Wednesday 1 April 2020

Positive Songs For Negative Times #7: Sign Of The Times


No April Fool today. We're all April Fools at the moment.

I took Sam up the hill for our still-permitted daily exercise today and came across this sign.

I don't know what to think anymore. You go to the supermarket and have to stand in a line two metres apart from the people around you to get inside. You go out for a walk in the countryside and the police are filming you with drones while locals get uppity if you've driven there. (I didn't drive there, but that's not the point.) You pass other walkers - keeping the required, respectful distance - and very few people smile or say hello anymore. They just glare at you as though you're coming at them with a bag full of anthrax.

Stay indoors. As this gentleman advises in his own colourful way.

But what about our collective mental health if we do stay home, and only stay home, for the next 6 weeks? There are other dangers to this situation, beyond the virus.

I'm lucky. I live in a part of the world where within a ten minute walk I can be out on open moorland. God help anyone who lives in a city flat. Sometimes, as Huey puts it, Bad is Bad...



You want feel good music? Even when he's singing about bad things, Huey manages to make me smile. Here, have another appropriate tune... the one Ray Parker Jr. stole the bassline from... because it's that good!



Speaking of rip offs... here's Weird Al's take on the tune above...

I want a new duck
One with big webbed feet
One that knows how to wash my car
And keep his room real neat
One that won't raid the ice box
One that'll stay in shape
One that's never gonna try to migrate or escape
Or I'll tie him up with duck tape



All of which leads me to this, of course... which I've now lost count of the amount of times I've posted it here, but it never fails to make me grin.



Keep trying to smile... whether you're leaving the house or not.



6 comments:

  1. I see that sign was written by a ruler writer; nuff said.

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  2. Yes, despite the gory nature, I enjoyed that Huey clip (yet again) - He will see you through as CC said.

    Up here we depend on visitors coming in their droves but of course they are being told (in no uncertain terms) to go home. Only one acute hospital (and 4 ICU beds) for an area the size of Belgium though so understandable. I am finding that people are smiling and being nicer when you bump into them though, or maybe it's just that I always make the first move. If you ever see an older person at the front of their house or at their window I always stop to chat, as they must feel really isolated right now.

    An important time for writers I would have thought and even for these web-logs of ours. Not knowing what to think at the moment is exactly where we're all at.

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  3. Love the video you linked to... (I do like a sweary but talented older man!) Don't love that nasty sign, though. It's all about the approach, isn't it?
    I too have been worrying about those living in cramped flats or tower blocks with no outside space or pleasant views. Up until 20 years ago we had only lived in one-bedroom flats and I'm sure we'd have gone out of our minds, so feeling very fortunate in the circumstances right now in so many ways.
    Hold on to the positives.

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  4. Been on a Huey trip recently. Do You Believe In Love is regularly embedding itself on my brain.
    That boy can sing a bit, and the band ain't too shabby either.
    There's a stage show of Back To Th Future, and it was on telly t'other day (Comic Relief?).
    They performed The Power Of Love, and it just made clear how powerful Huey Lewis and The News were.

    ReplyDelete

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