Nostalgia Was the Word

I love Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  My spouse, whose favorite music genre is hard rock, loves Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Both of us were born in the early 1950's.  The Four Seasons was the soundtrack of several years of our lives.  In 2012, in fact, I wrote a blog post about the 50th anniversary of the Four Seasons.  If you want to hear some of their best songs, click on over.

So when we heard, at the last minute that Frankie Valli was going to appear in Washington, DC for "A Capital Fourth", we sighed.  It was too late for us to change plans, so in Binghamton, New York we were staying.  And, anyway, we have been to Washington, DC twice for the Fourth of July.  Both times, the temperatures were hot and steamy.

Although it is hard to imagine if all you've ever seen is the TV coverage of the Independence Day activities in our nation's capital, it is almost impossible to sit close enough to the live music performances to actually appreciate them.  Both times we were in DC, we decided to stick with the fireworks and not even try to get close enough to the music.

 Just our luck, thanks to a hurricane in the Carolinas, the weather there on July 4, 2014 was perfect.

So, last night we watched Frankie Valli's performance thanks to our DVR.  Thanks to the Jersey Boys Broadway show and Clint Eastwood directed movie, one could say that Frankie Valli is more popular than ever.

Frankie Valli is 80 years old.  But, I don't hear it in his voice.  He still has that wonderful falsetto.

He did one of my favorite songs, Grease, from a musical movie adapted from a play. Over the years, the story has been modified several times.  Bee Gee Barry Gibb wrote the song, but Frankie Valli performed it.

Here is Frankie Valli in 1978, in fact, performing the song.  When you see this live performance - the dancers may be dressed like the 50's but the performance screams disco and "1978!".

The fascinating thing about nostalgia is that we all, after a certain age, seem to fit a hazy veil over our childhoods.  Everything seems to have been better "back then".  The music was better, people behaved better, and things were just as they should have been.

But, in reality, some things change for the better - and some don't.  As for music, history will probably be the final judge of which decade had the best music.

Do you have a favorite singer or group from your growing up years?

Sustainable Saturday - Deciphering The Messages of Nature

A Saturday, just before a cold spell of weather supposed to be coming our way.

Part of the sustainable lifestyle is paying attention to the messages Nature is trying to send us.  Nature does communicate with us (I won't want to get all woo-woo here) and we do not listen to Nature at our peril.

Here it is, January 19 in upstate NY.  It is in the 40's (again, after it cooled down and we got snow a couple of times this week) and the snow is melting.

So, spouse and I came home from our food shopping, and what did I see as I walked to our front door but a flying insect. (!)  It looked like a large mosquito.

We do have something we call snow bugs that used to come out in the February snow, but I haven't seen them in a few years.  This hopefully, was not a termite.

When I went to the back yard to see if we did have snow bugs, I first looked around, at the beauty of the view of the creek behind our house, near its merge point with the Susquehanna River:

And then, I saw this, on the steps to my back door:

A January fly! In upstate NY! Even in last year's mild winter I never saw one, although, of course, that doesn't mean they weren't there.

Then I looked a little closer.  In the melting snow, the garlic foliage was still green, and I saw something sprouting.  Not a winter bulb - could have been an onion missed from last year, or more garlic.

But sprouting it was, nevertheless.

I am trying to figure out this message from Nature.  I do know those early insects may have a short life.  By Tuesday we are going to have highs in the teens F. (the minus teens, for those using Celsius).

What are your messages from Nature where you live?  Are things "out of whack"?

Four Seasons Friday

Someone told me that today is the 50th anniversary of the singing group The Four Seasons.  To people my age, of a "certain age", the soundtrack of our lives includes the songs of this group, the inspiration for the Broadway play "Jersey Boys".

I can sing along with so many of them even now, remembering all the words.  They were clean words, too - no songs here that you would wince at if any of your children started to sing them.

I don't know how this 50th anniversary is measured, incidentally- does anyone out there know?

By this date in 1962, the Four Seasons already had their first hit, Sherry, which stayed #1 for five weeks. (this was way before the co-founder Frankie Valli's name was added to the group's title).

 
After Sherry, they followed up with (sorry, poor quality) another #1 hit that stayed #1 for five weeks, Big Girls Don't Cry.

They would end up with eight number one songs, one of which, Rag Doll, was voted by listeners of a NYC radio station as the "#1 song of all time".

Even my spouse, who favors hard rock, remembers the Four Seasons fondly and loves the song "Rag Doll".  Can you imagine - loving Metallica and Rag Doll?

My favorite?  Walk Like a Man.  Check this video out - like we used to say just a few years later, "Can you dig it?"

Any other Four Seasons fans out there?  What's your favorite Four Seasons song?