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Not the cheeriest of subjects I know, but it's on my mind.
Death sucks. Not necessarily for the dead person, I like to think they go to a better place, so they're good. But for those left behind...it sucks. In the last 6 months I've had two friends die - both in very different circumstances.
The first died after a long, difficult bout with Cancer. In the space of two years we saw this terrible disease slowly take him away, both literally and figuratively. It was horrible. He'd go through the chemo and radiation sometimes one or the other sometimes both and they'd say the treatment had gone well, he'd start to feel betterish - then, the damned thing came back only in a different place, so now another area was under attack. This happened a couple of times until all the doctors and specialists and anyone who had an opinion said "that's all...there's nothing more we can do".
At that point, you'd think there'd be a modicum of relief, after so much suffering, so many letdowns, he'd finally be at peace. But there wasn't. Although everyone knew it was coming, he wasn't ready to die, his wife and 16 year old daughter weren't ready for him to die, his parents and family weren't ready for him to die, and we - his friends weren't ready for him to die. He was 49. One of my best friends is now a widow. I can't wrap my head around that.
The second friend was an on-line friend via Second Life (SL). We never met in person, I never even knew his "real life" name until I read the obituary - and yet, we were very close, and he was one of my oldest SL friends. He died suddenly. A couple of weeks ago he disappeared, he didn't log on to SL, he didn't Plurk, he was just gone. Several from our online community tried to contact him via different means, but due to the nature of online communities in general, and SL in particular, those means were limited. Because he lived in Cape Cod, MA, when Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy threatened the area our concern grew. One person who knew his real name Googled him just to see what came up - and the first thing she saw was his obituary! He had died a few days before of what the obit describes as a "sudden illness". He was 68, we're assuming it was a heart attack.
The impact was staggering and reverberated through the community as everyone was stunned. I was a mess. If you've never been involved in an on-line only friendship or relationship it is probably impossible to understand how close and attached you can become to people you'll probably never meet in person. Someone likened it to pen-pal relationships of years gone by. I think that's a good comparison.
The very different deaths of two very different men were both very difficult for me to process. It brings up the question: What's easier for survivors - their loved one dying suddenly or having time to prepare for their deaths? Having experienced both so close together, I don't know the answer.
You are missed Victor and Trebor.
It's Pandora Pandemonium time! Every week I'll either do a Pandora Pandemonium where I'll run a shuffle of my Pandora station an list the fist ten songs that appear, or I'll do a Lola Shuffle, where I'll run a shuffle on my iPod Lola.
The exciting thing about Pandora Pandemonium is that I may not know the songs that come up! Since Pandora work on an algorithm called the The Music Genome Project where they suggest songs you might like based on characteristics of songs you alerady like - so who knows what we'll get. so here we go...
Rock and Roll Dreams Come True by Meatloaf - Meatloaf! Who doesn't love Meatloaf. This song like so many of his is super long, like 6 minutes or so...and oh the drama! But withn that whole mini-opera it's a great song - "There's always something magic, there's always something new...and when you really really need it the most, that's when rock and roll dream come through". And they do!
I Am Loved by Frank Sinatra - Is it possible there's still a Sinatra song we all haven't heard 7231 times? Apparently so - I'd never heard this and it's really nice. Sinatra is in extra-good voice. I like it.
The Spirit of the Radio by Rush - Ah...Rush. Rush is my husband, David's, favoritest ever band. Honestly before I met him I probably had heard Rush's "Tom Sawyer" but couldn't identify the song much less the band. In the last 15 years I've seen them in concert and have learned to appreciate them. They won't be my favorite band, but there are several sons I like. This is one of them. Most of their lyrics are written by their drummer Neil Peart, not exactly Mister Happypants, but a really smart guy.
Drift Away by Uncle Kracker - I used to love the original version of this song by Dobie Gray. And in fact Gray "makes an appearance' in this one. To be honest, Uncle Kracker's version and voice work better for the lyric, but Dobie Gray still has the velevety smoothness. Excellent cover!
Bedrich Smetana's Vltava performed by the Berlin Philaharmonic Orchestra - I had never heard of Smetana, he's a 19th century Bohemian composer who according to the Pandora's info "along with Dvorak led the musicl movement for nationalism in his country". The music is beautiful, haunting but not depressing.
SexyBack by Justin Timberlake - I love this song and I don't care what anyone says I think Timberlake is extremely talented. The song was different from everything that was out at the time. The lyrics are what dance song lyrics usually are - no one should really care, and the music is super fun and infectious - it makes me wanna dance!
Top of the World by The Carpenters - YAY! I love The Carpenters! And I love this song! Com'on - you have to smile when you hear this relentlessly happy song.
Misery by Maroon 5 - Ha! Pandora has a sense iof irony - a song called "Misery" after an über-happy song. Although, it's awfully peppy for a song about misery. I like the song and I like Maroon 5, although I confess I'm not really sure which is Train and which is Maroon 5, but whatevs.
Chasing Pavements by Adele - Now *this* girl can do misery! What can I say? - spectacular lyrics and a flawless voice. I've never heard a less than amazing performance from Adele. She can sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and I'd get misty. And come on how awesome a metaphor (?) is "chasing pavements" for a fruitless quest? Can't you feel her pain?
Home Again by Carole King - This version is from the Tapestry album, so it's a young Carole King. Her voice isn't the best voice (she's no Adele!) but it fits her lyrics so well. I have this album but I haven't really heard this song very much, but it's beautiful. Her songs are truly poetry.
That's it for today. What do you think? Did Pandora shuffle well for you? I'm happy with it.
Have a safe and happy weekend!
