A short future of long days

Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh's North Side,
Summer Solstice, 2019. (Photo by Katy Buchanan)

Late dusk on the evening after June solstice. We sat outside, reading and enjoying the long, slanting rays of the young summer sun.

After a bit, we finished dinner and caught the last 20 minutes of "Wedding Crashers." (Why we are watching an at least 15-year-old film is a subject for another night.)

Anyway. Owen Wilson's character is spiraling into despair, and, for some reason, his handsome-ugly face, framed by a dyed blond choppy do, reminds me of rocker Rod Stewart. Then, about 8 to 10 minutes later, the movie is done and the song laid over the final scene is Stewart's "Stay With Me." Not going into what the lyrics of that song mean for the movie, but we started talking about the music of our lives, which included the output of Stewart in his heyday.

We agreed that, as young people, we listened mostly for the music, not the words. And I still love the music — its shape, its beats, its structure —but holy cow, the words for "Stay With Me" are awful.  How much kicking of a woman can you do, while still asking her to stick around?

Which also puts me in mind of "Oklahoma," on stage this weekend in Pittsburgh (the Rodgers & Hammerstein version, not the current-day revival in New York). A good friend is reviewing, we had a chat about that and other things during a nice walk on this rare sunshine-y June Saturday in southwestern Pennsylvania. The music, and especially, the dancing, are gorgeous, but the lyrics to some of the songs ("Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City") and ("I'm Just A Girl Who Cain't Say No") to name two, definitely serve up some suggestions for reflection.

I know these works are products of their times. And I'm not really sure what I want to say about them. In retrospect, I enjoyed the art of these artists, in part, not in whole.

Circling back, there is a short future of long days ahead of us. I'm hoping for a modicum of sunshine.

The following link goes to the scene from the 1955 film, scene of the Kansas City song. Choreography is awesome.
Everything's Up To Date in Kansas City

Thunder and fireflies (and, for a change, rain)

It has been a very wet and gloomy week here in Pittsburgh. The dreary details have to do with something called the northern oscillation, and, I guess, warm Gulf of Mexico air meeting slightly cooler air coming from the north.

Last night, (June 18) after a day of frowning skies and occasional showers, the clouds parted briefly around 6 or so and the blue sky appeared. That was nice. Even nicer was the firefly show.
I stood out on the front porch, mostly just to see the evening blue and guess what, the summer lightning bugs made their appearance in the dusk. There are so few of them these days; I remember catching them in mayonnaise jars when I was a kid. Now, I feel fortunate to see three or four flickering around my yard on a late June night. (Of course, maybe they are drowning.)

A few weeks ago, a sales kid came knocking on the door, pitching a lawn pesticide service, including the admonition "a lot of your neighbors have signed up!" Why is that a selling point? I guess it probably isn't ... just something the door-to-door kids are told to say. But my own idea is that I would rather see fireflies in June than a weed-free lawn all summer.

Here is a front yard in my hilly neighborhood. No grass, lots of plants, shrubs and trees and hopefully no need for lawn poison. Really pretty.

(Photo by Katy Buchanan)

P.S. Flash flood watch this afternoon at 3 p.m. til 5:30 p.m. Clear from 6-ish on to about 8. But thunder and downpours have returned as we roll towards midnight. More of the same expected Thursday. Ray Bradbury's "Long Rain" was extraordinarily prescient.