After a few laughs with a friend when reflecting upon the perils of my dating life, I found a need to uplift a few notable incidents. Should I share the story of the German who lavished a girl with praise, albeit exposing underlying desires to kill her? Should I share the story of the brilliant tech/finance exec with the drug problem who robbed me? Should I share the tale of the former model who lied so deliberately, that he offered a false name/identity (modeling was true, though)?
Still easily upset from a break-up, I both despise and study pop music. On the walk to work, a tune that wafted though the suburban business district was the Lionel Richie dusty "Penny Lover." Sappy, yes. But the phrase that yanked me and took up far too much head space was:
When a man's in love
he's only got one story.
Girl, don't I know how that go! But when one IS NOT in love -- ha, the story can go in a zillion directions. Options keep a mind sane, akin to milk -- which does a body good. Let's muse further on the bad dates where I emerged unscathed -- in theory.
There was the little man who I engaged in a mercy date -- go out with the new guy. So you're sick, keep your word. Bad move. For this act, I was repaid with the classic line I will only offer for pay or very close friends.
There was the guy who not only deflowered a girl, but soon informed her that she would make a super grandmother.
In all honesty, considering that I've been trotting about with "one story," I've healed considerably since the spring. I recall walking the same downtown district in April and hearing a speaker piping a dusty tune from Neil Sedaca -- the 70s version of "Breaking Up is Hard To Do." If the reader does not know this tune, just insert a sigh here. The irony factor was in high, because my later trip to the grocery store led me to be ker-thunked by Sedaca's "Laughter In the Rain." Sappy, yes. But lush, romantic, and....sappy. Cue tears, Kleenex and sense of loss.
Fortunately, zombie factors have taken over most of the woe. All the anecdotes provided prior to The Heartbreak were all easy to spring from. To reference Lionel, "When a [girl's] in love, [she's] only got one story." This "one" is the positive, the beauty, the possibility, the perspective that is under-appreciated by the other -- hence, the "walk on by" that the recipient hopes to prevent.
Ugh...somebody cue Issac Hayes' version of "Walk on By!" Now that tune has all the dusky mental funk I can appreciate. What a well constructed remake -- totally different composition, really.
But, to grab hold of myself for a moment, I'm so all about the jazz of late. Using the trusty online resourse Pandora, I've been diving in a hybrid of avant guard jazz of the classic sort (Sun Ra Arkestra, McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp), new jacks of the same stripe (Vijay Iyer, Don Byron, Lafayette Gilchrist) as well as some FONN-KEE Afro-Jazz cats such as Mulatu Astatke. Perhaps it's the lack of words and the authenticity of the grooves that is just what the body needs. Oh, let's not forget the quirky lyrics and grooves from ye ol' Steely Dan.
"Walk, Walk!"
