Indian Summer: Hearing a Song by That Name at That Time of Year (Or This Time of Year, September 2-7, 2022)

September 2, 2022, with editing September 7, 2022

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oE38psKkcNM

When summer is passing and seems but a dream, there is that memorable afterglow of warmth and yet the light still much remains. At the end of August the night air got chillier and the daytime sun felt a bit more distant, as if not as direct somehow. This leads us into the dream of autumn that we fall into before deep winter sleep. The song "Indian Summer" by Michael Jones and David Darling from their album Amber aptly captures that feel of Autumn's Indian Summer in the woods or along a country road, one in which it is so easy to feel, even if a tad bit chilly, cozily ensconced. We feel yet the warmth of the color amber as if a teardrop of the sun like a piece of liquid sunshine falls upon the ground as the leaves turn yellow to orange.

Here is what strikes me as I hear the fingers striking the keys and the strings of the piano and the oboe, about this music being successful in describing this time of year:

At the very beginning of the song, the music fades in, like a fade-in of a movie; this can sound to the listener like a past continuous action (action verb!), the way a recurring scene within the mind's memory, going over and over a place in time. It is like then the afterglow of the warmth of the summer. 

Some patterns emerge like more and more leaves dropping upon the scene--I love this. Then, both the instruments themselves--the piano and the oboe--and those patterns of notes begin to layer themselves upon one another like bunches or clusters of leaves falling into layers or piles upon the ground. I love how music can depict nature, can mirror it. 

So much of music is inspired by nature. Go to YouTube and search for the titles of the songs on the album Amber by Michael Jones and David Darling. Also recall Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune" mirror the moon, and how "The Blue Danube" waltz was inspired by the river of that name. 

What I Would Normally Be Writing in my Private Journal but am Blogging About Here

 

Dear Diary, 

On March 31, I filmed my first episode for my new YouTube Channel on music, but the lighting was terrible and I couldn't get it to post on YouTube anyway. I posted it on FB and wish I hadn't. I will be recording it all over again with better lighting. 

 Then when I was ready to post it to YouTube the screen on my phone froze overnight. So much for being on time before April Fool's Day for my first You Tube music episode.

The next day I recorded myself reading a story for April Fools Day on, yes, April 1. But my phone cam  timed out every 10 minutes. It was okay at first because reading the story only took 10 minutes, but then when I wanted to talk about the story (and did) it timed out at another ten minutes which I tried to then turn into "Part II." So then I was going to tape "Part III." But one of the "Parts"--whether it was part I or Part II I did not bother to check did not save in my phone. So I deleted all of it to redo another time. 

The story was Bastianelo, a folktale from Italy. I wrote a paper on it once at school and it is one of my favorites. I did a library presentation on this tale just a couple weeks ago and the library's equipment would not forward the Power Point I devised along with the voice recording so it did not go on the library's You Tube channel like usual when I do these events which is why I wanted to add Bastianelo to my You Tube channel. 

So then I began to feel akin to Jung the Psychologist's friend Pauli the Physicist. I will include a link about " The Paulo Effect" below: 

A teacher of mine once exclaimed to me when I said I had computer problems, " You always have computer problems!" and it was (is) true--I do always have computer problems. When most people have tech problems when Mercury is in Retrograde (and laugh or moan and groan about it), things are harder on me when Mercury is Direct (Normal) than when it is Retrograde because I was born Mercury Retrograde. So when Mercury is in Retrograde things go more with my natural way. Once I found out I have the exact same birthday as Neil Gaiman (the same day of the month and year) I did not mind being born Mercury Retro (Rx). I feel akin to his writings, also, along with Pauli's The Pauli Effect. 

The body is a machine in some ways and in some ways my body machination works "backwards." I was born with limited shoulder rotation and now in my older age I feel like I have overextended my shoulders all my life, even though I was in ballet until I was about 16 and then in karate all through my 20s and had no idea back then that my bodily "clock" was somehow backwards. However, backwards is not quite the right word. It is more of a looking back, a life lived in retrospect. Everything I see on any given day almost always brings back the whole flood of memories of similar associative things. It is a bit like living as a Sensory Type in Jung's Typology, though I do not test as such and test as intuitive instead. 

It would be interesting for someone to do a study on Mercury Retrograde in accordance with Jung's theories of Intuitive "vs." Sensory and also a study of the types of people who stop clocks and make computers or lab equipment crash. 

Please know that nothing say is intended to be in stone even when it sounds like it, and that I say some of this perhaps tongue-in-cheek even if it is true. Things in my opinion can always be two things at once, and I am not even a Gemini!

But I sure have digressed here. 

Getting back, I have all kinds of plans for April for this blog. I hope I fulfill my plans. On the other hand, I have so many other projects in the mixing board that I would surprise myself if I do. Starting the You Tube channel was perhaps the wrong time since I am supposed to be publishing some books I have have in progress throughout the rest of Spring and the Summer. I could have, for instance, spent the last hour typing one of my book manuscripts, but I am so nervous about typesetting that I have put doing it for about a year now. I let days then weeks then months then a year go by. I hope this is the last time I ever say it,m but the pandemic had some things to do with putting things off. Yeah, I had Covid when it first appeared on the scene as some family members were working in medical fields and I was always at the nursing home to see my mom where I guess some outbreaks happened, etc. Remember back when we were all so paranoid when we were told to disinfect our grocery wrappings/packaging when we got home? That kept me busy like the rest of you. Then I was tired for a very very long time after even getting over Covid. I guess you can call it long Covid. I still feel exhausted about every couple days. I have a couple good days and then I have to rest a couple days. That's the new story of my life, P.C.., Post Covid. 

But I digressed for sure again.

And that is all. Plans. I will have to add the follow-through soon, maybe next week, as I am off chasing Mercury into the otherworldly sunset that travels away from earth to the sun instead of the other way around. But that is another story, alas!

For Real,

Mary Ann