What do you do to keep your brain active and engaged?
Probably not enough. I read the daily newspaper and whatever comes across my newsfeed on my iPhone. But that’s probably to keep myself informed, rather than to exercise my brain.
My primary mechanism for keeping my brain active and engaged is blogging. Whether it’s responding to prompts, researching and posting about politics, religion, or other current events, or creating short flash fiction pieces, I feel like I’m exercising my brain.
And even though I suck at poetry, I do attempt every now and then to stretch myself and craft a poem. No rhyme, no meter, but a poem nonetheless. The good news about my poetry is that the reader doesn’t have to analyze it and wonder what my meaning was. Neither I nor my poetry, is that deep.
Reading what other bloggers are posting is always interesting and makes me think. There are so many talented, articulate bloggers and I have learned a lot from reading their posts.
All I can say is I hope my blogging will keep my mind sharp at least until my body wears out.
John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. He invites us to participate in this cellphone photo prompt by creating our own CellPic Sunday post and linking it back to his.
I took today’s cellpic on April 17, 2017 when my wife and I were attending an anti-Donald Trump rally in San Francisco outside of city hall. I used my iPhone 6 for the photo.
At the risk of getting political, why aren’t Americans taking to the streets protesting the potential re-election of Donald Trump to the White House? According to a CNN poll, Trump continues to hold an advantage over President Joe Biden as the campaign — and the former president’s criminal trial — move forward. Trump’s support in the poll among registered voters holds steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, who stands at 43%.
Do you remember the Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration? Nearly half a million people protested in Washington, DC that day. And there were anti-Trump rallies held many weekends during Trump’s first year as president. My wife and I participated in many such protests and marches that year.
Where are the anti-Trump protesters today? Don’t Americans know that Trump’s aim is to destroy our democracy and to replace it with a church-based society without the individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and outlined in the Declaration of Independence. What Trump and his supporters have in mind is a Christian commonwealth or, worse, a Christian theocracy, in this country.
So where is everyone who wants to see our democracy survive beyond 2024? Have we been dulled into complacency? I know there are a lot of protests about Gaza, but do people who are protesting about Gaza not realize that Gaza will be even worse off if Trump is elected?
Sorry about the interruption. We now return to our regularly scheduled program. The photo below was taken a week later, on April 22, 2017 at a different anti-Trump rally.
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song that is performed with orchestras and/or choirs, suggested yet again by Nancy aka The Sicilian Storyteller. My first inclination was to go with the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin,” that was performed with the London Festival Orchestra, but I figured a lot of others might go with that song. Then I thought about Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” in which the children’s Chorus at Islington Green School sang part of the song’s lyrics. But again, I thought this would be a popular choice.
So, I decided to go way back to 1963 when Ben E. King released the song, “I Who Have Nothing.”
“I Who Have Nothing” is an English language cover of the Italian song “Uno dei Tanti” (English: “One of Many”), with music by Carlo Donida and lyrics by Giulio “Mogol” Rapetti. The initial version was performed by Joe Sentieri in 1961. The song was first recorded in English by Ben E. King in 1963 with new lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. This song about unrequited love.
The title is a translation of a line in the Italian lyrics “Io, che non ho niente,” but otherwise the English lyrics were written afresh by Leiber and Stoller. The record used the same arrangement from Joe Sentieri’s record (orchestra conducted by Luis Enriquez Bacalov). In the U.S., the Ben E. King version reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and number 16 on the Hot R&B Singles chart.
In addition to Ben E. King’s original English language recording, Shirley Bassey recorded the song with producer George Martin shortly after the Ben E. King was rising in the chart in the U.S., and released the song in the UK in September 1963. Her version reached number 6 on UK charts.
Tom Jones recorded a cover which was released in 1970. The song was the title track of his album I Who Have Nothing, and became the most popular version of the song in the U.S., peaking at number 14 in 1970 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the Easy Listening chart.
Interestingly, some critics believe that part of the song’s melody was later copied for the Moody Blues’ 1967 hit “Nights In White Satin.”
Here are the lyrics to “I Who Have Nothing.”
I, I who have nothing I, I who have no one Adore you and want you so I'm just a no one with nothing to give you but, oh I love you He, he buys you diamonds Bright, sparkling diamonds But, believe me, dear, when I say That he can give you the world but he'll never love the way I love you He can take you any place he wants To fancy clubs and restaurants But I can only watch you with My nose pressed up against the window pane I, I who have nothing I, I who have no one Must watch you go dancing by Wrapped in the arms of somebody else when, darling, it's I Who loves you I love you I love you I love you
And for those of you who are Tom Jones fans, here is his 1970 cover.
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 “duress.”
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, ÿplease 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 