Pounding The Keyboard

  "We’re caught in a trap I can’t walk out Because I love you too much, baby Why can’t you see What you’re doing to me When you don’t believe a word I say?"        It was only last night that I learned that my favorite Elvis Presley song, “Suspicious Minds,” is just a cover. The original was sung by Mark James, who also wrote the song. He released it in 1968 while Elvis released his cover in 1969, which quickly went to number one, with critics hailing it as one of Elvis’ best works. Rolling Stone ranked it 91 st in their 2003 list of best songs of all time. Needless to say, Elvis’ version is miles better than Mark’s.      Elvis performed “Suspicious Minds” in his 1969 Las Vegas concert, showing him still in top form, and I probably have watched that video 1,485 times on You Tube. It's perfection: Elvis, the drums, the bassline, and the background singers.      Here are other famous covers that are considered bett...

       Whenever the second floor of our house is without humans, a cat, owned by the neighbors, would sneak through our windows and stroll inside our house like it owns it. The amusing visits started almost a year ago. Sometimes, I would see it lounging in front of the TV, like it’s waiting for its favorite show to air, and sometimes, it would stay near the cage of our lovebirds. I don’t know its plan, it’s probably wicked, like wanting to eat them. Anyway, it skedaddles out the windows whenever it sees us coming.      Then a few nights ago, around two in the morning, I opened the door of my room to pee, and saw this said cat, it’s white, by the way, sitting outside my room. As soon as it sensed me, it glanced at me and stared at me sternly, looking straight into my eyes, like it was summoning my soul, to where, I didn’t know, maybe, it was trying to control my mind. “Hand me the birds, hand me the birds and a sachet of ketchup…” I thought I heard a ...