Andy Williams - RIP

As I watch icons of my youth pass, I am reminded not of events, or people, or my life from that time. Instead, feelings once real, then lost and forgotten, return as if they were inside of me all of these years. They are my friends. My best friends.

"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music) in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Audrey Hepburn, and has since been covered by many other artists. The song also won the 1962 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

It became the theme song for Andy Williams, who first recorded it in 1961 and performed it at the Academy Awards ceremonies in 1962. Williams's version was disliked by Cadence Records president Archie Bleyer, who believed it had little or no appeal to teenagers. Andy Williams's version never charted, except as an LP track, which he recorded for Columbia in a hit album of 1962.

Williams said he never tired of singing "Moon River," whose melody he considered "beautiful" and whose lyrics he called "timeless."

My iPhone; My Best Friend

My constant companion, it goes with me everywhere. I have just never had a friend like this, a confidant so loyal, so dependable, so caring and close.

It will sit on my lap as we drive around town. Sometimes I will let it hang out the window so it can feel in the wind on its screen. It loves that. But I must be careful because like all iPhones, it's always looking out for other iPhones, beeping and chiming and just lighting up every time they meet.

I remember when I flew out to South Carolina, they made me put it in a container to go through the x-ray at airport security. I told it just to be still, close its eyes and don't let out a peep. It came through intact, joyful and oh, so happy to be back in my pocket.

I used to take it on dates and it always seemed to know just when to get me off the hook at awkward moments. Yes, there is an App for that. It loved the beach, taking so many photos and so excited by the sunsets, it was just drained by the time we got home.

In the morning, it always knows just when to wake me for work and if I have to be away from my computer, it always keeps the time for me, updates the markets, watches out for severe weather and get this, will turn itself into a flash light when the lights go out, or if I need to put a key into a lock in the dark.

In the quiet moments of the night, it will play my favorite love songs, or tune me into a radio broadcast from around the world, making sure I know all that there is to know so I can me ready for anything, anywhere. It will take me shopping, finding me the best deals and the newest gadgets to make my life easier. In the woods, it shows me true North, making sure I am never lost. It shows me the way to anywhere I want to go and even will let me watch my beloved Detroit Red Wings' games, even when its just sitting there on my lap while I drive.

No matter how much it is watching out for me, it always has time for a game, either with just the two of us or with virtually anyone else in the world. It's always there, always looking out for me, always putting me first.

Oh how I wish my parents could have met it. They would so happy, so proud that I had found such a wonderful partner for my life.

A

So Poignant, So Sad

You can see it on his face, in his eyes;
You can hear it in his words,
Written so long ago;
You feel the sadness of a generation;
You mourn a President dead in Dallas;
The blood soaked years of Vietnam;
This unconscionable crime;
We share his pain;
The held-back tears;
We stand with him.
So poignant,
So sad.

Skip The Light Fandango

I don't care.

Sounds reckless, irresponsible and oblivious to consequences.

On the contrary, it is the only way to get through the maze of life.

When you don't care about outcomes, you don't worry. When you don't worry, you don't stress. When you don't stress, you live a happier and longer life. You have confidence in yourself, your actions, your footprint.You stand tall, you smile, you are fun to be around and you appreciate, then devour all that life has to offer.

You skip the light fandango.

Baker Street

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
-Steve Jobs

L'art pour l'art

As a second year student at the University of Michigan, I took a course on cinematography taught by Professor George Manupelli. Rather than sit in a big lecture hall, Dr. Manupelli taught us film sitting is a cramped colorless classroom filled with 19 year-old aspiring filmmakers.

On the first night, (most of his classes were held at night), Dr. Manupelli sat on the edge of a desk and asked us why we were there. Eventually, someone got it right, we were there for art.

"Why art?"

What seemed like a thousand answers later (it was only 40 minutes), he told us:

"Art for art's sake."

These are the days

These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now

I looked for this video on YouTube, it found me instead.
A portrait of earth's wonder, of stillness by design.
It will touch your soul in breathtaking silence.
It will change your life, as it did mine.

These are the days of the endless dancing and the
Long walks on the summer night
These are the days of the true romancing
When I'm holding you oh, so tight

Play this for someone,
before it is too late.
Before being taken from each other
into another life.

These are the days now that we must savor
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart

High Hopes

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

Something

It's hard to imagine, think, grasp, that most of the people in this video are dead.

So many of us grew into adults with the Beatles at our side. They are remembered today by the raucous crowds and their silly interviews, for their pilgrimage to mysticism and drugs, for their break-up and solo careers.

Four kids from Great Britain, thrust center stage into the dissonance of a generation. We remember them for their music, for Ed Sullivan, for the tragedies that somehow sought them out, leaving only two still standing.

I downloaded $40 worth of their songs from iTunes. Along with the flashbacks of my youth, the music reminded me of how much we all wanted to find love, the love described in their songs, the sweet romantic love, the kind they each found in their lives, despite and not because of their fame.

I know this is not the best quality video of the Beatles. Or maybe it is, not in a technical sense, but in a romantic sense. They lived the dream. Not of fortune, nor of fame. They set a standard for love, deep, all encompassing, impassioned love. We owe it to ourselves to fight that good fight, to wherever, to whoever, it takes us. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to them.

Dream of a Fallen Soldier

This is about a song from 1971.

I had just graduated from the University of Michigan. My girlfriend Claudia and I decided to take a summer road trip. We started in Ann Arbor where we drove first to Boston to visit Elliott and Cookie. The four of us then drove to Vermont in two different cars, one couple each. We camped out in the tranquil, spiritual Vermont woods for two nights. It was Cookie's first time with weed. Then Elliott and Cookie went back to Boston where Elliot started his first year of law school at Boston College. Claudia and I continued on our road trip, driving first to Montreal where we got on the TransCanada highway on our way across that beautiful country all the way to Vancouver.

We camped out mostly. I remember laying in the tent in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where we were kept up all night by the most severe thunderstorm of our lives. Across the vast flatlands of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to beautiful Alberta where we were mesmerized by the beauty of Banff and of Lake Louise. We were still camping, eating mostly brown rise and vegetables. We were kids in the first genuine love of our lives.

Then we hit the Canadian Rockies and stoned as we were, it was the most breathtakingly exquisite two-days drive-though of our lives. All the while, the music of our time provided the soundtrack, sometimes gentle and romantic, sometimes loud and rowdy, all out of the radio of the Chevrolet Vega. By the time we reached British Columbia, we realized Western Canada was one of the most pristine places on earth. Through the beautiful city of Vancouver, across the US border, south through Washington and down the Oregon coast to California, to Berkeley, where we stayed at a,"Hostel for Couples."

By then, we were hardly speaking to each other. Traveling together for six weeks like that, relationships either blossom or die. It was the latter for us. We turned back and drove all night to Salt Lake City were we checked into a motel about 8:00 am and stayed for a very uncomfortable 24 hours. Three days later we were back in Ann Arbor, road weary and broken, a couple-once-in-love.

Your Song, which meant so much to us in Vermont, became a cynical commentary on what was only the naiveté of two kids who knew nothing about love.

I saw Claudia only one more time. About six months later I drove back to Boston, stopping at her parents house in New Rochelle where she was staying to say good-bye one last time.

Forty years later, I listen to Elton John and remember that for one fleeting moment in my life, words seemed so real, so warm, so perfect. Forty years later, its just the dream of a fallen soldier.