Pounding The Keyboard

      I watched two films, Okja and Free Fire , two nights in a row, and “Annie’s Song” (a song John Denver wrote for his wife) figured significantly in both movies (both released this 2017), helping them unfold dramatically. Like they say, great movies often include, nay, require, great songs to be, well, great, and memorable. Oftentimes, a song originally made for a movie outlasts the movie. Everybody has forgotten the movie but everybody 's still playing and singing the song. Although “Annie’s Song,” obviously, wasn’t specifically written for the said movies. But who’s complaining? And most great songs, often, are written and dedicated to somebody, a real person.        Okay, Okja and Free Fire aren’t classics but they’re both good.   You fill up my senses Like a night in a forest Like a mountain in springtime Like a walk in the rain Like a storm in the desert Like a sleepy blue ocean You fill up my senses Come fill me again Come let me love you

It’s a sin to tell a lie, they say, and I believe them Lie, and you’ll go to hell Or if you’re lucky, to purgatory, where you’d do nothing but wait Victims of cruel lies shed oceans of tears, Endlessly they cry, endlessly they suffer Yanking their hearts out, they utter “Oh, look at us! Look closer!” their eyes fixated on heaven “Undone, unnerved, now unwilling to bend May the gods pity us End our miseries, end our distrust Let their tongues fall from their mouths, and throw it to the fire…” And I will persist to wonder why people lie It’s kind of cathartic to tell the truth.

       Today, August 10, is the birthday of my (two-year old) nephew (lol) and the 30th anniversary of  "Girlfriend In A Coma," one of my favorite The Smiths songs. It was released on August 10, 1987, a few days after the group disbanded.        Probably the group's most famous song and the most scandalous and, well, hilarious (especially the way Morrissey deadpans through it), the song seems cheery and harmless until you take a closer look at the lyrics and realize that it's about a lady who overdosed and currently in coma, and the boyfriend, while seemingly distraught and is trying to see if she'll pull through, reveals that his thoughts (most likely because of her antics) weren't always pure and innocent. Before the song is through, you'll have doubts if he really wants her to survive.        Yup, it's a typical The Smiths (and Morrissey) song, which means it's sad, sarcastic, funny, hateful, miserable and, yes, sad.

       I saw this request somewhere while browsing the internet: Describe your scariest moment.       Well, I had a few really scary moments (one of which is experiencing sleep paralysis for the first time. Imagine waking up and seeing demons and dead relatives inside your room and not realizing what the hell was happening) but this incident (a scene straight from a nail-biting suspense-thriller movie) stands out.        I was at a classmate’s house then (we were graduating then and finishing some project at that time) and it’s almost midnight when we decided to grab some beer. The stores were already closed so we decided to walk and enter the first beerhouse (which was small and cheap) we saw. There’s an announcement at the door so we weren’t surprised (there were three of us) when a lady started dancing provocatively on a small stage wearing a very skimpy outfit. At midsong, she approached our table, started to grind and hump and bump near us,   throwing us naughty st