Sunday, March 11, 2012

A most puzzling spectacle















Beginning the day at 5 a.m.:






















kick (kik), ... 28. Slang. a. a thrill; pleasurable excitement.
(from The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, The Unabridged Addition, 1981)

Lyrics from Cole Porter, 1934:



If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

It winds from chicago to la,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

Now you go through saint looey
Joplin, missouri,
And oklahoma city is mighty pretty.
You see amarillo,
Gallup, new mexico,
Flagstaff, arizona.
Don't forget winona,
Kingman, barstow, san bernandino.
(from "(Get your Kicks on) Route 66", Bobby Troupe, 1946)



Kix, Food for Action, 1950s (starts at 3:36:)



"For free?"



"... You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you ..."
(from "Like a Rolling Stone," Bob Dylan, 1965)



Well, there's nothin' that you ain't tried
To fill the emptiness inside
But when you come back down, girl
Still ain't feelin' right

Chorus: (And don't it seem like)
Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find
And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind
(from "Kicks," written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)

A most puzzling spectacle:



("Bull Playing Soccer," pen and ink by am, 1974)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

an interesting ride with the language.like the drawing with the painting behind.kjm

Unknown said...

Today Sir Edmund criticised the messiness of my workspace. Your desk is so admirable! This is exactly how I wish for mine to look. I shall start immediately!

am said...

kjm -- Thank you about the drawing. I keep hoping to find whatever it was that I had before and don't seem to have now that allowed me to draw intuitively like that.

Still puzzling over the idea that, through language, something as negative as kicking or being kicked turns into something pleasurable -- except of course as in play such as soccer.

Nicole -- The funny thing is that is a photograph of one of the places where I can eat. I often read while eating a meal. That table usually ends up being the messiest surface of all. Often I have to clear away the mess in order to eat! It was unusually tidy looking in that photo (-:

Scroll down to see what my wonderful English antique oak draw leaf pub table looks like -- the last photo on the page below:

http://www.english-classics.net/blog/tag/pub-table

Anonymous said...

You always make the most interesting connections of words and music, am. Love the art.

am said...

Thank you, robin andrea
(-: