got out the acoustic guitar he keeps in his office, and thought to have a little jam session since the rest of us were sitting around having our usual Friday evening drinks. Except, he was too drunk. He knows about five songs (he insists it's actually seven) but he could only remember two of them and could only play one of them. Even then, he could only get through three quarters of that one song, so it was a bit of a shambles. One of my colleagues said she could sing, so she sang along to his guitar and I joined in. I know I don't sing well, but I do like to sing, so I just do it quietly. Richard was so pickled. "I love what you're doing there, Elle." "I love your attitude." He might as well have been saying "I love you, man."  Scott, the boss, (who was not quite as pickled but had definitely had a few) said that we needed to organise a dinner for all the staff and their partners, as well as the lawyers who lease offices from him on our floor. One of the lawyers, who was there for drinks, quickly offered his house and we agreed to do a potluck dinner. Richard said "You, you and me" (referring to himself, me and the girl who could sing) "need to have rehearsals beforehand so we can do a better job than this on the night." Wait, what? We're doing an old fashioned singalong? I love old fashioned singalongs, but that's not what I was expecting. Anyway, there was some discussion, and the girl who could sing said she could maybe bring in her guitar too, but of course our options were limited with Richard's five (or seven) songs, at least two of which I wasn't familiar with. And if you're going to have a singalong, it doesn't work with only two people singing, especially when of them is me with my crap singing! So I said "If you like, I could ask my dad to come along. He plays and sings, so he could lead us in more songs, and we could make a night of it." That suggestion seemed to go down fairly well. So on Saturday, I went and visited Dad (partially because it was Father's Day on Sunday) and he agreed to come along and play. I was surprised he agreed, actually, considering we're not paying him (although he might get a bottle of wine out of it) but he did. We sat down and came up with a list of 20 songs he felt he could comfortably play and sing, including the two I knew that Richard could do. Wonderwall 500 Miles Proud Mary I’m A Believer Sweet Caroline Day Oh (Banana Boat Song) Hotel California Living Next Door to Alice Layla Lola Me and Bobby McGee Satisfaction Tubthumping Tequila Sunrise We Are The Champions Daydream Believer Have You Ever Seen The Rain Moondance Brown Eyed Girl Whisky In the Jar He worked out the keys for most of them, and on Monday morning I turned up with the list. Well, Richard couldn't remember most of Friday evening and was frankly horrified that I'd arranged for Dad to join him in playing the guitar at the dinner. "It's like a couple of guys kicking a soccer ball around and an ex-professional soccer player coming along to show them how it's done!" Actually, it's more like an ex-high school soccer coach coming along, but whatever. So I'll just tell him we're not doing it. Easy. "No, no, no, no, no. We'll need a rehearsal."  Anyway, Dad agreed to come in for a rehearsal, although I'm not sure when that will be. The dinner is scheduled for 18 October, so we have plenty of time up our sleeves. I think once Richard meets Dad, he'll realise he's made way more of a deal about it than he needed to. I do wish I'd waited to talk to him until he was sober rather than going with what he'd said while he was pickled, and although I think it'll be a lot of fun, I wish Richard had just let me call it off. I was trying to help, by taking the pressure off him (he's not keen on being center of attention) and somehow I've made the pressure worse.  Ugh.Anyway, now Richard has come up with his seven songs (three of which were already on the list, so we're up to 24 total): Don't Look Back In Anger Brown Eyed Girl Hotel California American Pie Why Does Love Do This To Me Wonderwall Redemption Song Most of those are good ones. I don't know Redemption Song though (a fact which horrified Richard). I do love Hotel California, and I know it well enough to sing it without the lyrics in front of me. Dad and I saw the Eagles live just a few months before Glen Frey passed away, and even though it bucketed down on us, it was still awesome to have heard them live. I distinctly remember Glen Frey introducing himself and saying that he came from Detroit 'where mother is only half a word'. He didn't get a lot of reaction from the audience and so he protested with 'Aw, come on, that shit is funny.' I agreed, but when I retold the joke to my sister, she didn't get it, so maybe the audience didn't either? Anyway, I've been a long time fan of the Eagles, so this is a great song for me whether we do it as a casual singalong or we see the original artists do it live in concert. *Names have been changed! |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh For "Barrel of Monkeys" , Joe Walsh was a member of the Herbs who did the last song.I wasn't a fan of Joe Walsh for a long time. The only song I knew of his was 'Life's been good to me' which I didn't like. But when he came to New Zealand with the Eagles, I learned a lot more about him. Did you know that he credits New Zealand with getting him sober? He was here doing music with the Herbs (who did the previous song) and they were sitting outside somewhere and he had an epiphany. He says that was the moment he decided to get sober. When he here with the Eagles, he wanted to give back to the country that had given him so much, so he went to a few things, trying to 'give back'. That included going to my kids' high school and working with the kids studyng music. Pretty cool to have Joe Walsh come in to your classroom and give you some pointers! The Eagles concert coincided with an oncoming cyclone, and it was pretty miserable. In the audience, we were all sitting there in our raincoats, with plastic over our knees, dripping wet. They were worried that the wind was going to blow down the stage or some part thereof, so they decided to rush through the concert. It was the 'history of the Eagles' tour, so it was supposed to be a mix of videoed interviews, talking and songs. We skipped the videos and talking, and just got the songs. Which was totally fine, but it was just because of the stupid cyclone. Interestingly, they didn't do the 'solo' songs of any band member except Joe Walsh. I wondered if it had been a criteria of him coming on tour. Maybe. Anyway, I loved the live rendition of Rocky Mountain Way, and it was honestly one of my favourites of the night. Pretty epic.  |
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