Our neighbors across the street are serious about Halloween. They’re pulling all the boxes out into the yard and installing the inflatables, the lights, and – my personal favorite – the cauldron that blows smoke-filled bubbles.
Meanwhile, Maile and Anais have been working on our display: a Grease-themed pair of skeletons named Bone Travolta and Tibia Newton-John. Around them will be a bunch of tombstones reading things like “R.I.P Sandra Dee” and “You’re the One That I Haunt” (a play on the song “You’re the One That I Want”). We’re putting the finishing touches on our costumes and still need to carve the pumpkins.
But I did find time to write a short Halloween song. Here it is.
Whatcha Gonna Be For Halloween?
Glowing from bushes across the street
A pair of red eyes starin’ out at me
An alien spacecraft hovers by the house
and it’s pickin’ up a cow in its tractor-beam
Two skeletons are standing on the lawn
Bone Travolta and Tibia Newton-John
On a tombstone at their feet
It reads, “You’re the one that I haunt”
Whatcha gonna be? Whatcha gonna be?
Gotta dress up if you wanna get the candy
Whatcha gonna be? Make it really scary
Just a few days ’til Halloween
I was gonna be a robot but now I’m thinkin’
I’m gonna be a Zombie Abraham Lincoln
I got the right hat but I need the jacket
Gotta hit the Goodwill to see if I can snag it
We still gotta spray paint another tombstone
We got three pumpkins that we still need to carve
Don’t forget to get a big bag of candy
And put up the lights to decorate the yard
Whatcha gonna be? Whatcha gonna be?
Gotta dress up if you wanna get the candy
Whatcha gonna be? Make it really scary
Just a few days ’til Halloween
Whatcha gonna be? Whatcha gonna be?
Gotta dress up if you wanna get the candy
Whatcha gonna be? Make it really scary
Just a few days ’til Halloween
Just a few days ’til Halloween
My daughter just graduated from middle school. Congratulations, Anais! Congratulations to all the students and families who made it through another school year together.
One of the highlights of middle school for me happened last summer when Anais asked about playing the guitar. We learned to play more than a dozen Taylor Swift songs together. I taught her the chords, and she taught me the intricacies of the song and the Swiftie universe.
I grew in appreciation of Anais, and Taylor. When we all went to see The Eras Tour movie in October, I was able to sing along to a few of the songs and hang with the Swifties for a second.
As we approached the end of this school year, Maile gave me my favorite type of assignment: write a song for the occasion. (She and Anais had written and performed a customized version of Swift’s Cornelia Streetabout my history for my last birthday.) I knew immediately what to do: Write my own version of Taylor’s Lavender Haze about middle school. Middle School Haze!
I’ve always liked the feel of the song, so I tried to capture my nostalgia for the middle school days that had just slipped away in a blur. I updated Taylor’s chorus to “I just wanna stay in that lavender hazemiddle school haze.”
For the verses, I searched my memory of all the conversations at the end of the school day. I had learned along the way that questions about teachers, classes and subjects would only get me so far into the heart of the experience.
What happened on the bus, at lunch, or after school at a sleepover was closer to the core. So here is my tribute to Anais and her friends, to middle school, and to Taylor Swift, who are all bound together in my hazy memory.
After recording the version above with loops of vocals, percussion and ambient sounds, I stripped it down to just me and guitar and moved the capo up a step. Which do you prefer?
Middle School Haze
Meet me at 8 AM
Walkin’ to the bus with you
Oh, you don’t ever say too much
Unless you’re tryin to guess who
Might be my new crush
Do we have a quiz in History?
Algebra is killing me
STEM will be the end of me
I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze
All they keep askin’ me
Is if I’m gonna spill the tea
The only kind of girl they see
Is a gossip or a drama queen
Who is gonna sit with me?
Share their food and bitch with me?
You better never snitch on me!
I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze
Those neighborhood days
Talkin’ on the bus and textin’ later
Who can host a sleepover?
Bring some gummy worms
We’ll watch some horror films
Talkin’ on the bus and textin later
How can we get a get-together?
Bring your bathing suit
Girl, we’re all looking cute!
I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze
Here in Austin – in the path of totality – it was a big thing for some people. Folks from all over have been arriving for days. Unfortunately, it’s a cloudy day here.
But we caught a few glimpses of the eclipse, and the crowds here on UT’s campus roared each time a window through the clouds passed above us, revealing a bright crescent for a few moments.
Regardless of how much eclipse fever you have, I offer this humble hymn to our cosmos as a lullaby of wonder and a prayer for protection. I hope this helps you feel held in our Milky Way’s starry arms tonight.
For Valentine’s Day, I recorded a song I recently wrote to tell the story of how I met my wife, Maile.
As part of a song game, I was given the title That’s When It All Changed. I immediately knew what changed my life and the story I wanted to tell: How I met Maile at the grocery store, how we started going out, and how, years later, I proposed there in the store.
That’s When It All Changed
On a day in the Summer in 1998
I went to get some groceries guided by the hands of fate
and I got in your line ’cause you were looking so fine
started a conversation, got your name and told mine
I’d think about you all week, find excuses to go to the store
I’d make sure we got to speak, told you I wanted more
Asked you out, but you had a boyfriend,
you wouldn’t get a beer so I asked you again
What about lunch? You finally said Yes, that’s the first moment I’ll never forget
‘Cause that’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
That’s when we caught flame
When I met you our love was new
We had a picnic by the pond and I walked you back to class
I remember when we parted thinking this could really last
Then we hung out at my place, took a walk around lake at night
Got coffee at Magnolia Cafe and everything was going right
Went to see a dollar movie, kissing in the parking lot
The power of those kisses is something I never forgot because
That’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
As if it were pre-arranged
When I met you and our love was new
All the girls before when I just wan’t ready
All of the games I didn’t know how to play
All of the sudden everything is poetry
Only together could find our way
On a day in the Summer of 2003,
shortly after you got back from teaching overseas
We went to get some groceries at the HEB of Destiny
I knelt at the gumball machine and asked you to marry me
The magic was still working, you immediately said Yes
That’s another moment that I’ll never forget
Cause that’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
The day we got engaged
Committed to each other as partners and lovers
That’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
Got it all ordained
Goes to show you never know what you might pick up at the store
Maile and Anais gave me this incredible tribute song for my 51st birthday and blew me away with the care and tenderness of their song. It’s a personalized history of my life to the tune of Taylor Swift’s “Cornelia Street” which is a favorite of ours.
Anais and I learned to play it on guitar together and she played it in the recording below while they both sang it for me in my studio. Thank you both for this beautiful gift!!!
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Sunset Lane (Cornelia Street For Dad’s BDay 2023)
by Maile and Anais Molin (to the tune of Cornelia Street by Taylor Swift)
He was born in Arlington, Virginia, in the year of ’72
Tiny little clenched Fists,
Cute Face
Your mom and dad truly loved you
Going to Mrs Elwel’s, curly hair
Then Al Seeber comes along
Away for the weekend, flooding the
basement while you were gone
And we hope we never lose you, hope it never ends
We’d never lose the Flippy Flyer again
That’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend
We’d never lose the Flippy Flyer again
And baby, I get mystified by all the pretty songs you write
And baby, I’m so goddamn glad that I’ve got you in my life
We’d never lose the Flippy Flyer again
We’d never lose the Flippy Flyer again
Working in the bike shop, The
Great Molinis doing tricks on the weekend Busking in the village, talkin ’bout philosophy with Manfred Moving down to Texas in KK’S House
Buying his own on Sunset Lane
Making Friends with Doug and Americo
Workin the band right into place
Going to class on your bike
Dye your hair blonde, writing songs for an open mic
And we hope we never lose you, hope it never ends
We’d never go to Tarka ever again
That’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend
We’d never go to Tarka ever again
And baby, I get mystified by all the pretty songs you write And baby, I’m so goddamn glad that I have got you in my life We’d never go to Tarka ever again
We’d never go to Tarka ever again
98, HEB
Meet the checkout girl in her lane On one knee with a ring
From a toy machine
Tiny new beginnings
Crawling in the kitchen Kicking, laughing, spinning, singing And we hope we never lose you
We’d never do the Crabula again
Oh, never again
And baby, I’m so mystified by all the pretty songs you write
And baby, I’m so goddamn, glad that I’ve got you in my life
We’d never do the Crabula again
We’d never do the Crabula again never ends
We don’t wanna lose you, hope we you went
We don’t wanna lose you, yeah
We love you so much Hope you have a happy 51st birthday!
