Daphne wasn’t sure what prompted her to open the front door to the old house, but when she did, she immediately regreted it. It seemed that she was confronted by some sort of ghost-like being, a pale white and spectral-looking apparition. It was almost floating down the stairs towards her.
She tried to erase from her mind what she was seeing, but to no avail. “Who or what are you?” she asked, almost afraid of what its answer was going to be.
“Am I being obtrude to you?” It asked Daphne, as if it was surprised that she could see it.
“If you mean can I can see you,” she said, “the answer is yes. But I don’t know what you are.”
“Then you, indeed, are the one who can save me. I have been in purgatory in perpetuity, neither fully dead nor fully alive,” it said. “But I can be released from this curse if I kiss a virgin who is pure of heart, and I sense that you are such a woman. Please kiss me and release my spirit from this hell.”
Daphne started to laugh. “Sorry, whatever you are, but I think you got your wires crossed. I lost my virginity when I was 16 and most people I know think I’m a first class bitch. So I think you enticed the wrong girl to walk through that door. Better luck next time.”
And with that, Daphne spun around and left the house, leaving the…well, whatever it was…all alone again.
Written for these daily prompts: My Vivid Blog (prompt), The Daily Spur (white), Word of the Day Challenge (spectral), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (erase), Your Daily Word Prompt (obtrude), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (perpetuity).
The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
This week’s Who Won the Week Winner is America’s crumbling infrastructure. Why? Because Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package on Friday, approving a signature part of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. It will deliver $550 billion of new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years, touching everything from bridges and roads to the nation’s broadband, water, and energy systems.
The Biden administration will now oversee the biggest upgrade of America’s roads, railways, and other transportation infrastructure in a generation. Biden has promised this new bill will create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness.
Gee. Upgrading America’s roads, bridges, railways, water, energy, and broadband. Sounds like a no brainer to me. But I’m not a Republican.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams, has given us songs that feature the lyrics of either Past, Present, or Future. The song I chose to go with is the classic Billy Joel song, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” which happens to be one of my all-time favorites songs. It’s a song that features present day reminiscing about the past.
“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” was a song from Billy Joel’s 1977 album, The Stranger. Although never released as a single, it has become one of Joel’s most celebrated compositions.
In an interview, Joel cited the second side of The Beatles’ album Abbey Road as one of its primary musical influences. “I had always admired the B-side of Abbey Road, which was essentially a bunch of songs strung together by producer George Martin,” Joel said. “What happened was The Beatles didn’t have completely finished songs or wholly fleshed-out ideas, and George said, ‘What have you got?’ John said, ‘Well I got this,’ and Paul said, ‘I got that.’ They all sat around and went, ‘Hmm, we can put this together and that’ll fit in there.’ And that’s pretty much what I did for this song.” For what it’s worth, Abbey Road happens to be one of my all-time favorite albums.
At 7 minutes and 37 seconds, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” is the longest of Joel’s rock music studio songs. It’s effectively a medley of three distinct pieces fused into one. “Italian Restaurant” begins as a gentle, melodic piano ballad, depicting a scene of two old classmates reuniting in an Italian restaurant. This segues into a triumphant and uptempo jazz-influenced section as the classmates catch up with each other’s lives and begin to reminisce. It then transitions to a rock and roll section that Joel calls “The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie,” which tells a story about high school sweethearts who were an “it” couple, who marry young, and quickly divorce. The tempo then slows as the song transitions back to the style of the first section and the two part fondly, with one character remarking “I’ll meet you anytime you want / At our Italian restaurant.”
Joel said he came up with the opening lines of the song while he was dining at a restaurant and a waiter actually came up to him and said, “Bottle of white… bottle of red… perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?” He also said that restaurant that inspired this song was the Fontana di Trevi right across from Carnegie Hall in New York City. That restaurant has since closed.
Here are the lyrics to “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”
A bottle of white, a bottle of red Perhaps a bottle of rose instead We’ll get a table near the street In our old familiar place You and I, face to face
A bottle of red, a bottle of white It all depends upon your appetite I’ll meet you any time you want In our Italian Restaurant
Things are okay with me these days Got a good job, got a good office Got a new wife, got a new life And the family’s fine We lost touch long ago You lost weight I did not know You could ever look so good after So much time
I remember those days hanging out At the Village Green Engineer boots, leather jackets And tight blue jeans Drop a dime in the box play the Song about New Orleans Cold beer, hot lights My sweet romantic teenage nights
Brenda and Eddie were the Popular steadys And the king and the queen Of the prom Riding around with the car top Down and the radio on Nobody looked any finer Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner We never knew we could want more Than that out of life Surely Brenda and Eddie would Always know how to survive
Brenda and Eddy were still going Steady in the summer of ’75 When they decided the marriage would Be at the end of July Everyone said they were crazy “Brenda you know you’re much too lazy Eddie could never afford to live that kind of life” But there we were, wavin’ Brenda and Eddie goodbye
They got an apartment with deep Pile carpet And a couple of paintings from Sears A big waterbed that they bought With the bread They had saved for a couple Of years They started to fight when the Money got tight And they just didn’t count on The tears
They lived for a while in a Very nice style But it’s always the same in the end They got a divorce as a matter Of course And they parted the closest Of friends Then the king and the queen went Back to the green But you can never go back There again
Brenda and Eddie had had it Already by the summer of ’75 From the high to the low to The end of the show For the rest of their lives They couldn’t go back to The greasers The best they could do was Pick up the pieces We always knew they would both Find a way to get by That’s all I heard about Brenda and Eddie Can’t tell you more than I Told you already And here we are wavin’ Brenda And Eddie goodbye
A bottle of red, and a bottle of white Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight I’ll meet you anytime you want In our Italian Restaurant
Welcome to November 7, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “erase.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and The Other 