“Where did they find it?” Al asked his right-hand-man, Tony.
“It washed up with the tide sometime during the night,” Tony said. “It’s a good thing Sal was out at the crack of dawn for his early morning jog. He almost fell over the body, for crissake. He called Nick and the two of them took care of it.”
“So no cops or other witnesses, right?” Al asked rhetorically. “We really dodged a bullet on this one, Tony.”
Tony smiled. “That’s really funny, boss.”
“Who did you tell to get rid of the body?” Al asked.
“I tapped Ricky and the new guy that he vouched for, Frank,” Tony said. “I told them to take the boat into the middle of the bay and dump body there. I assumed they knew to weigh it down before throwing it in the water, but I guess I shoulda been more explicit. Sorry, boss.”
Al gazed off into the distance. “Good help is hard to find these days.”
Written for Paula Light’s prompt, where she offered us nine AI-generated art examples and encouraged us to pick one and to write a silly poem or story about it. I picked “Mob Beach” in a Monet style.
When we lived in San Francisco, we belonged to an organization, BroadwaySF. It would bring anywhere from six to eight Broadway shows (plays and musicals) each season to San Francisco. As subscribers, we were guaranteed seats and we regularly purchased six tickets for each show.
The last one we saw was the musical “Anastasia” in September 2019.
We also used to enjoy going to a lot of local live performances by artists we loved, including Billy Joel, Jackson Brown, Don Henley, Peter Frampton, Sting, Steely Dan, and even Randy Rainbow.
We didn’t renew our BroadwaySF membership for the 2020 season because we knew we’d be moving to the East Bay in early 2020, but still planned on going into the city to see at least some of the performances.
And then the pandemic hit, and everything shut down, including BroadwaySF. I believe it has since started sponsoring live performances again, but we are done with going to live venues, even outdoor ones, because people are crowded in. And despite what everyone says, people are still contracting COVID.
So going to live performances, be they shows or music concerts, are over for us, I’m sad to say.
For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has instructed us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word sea, or going with the above picture, or by means of the song “Puff The Magic Dragon,” or by going with another song by Peter, Paul and Mary, or anything else that you think fits.
I decided to wind up the Wayback machine to 1959 and to churn up the song “Sea of Love” by Phil Phillips.
It was written by John Philip Baptiste (better known as Phil Phillips) and George Khoury. It was the only top-40 chart-maker for Phillips, who never recorded another hit. It reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1958, Phillips was working as a bellhop at a Lake Charles, Louisiana hotel. There was a girl who he was trying to impress, and since he was good with a guitar, he decided to do it with a song. Phillips is quoted as saying: “I had my guitar, so I went and wrote this song, ‘Sea of Love.’ You see, she really didn’t believe in me. But I felt if I could sing about it — a sea of love where it’s quiet and peaceful — I could really show her how much I loved her and cared for her.”
A gas meter reader heard Baptiste practicing the song and told him to see a record producer named George Khoury, who had him record the song and convinced him to take the stage name “Phil Phillips.” The song was released on Khoury’s independent record label, and did so well in Louisiana that Mercury Records picked up the song to distribute nationally, where it became a big hit. Phillips claims he earned just $6,800 from the song, and he didn’t even get the girl.
Two other versions of this song entered the U.S. Top-40. First, Del Shannon hit number 33 in 1984, then The Honeydrippers took it to number 2 in 1984. The Honeydrippers was a pet side project of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who was scratching his itch to have an R&B band. They band was made up of Led Zeppelin alumni Plant and Jimmy Page, Yardbirds alumnus Jeff Beck, and Nile Rodgers, and Paul Shaffer.
Plant was taken aback by this song’s success for The Honeydrippers. He feared that this would destroy his reputation and he would be typecast as a crooner, so he deliberately cut off the career of the Honeydrippers.
Here are the lyrics to “Sea of Love.”
Come with me, my love To the sea, the sea of love I want to tell you how much I love you
Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet I want to tell you how much I love you
Come with me to the sea Oh, love
Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet I want to tell you how much I love you
Come with me to the sea Oh, love
Do you remember when we met? That's the day I knew you were my pet I want to tell you how much I love you
Below are the covers by Del Shannon and by Robert Plant’s The Honeydrippers. Take a listen and let me know which you like best, the original, Del Shannon’s cover, or Robert Plant’s The Honeydrippers.
Alex woke up from a restless night’s sleep, stretched his old bones before maneuvering his way out of bed in a manner that would be as painless as possible. He slowly made his way to the bathroom, fished his penis through the hole in his pajama bottoms, and let loose a stream of urine, trying to get much as possible centered in the bowl so as not to splash out onto the porcelain. He was moderately successful. He stuffed himself back into his pajama bottoms, moved over to the sink and looked at his reflection in the mirror. When did I get this goddam old? he silently asked himself as he ran a hand across the white stubble on his chin.
Opening the sink faucet, Alex splashed his face to wash the sleep off. He reached for a towel, dried his face, and looked in the mirror. To his dismay, the reflection he saw was one of a boy, maybe 12 or 13 years old. Alex cocked his head to the right. The boy cocked his head to the left at the same angle. Alex took his left hand and moved it toward the mirror. The boy in the mirror moved his right hand toward the mirror. Their index fingers touched on the surface of the mirror and Alex felt an electric jolt shoot through his body.
Alex was thrown back a few feet, caught himself before falling and moved back to the sink and looked in the mirror once again. But this time he saw his reflection, that of an old man, staring back at him. Alex put his hand on his chin. It was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. He ran his hands over his face. No wrinkles. He looked at his hands, which were smaller and had no liver spots.
The young Alex asked the old man in the mirror what was going on. The reflection in the mirror said, “We are one and the same, Alex. This is a rejuvenation mirror. Save this very special mirror. Listen carefully, young man. In your 70th year, on the 131st day of the year, you must come stand in front of this very mirror and I’ll be who you see, but I will be a child. We will each touch the mirror with the tips of our index fingers, and we will trade places, just as we did today. And you — or we, actually — will be young again. That way we can each live in perpetuity.”
“I don’t understand,” the young Alex said. “Why me? Why us?”
“I don’t know the answer. All I know is that this is the fourth time we’ve swapped places like this,” the old Alex in the mirror said. “But be warned, if you don’t show up and look in this same mirror on the 131st day of your 70th year, the repetition shall end, you will continue to age until you die, and when you do, I shall die with you.”
**********
Alex woke up from a restful night’s sleep, stretched, and hopped out of bed. As he was walking toward the bathroom, he had a vague recollection of a strange dream involving some old man and a mirror, but the details of the dream had already faded. He peed, went to the sink, looked in the mirror, and felt excited about it being a Thursday and the next to the last day of school for the week.
Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Jenna Hamra @ Pexels.
Welcome 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 “prominent.”
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. Show them some love.
This, That, and the Other 