Of course Valentine’s Day is a load of old twaddle and all that, but here’s a a red rose for everybody.
33 Responses to “My funny Valentine”
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Happy Hallmark Day all!
Bah, harumph… more mawkish sentimentality….I blame that Bevin bloke ( and won’t his Tess be getting a big bunch this morning, he’ll be feeling all frisky for sure after yesterday’s triumph).
Try as I might, do you think I could find a florist anywhere with a single long-stemmed Triffid?
Seriously…cue the Tom Waites vinyl, Blue Valentine… ( and Stephen Sondheim…gosh, has it really been 30 years since that album came out?)
“There’s a place for us,
Somewhere…
… a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.
There’s a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!
Somewhere.
We’ll find a new way of living,
We’ll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere . . .”
Have a wet, gross, down-and-dirty Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Hmmm … link not working. Try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr4n6z4Fzw8
That’s nice, Danny.
Is that link work friendly, woulfe?
Our posts crossed, Darlene. How embarrassment! (I’ve taken mine down)
Anyway, my couple of links about unromantic V-Day law enforcement -
Bangkok:
The FBI recommends you don’t click on any Valentine e-cards.
Oh, you didn’t have to take it down. Sorry!
We’ve done the posting at the same time thing quite a bit. Great minds thinking at the same time and all that.
There was an article in the paper this morning about a Catholic school not allowing the girls to bring along teddies and roses and stuff because others will feel left out. Seems sensible to me.
Yes, the link is work friendly. Think sloppy, not smutty.
No worries, Darlene. It just seemed silly to have two dedicated V-day posts about how it wasn’t really a very big deal!
I took the sprogs to band practise today, and saw a handful of young-uns from the boys’ high school wandering towards the girls’ high school with roses or chocolate or plush-bears. It was all very high-ceremonial, with the young swains being escorted by a cadre of chaps without the accoutrements of gifts themselves, and all quite cheerful together.
I later saw a group of girls with flowers etc standing separately from the rest of the girls just before roll-call, and at least one of the young men from before was walking back to his own campus with a teddy bear of his own (he’d been carrying a rose ten minutes earlier).
The rest of the school around them seemed either resigned or bemused at their own lack of floral tributes.
You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, “I love you”
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny
it’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
(Herman Hupfield 1931)
That’s nice, EC. Very nice.
“The rest of the school around them seemed either resigned or bemused at their own lack of floral tributes.”
I expect to see resigned or bemused expressions from many people throughout the city today as the red rose clads ladies and gents emerge from their offices.
Kind of an interesting sight to behold: young men carrying teddy bears, that is. Perhaps today is the only day that would be acceptable.
danny
“Somewhere”, West Side Story, circa 1959
A GIRL
There’s a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.
There’s a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!
Somewhere.
We’ll find a new way of living,
We’ll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere . . .
There’s a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we’re halfway there.
Hold my hand and I’ll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!
*********************
You must remember this: despite the commercial twaddle, sentimental slush, couples still use this day as a reason to celebrate privately, and lovingly.
Bah!, humbug!!! I say to narrow-minded sarcasm.
SweetiePieHoneyBubsyLoveyDoveyCutiePie XXXXX OOOOO XXXXX
Somewhere is one of my favourite songs. It has a deep romantic association from a love affair in my long lost youth when I was just a pup. I once got an anonoymous Valentine’s Day card years ago. Never found out who it was.
“You must remember this: despite the commercial twaddle, sentimental slush, couples still use this day as a reason to celebrate privately, and lovingly.
Bah!, humbug!!! I say to narrow-minded sarcasm.
SweetiePieHoneyBubsyLoveyDoveyCutiePie XXXXX OOOOO XXXXX”
Crikey, you’d need a big card to put “Sweetie etc” on it. I agree. Lots of things are twaddle, but there’s nice twaddle. “Somewhere” is a very pretty song. Mostly familiar with the Streisand version (I’m beginning to think that my taste in music is making me sound like a 70-year-old).
An anon card. Lovely. I guess you’ll never know who it was. If somebody sent an anon card to Paul years ago, come on and tell us who you are. But then perhaps it’s better not to know.
… yes…. an anecdote from a friend. He met girl, girl met him. Seemed to be something good. He said, “May I have your phone number?” She* said, “We’re moving into a new house, no phone yet, I’ll let you know.”
He never heard from her. Assumed she had lost interest. Hmmmm, perhaps the spark was only imagined.
Then he met another girl, they fell for each other, married, had kids. Many years later his Mum died. He was helping his brother clean out the old family home. They decided to rip up the lino in the front hallway. Under the lino at the front door was the piece of paper on which *she had written her new phone number. She had had to slip it under the door: it had gone under the lino and had stayed there unseen for many years.
Try fitting THAT on a Hallmark card. Bah, humbug!!
Wow, great story. Who knows what might have happened had the phone number made its way into his hands and not stayed unseen under the lino for many years.
Yet for him…. he now was happily married with kids… I felt sorry for the girl, who must also have wondered why he didn’t phone her – was the spark real, or only imagined??
deary-me, life can be a wonderful roller-coaster, oui?
I guess she wondered why for a bit and then moved on. She may still wonder from time to time if he meant that much to her.
Yes, life does have its ups and its downs.
Since we’re doing song lyrics, here’s what that story made me think of.
(c) Christine Lavin (No prizes for guessing what this song is called)
I know a couple; she sits in a rocking chair
Working puzzles; he watches TV upstairs.
She’s got a secret she has never let out;
A man she thinks he never knew about.
She hasn’t seen him in thirty years.
The mention of his name doesn’t bring on tears.
If you ask her, “Are there any regrets?”
She’ll tell you, “No,” but she never forgets.
It was the kind of love you never recover from.
Even though she found another one
To take his place,
She never will escape the truth.
At times like this when the moon is right,
When the air is foggy like it is tonight,
She’ll think about what might have been
If she had just held on to him.
I know a man who has done it all;
He has sailed the oceans; climbed the mountains of Nepal.
He lives high upon the avenue
With a beautiful wife, lovely children, too.
But there’s a woman he still dreams about;
Certain things he has learned to live without.
If you ask him, “Are there any regrets?”
He’ll tell you, “No,” but he never forgets.
It was the kind of love you never recover from.
Even though he found another one
To take her place,
He never will escape the truth.
At times like this when the moon is right,
When the air is foggy like it is tonight,
He’ll think about what might have been
If he had not let her slip away from him.
I read about a woman who said she never regretted anything she’d ever done.
Such arrogant words always seem to be spoken by those who then die young.
So here am I looking at you.
Oh, tell me, what are we gonna do?
Am I destined to be your regret?
Are you that one I’ll never forget?
Years from now, will we curse the day
You let me let you walk away?
Isn’t this too dear a price to pay
For the freedom of going separate ways?
This is the kind of love you never recover from.
Don’t tell me that I’m gonna find another one
To take your place,
I never will escape the truth.
At times like this when the moon is right,
When the air is foggy like it is tonight,
I’ll think how sweet life could be
If you would stay with me, oh stay with me.
This is the kind of love you never recover from.
Don’t tell me that I’m gonna find another one
To take your place,
And try to face the truth.
Let me hold you close tonight.
The fog has lifted, the moon is so bright.
Think how sweet life could be
If you would stay with me, oh, stay with me.
This is the kind of love you never recover from.
This is the kind of love you never recover from
On a far less elevated plane entirely, today is apparently the Official International Kilt Day.
Having recently decided to get all marriaged to my Lil’ Lady, we’re feeling a bit noice this Val’s day. Hallmark can go fuck themselves.
Wond’ring aloud –
how we feel today.
Last night sipped the sunset –
my hands in her hair.
We are our own saviours
as we start both our hearts beating life
into each other.
Wond’ring aloud –
will the years treat us well?
As she floats in the kitchen,
I’m tasting the smell
of toast as the butter runs.
Then she comes, spilling crumbs on the bed
and I shake my head.
And it’s only the giving
that makes you what you are.
Great song, Pavlov’s.
All good wishes to you both, FDB !!!
cheerio
On this special daythis’ll move your heart…or some other organ.
Ze goggles… zey do nussink!
Nabbers baby! What are you doing in the Geordie’s jumper?
BTW I moved the organ…where do you want it?
Some lovely lyrics.Congrat, FDB. PC, you brought tears to my eyes, genuinely. Not being sarcastic.
PC I second Paul Burns, that song brought tears to my eyes too: the decisions we make, the lives those decisions make for us… ah, love’s grand!
PC, that’s a beautiful song. Many blogs ago I insensitively suggested that you “get over” a love that you had the courage to blog about on PC, and ended with much pain for you a couple of decades ago. Sorry. I get it now.
Didn’t see too many people wearing kilts today, but saw lots of people with roses.
Good old Christine Lavin — a much underrated singer-songwriter IMHO. And you have to love a woman whose latest album is called Happydance of the Xenophobe.
EC, I dimly remember the conversation to which you allude, and I think the dude in question was more incidental to it than you thought at the time, hence part of the misunderstanding. But you’re right — there are some carelessly inflicted wounds that leave very ugly scars.
-Dorothy Parker
A Rose by any other Name (Rosa centifolia)?
Hallmark makes a mozza
Out of this Yank holiday
It sells a million sentiments
For which it makes us pay
The growing singles industry
Sets up a great big lie
If you don’t speed date or RSVP
You’ll be all alone till you die
It starts at High School with a rose
And heart-shaped choccies too
Bunches of flowers, lacy stuff
But only for a few
The idea is that those left out
Will feel depressed and sad
So will spend long hours dreaming about
The ideal Valentine’s lad
And every pimply geeky boy
No dashing Prince Charmings here
Becomes the object of great lust
So you’ll not miss out next year
Then as you grow the pressure starts
The media sends you crazy
If you’re not set up by Valentine’s week
It only means you’re lazy
But once you catch the one you love
You can relax at last
All those red roses, lace and stuff
Are banished to the past
You can go out and save the world
Or stay home with the kids
Or curl up with the telly on
Pah!!
You’d not do dating for quids