Romantic or Sexy: Two Songs

ROMANTIC ❤
According to a BUSTLE article from 2016, "the majority of people think French is the most romantic language of all." I can't argue with that, and it may be one reason why Valley of the Mind's Eye by Thomas Dolby is ultra-romantic — despite its grievously unromantic title.

The Gate to the Mind's Eye is the soundtrack to a collection of 90s-era computer-animated videos. With songs like 'Armageddon' and 'Quantum Mechanic', the album could hardly be less romantic. But nestled between the cold and the harsh, is this warm and dreamy piece...

If a song was a road
I would ride through the night to you
There's a moon on the rise
And I'm drawn on the tide to you
And I will be with you
And I will stay with you
And I will dream with you

Very nice wording and imagery and promises of devotion. But, what's this? He's not singing to a vague generic listener...

Planets will cool, Josie

Tyrants will rule, Josie

I will be here for you

Oceans divide, Josie

Stars will collide, Josie

Nations will rise and fall

And never see the world through these eyes

In this story, the loved one is named — repeatedly. Not only that but the lines feel like 'grand gestures' in verse form. Extra romance points all round.

SEXY 💋

Included in Esquire's The Best Sex Albums, Roxy Music's Avalon is often cited as a go-to for bedroom background music. But my song choice, here, is from solo Bryan Ferry: Chain Reaction. And it's all down to its sultry atmosphere and these phrases...

I'm down on my knees
Down on my knees

Lovey-dovey on me
Lovey-dovey on me

What can I say? There's a time for subtlety, and there's a time for seduction.

~~~

Kitchen Mission: Banana Rescue

THE SITUATION: A bunch of overripe bananas and a surplus of peanut butter.

THE SOLUTION: Peanut Butter Banana Bars

I found this recipe online and applied the following changes:

• replaced oil with Butter Flavor Crisco
• egg amount may have been off since I spilled some of it while giving it a light beating and simply added another one
• all-purpose flour rather than whole wheat
• doubled the salt to 1 teaspoon 'cause that's how we roll with our salty/sweet balance
• omitted the chocolate chips since I have none and added dried Craisins since I have the 64 oz bag from Costco, and also... I LOVE CRAISINS

THE RESULT: I thought they tasted fine but were a little too cakey. Partner said they were delicious and couldn't stop eating them. We agreed they would've been better with chocolate chips.

~~~

Work in Progress: Halloween Is for Lovers

The tentative title for my current project is Halloween Is for Lovers. It will consist of three short stories:

1. Autumn's Kiss: A floral designer and a loud-talking innkeeper get a serendipitous nudge into romance and a cramped workplace closet. Shhh! The boss will hear.
2. Just Booing Neighborly: A yard haunter discovers the baker next door is down to cook up some thrills at home. But will it take a costumed hero to get her out of the kitchen and into the bedroom?
3. October Oddities: A grocery checker doesn't get why the hot bartender has joined her knitting circle. Muscly men don't have time for yarn crafting. Aren't they too busy working out? But in learning his secrets, she finds they may be more perfect-couple than odd-couple.

I expect to release it in early October.

Word Dilemma

I recently fell into the lie/lay/lied/laid trap.

The sentence in question was: 'I ditched my robe and ___ on the bed.'

My first instinct was to use 'lay'. But then I started second-guessing. So I googled and ended up reading paragraphs-long responses talking about how often these words trip people up and their definitions and states of verb-ness with rarely a clear-cut answer. Graphics like the one below were more helpful. 

What I gathered was that 'lay' is the proper word, but — darn it all — I still wasn't entirely comfortable with it. Probably because by that point, all variants were sounding wrong due to semantic satiation. Yeah, that's a thing.

I thought, fuck this. Life's too short.

'I ditched my robe and got on the bed.'

It might not be ideal, but it works and I'm sticking with it.

~~~