Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
--Albert Einstein





Yester is, the prefix, that we fix, to things that have gone by
Forever they say, yeah,
even though my yester love
Has slipped through my fingers, I find it still lingers
in my heart today
--Smokey Robinson





"Ain't It, Baby" (1961)

"You even wrote yourself a love note and signed some man's name. Uh, then, you put it where I could find it. It's just a lowdown, dirty shame."

"You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (1962)

The whole damn song…beginning with:

I don't like you, but I love you

Seems like I'm always thinkin of you
You treat me badly
I love you madly
you really got a hold on me... 


"My Girl" (1964)

Wrote it for The Temptations

" I've got so much honey the bees envy me.
I've got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees."

"Ooo Baby Baby" (1965)

What a melody. What harmonies, (arranged by fellow Miracle Pete Moore --who took home a co-writing credit) and what an ache in Smokey's voice.

"I did you wrong. My heart went out to play. But in the game I lost you. What a price to pay....I'm cryin."

"The Tracks of My Tears" (1965)

"So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears.."

and

"Since you left me if you see me with another girl,
seeming like I'm having fun.
Although she may be cute, she's just a substitute
because you're the permanent one."

Rhyming cute and substitute internally and then paying off with permanent one to rhyme with having fun is sooooo…Smokey.

"Ain't That Peculiar" (1965)
Gave it to Marvin Gaye…

" A child can cry so much until you do everything they say.
But unlike a child my tears don't help me to get my way."

"I Second That Emotion" (1967)

"A taste of honey is worse than none at all."

"The Tears of a Clown" (1967)
music by Stevie Wonder who brought it to Robinson for the lyric.

"Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid.
Smiling in the public eye, but in my lonely room,
I cry the tears of a clown . . .
when there's no one around."

Wonder if Berry Gordy tried to take out the Pagliacci mention.

The Miracles were: Pete Moore, Bobby Rogers, Ron White, and secret weapon Marv Tarplin, guitarist, co-composer; and a shout out to early members Sonny Rogers and his sister (and Smokey's wife for 27 years) Claudette Rogers.

" Without The Miracles, there would be no Motown"
--Berry Gordy

" Without the Miracles, there would be no Stevie Wonder."
--Stevie Wonder.











PET PEEVES



Starting with the one above...not just that it's empty, but that the tissue is rolling over the top instead of down the back.

Putting "pretty much clean already" stuff in the dishwasher. In fact, the whole dishwasher thing itself ticks me off. Wash the dish! And you're done! As opposed to putting it in the dishwasher (saving yourself about 5 seconds of dishwashing?) and then putting soap in the dispenser then wait for it to do its thing, then come back at another time for the chore of unloading it. I don't get it. Take the extra 5 seconds to wash the dish and you're done!

Dinner parties. Make up your mind. Is it a dinner or a party? Most dinners I've been to didn't resemble parties, and most parties I've enjoyed weren't about the dinner. Party with Food works. Even Food Party works, if that floats your boat. But tell me it's a Dinner Party and I just got the flu and can't make it.

Using R&B label to describe music that features neither rhythm nor blues.

Waiters reciting more than 3 specials of the day--especially if that includes reciting all the ingredients, half of which are in French. Put it on a blackboard, a piece of paper, an index card, someplace I can read it. Otherwise the only special I'm likely to order is the one I can vaguely remember had the ingredient I recognized as food.

Late night meetings. Unfuckinbelievable how we have to put up with workaholic show-offs who schedule this shit just to prove what tough soldiers they are (or simply because they have no evening plans and nowhere to go) And they generally tend to be the ones who take 3 hours for lunch. Only time I wish I was more of a big shot is when I'm sitting in a meeting at 7:30 pm with some bozo who's struggling to get his PowerPoint presentation to work and telling everyone how he had been working on it since 6 am. Next time plan ahead Mr. Mighty Mojo Power Ranger and call your meeting when the sun's still shining.

Is it time to tell our Banks to take a hike? What are we getting from them? The fees more than offset the paltry interest rates and ATM's are where we get cash and we can get that off our credit cards. Only thing I can think of is that they provide a Notary for the 4 times a decade you need one.







WHICH ONE IS A PICTURE OF AN ACIDIC FRUIT?

If that's a suntan, it's not from the sun in this solar system.





WILLIAM BLAKE

Can't say I like his paintings (phantasmagoria isn't my style) but to be able to draw like that and also write like he did is freakish. Can't imagine what people thought of him in his own day...though we know he was generally regarded as a madman. He fits neatly into no category or school or tradition but he's on fire in every brush stroke and every word. If he were alive today he'd probably be doing film animation and blowing Pixar and the Anime folks out of the water.










DIVINE IMAGE

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
All pray in their distress,
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is God our Father dear;
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face;
And Love, the human form divine;
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine:
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew.
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too.

William Blake