Well, I didn’t expect to be back so soon with this, but I so enjoyed the first Smile time that I had to discover just where those children lived.
They are from Podersdorf am See, a small market town in Austria with a population of only about 2,500. They are very near to the Slovakia and Hungary borders, so my guess at East European was pretty accurate.
They have what appears to be a fantastic primary school with a fine musical tradition, and here they are, with my Smile time #2, singing “Good Morning, Did you sleep well? I love the anticipation of the percussionists!
There are many things in life that make me smile, and I like to smile! It is so much easier than frowning, or grimacing.
I have decided to, occasionally, pass things on that I happen across that have made me smile. The first is something that I included in a comment on Colleen Brown’s lovely blog, The Chatter Blog. If you’ve never read any of Colleen’s words, or seen her delightful drawings, I can guarantee that you will find many a smile amongst her wise words and insightful sketches.
It’s a gibberish song, widely spread around the world and popular among Scouts and Girl Guides as a campfire “round”. Originally Scandinavian. Sounds as though these are East European children. I bet you smiled!
Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday. He gives us the chance to share familiar, and not so familiar, songs by setting us a challenge each week to submit a song that either fits in with a word, an idea, or specific criteria.
If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.
For this week we have to find a song that includes somebody famous.
I think I may be stretching the boundaries a little here. I’m not even sure that my inclusion can be called “somebody”! Is it a man? A woman? An entity? Human? Celestial? An alien?
It depends on your perception, your belief, where you live in the world, how you were brought up, what has happened to you since.
I may not always love you But long as there are stars above you You never need to doubt it I’ll make you so sure about it God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me Though life would still go on, believe me The world could show nothing to me So what good would living do me God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you If you should ever leave me Though life would still go on, believe me The world could show nothing to me So what good would living do me God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you God only knows what I’d be without you God only knows what I’d be without you God only knows what I’d be without you (God only knows) God only knows what I’d be without you (what I’d be without you) God only knows what I’d be without you (God only knows) God only knows what I’d be without you (what I’d be without you) God only knows what I’d be without you (God only knows) God only knows what I’d be without you (what I’d be without you) God only knows what I’d be without you (God only knows) God only knows what I’d be without you (what I’d be without you) God only knows what I’d be without you
This holds very fond memories for me as a special song for me and my first “true” love, Susan Margaret Wood. As I had left home at age 16, in 1964, to join the army, and left Susan behind, this became “our song” when it first came out!
Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.
If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.
The theme for this week posed a bit of a problem for me as I could quite happily live without television in my life!
I was 14 when we first had a television. Black and white of course, and only one channel. At 16, I joined the army and went to college for 3 years. No television. At 19 I deployed to the Middle East. No television. At 21 I went to Germany. Very little television. My daughter grew up with Sesame Street in German. So it goes on. I watched TV intermittently. Today, if the television is on, the chances are that I am reading blogs rather than watching it.
However, I think it is impossible to be untouched by television. I have seen a fair selection along the way, and one thing I MUST see, when it is on, is Later……with Jools Holland. He is a consummate musician and performer in his own right and , over the years, has introduced a gargantuan list of artists of every genre imaginable, and then some! You can see the list here.
So I thought here we have a huge number of songs I can use for my SLS choice this week.
WRONG!
Instead, I suddenly thought of one show that I found to be both funny, thought provoking, and, at times, downright sad!
M*A*S*H(an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) was an American war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The series, which was produced with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the “4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War (1950–53). The show’s title sequence features an instrumental-only version of “Suicide Is Painless,” the original film’s theme song. The show was created after an attempt to film the original book’s sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, failed. The television series is the best-known of the M*A*S*H works, and one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history. (wikipedia)
This was, of course, being shown at the time of the Vietnam War, and was highly controversial. What started out as a comedy, with drama overtones soon became a drama with added comedy!
It’s a long time ago now, but I seem to remember that the “squaddie” humour really came across well, and could evoke real feelings of sadness, even the odd tear or two.
Suicide Is Painless is a song written by Johnny Mandel (music) and Michael Altman (lyrics). It was thetheme songfor both themovieandTV seriesM*A*S*H.
Director Robert Altman had two stipulations about the song for Mandel: it had to be called “Suicide Is Painless” and it had to be the “stupidest song ever written”. Altman attempted to write the lyrics himself, but upon finding it too difficult for his 45-year-old brain to write “stupid enough,” he gave the task to his 14-year-old-son Michael, who wrote the lyrics in five minutes. Ironically, the son’s income from royalties for the song far exceeded his father’s income for the film.
So here it is. The Tongue-in-cheek theme song for the very sad tongue in cheek comedy about the Korean war. The film was released in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam war, and the TV series debuted in 1972, appealing to the growing anti war crowd, lasted 11 years, and was arguably one of the most successful series ever.
The TV series used instrumental versions of the song only.
It’s time again, for Kat Myrman’s wonderful challenge, to write a story, inspired by her picture prompt, in 280 characters or fewer.
Here is this week’s prompt and my contribution.
Check out all the fabulously creative entries here and, if you’ve never had a go, why not try a story of your own? You may surprise yourself!
Photo by enriquelopezgarre at Pixabay.com
I had difficulty this week in coming up with a tale that I was happy with. In the course of trying, I discovered that a coarse sand grain may have a diameter of 1/20th of an inch. A first-order approximation of the number of grains of sand in one cubic inch (assuming cubic arrangement, spherical grains, uniformly sized) would be 20 x 20 x 20, or 8,000.
I am still managing to learn new things, even at my vast age! Use this information wisely folks.
Instead of a tale I imagined all of the difficulties of keeping the family happy, and entertained, on a crowded beach.
I AIM TO PLEASE THE YOUNG AND YOUNG AT HEART WITH POEMS DESIGNED FOR KIDS. READ ALONG WITH YOUR SMALL TOTS FOR FUN.. LET'S MAKE RHYMING FUN AND EXCITING!!!
Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday. He gives us the chance to share familiar, and not so familiar, songs by setting us a challenge each week to submit a song that either fits in with a word, an idea, or specific criteria.
Photo by 
Photo by enriquelopezgarre at Pixabay.com