While at the "ancestral" home on Thursday, which is the home of my deceased grandparents inherited by my aunt, after the Thanksgiving meal I overheard one of my all time favorite old songs playing on the television. I was in my aunt's room on my laptop, so I didn't see the singer of the song. The song is Our Love Is Here to Stay by George and Ira Gerswhin (1938). It was a very popular song and jazz standard which has been rendered by such singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Nate King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Diana Ross. Played sometimes with a big band sound, I get goose bumps whenever I hear it and have visions of 1940s style lovers. I cannot vouch for the younger generation in other countries, but rarely are genuine love songs produced in America anymore. Sex, not love and Romance sells sadly enough. At 45 I feel a little pre-historic sometimes in my outlook about Romance. Oh, well!
They don't make 'em like they used to. Here are the lyrics to Our Love Is Here to Stay, and also here is the song being sung by Lea Salonga.
It's very clear
Our love is here to stay
Not for a year ;
But ever and a day.
The radio and the telephone
And the movies that we know
May just be passing fancies,
And in time may go !
But, oh my dear,
Our love is here to stay.
Together we're
Going a long, long way.
In time the Rockies may crumble,
Gibralter may tumble,
They're only made of clay,
But our love is here to stay.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
In the Beginning There Was Romance
In the beginning there was Romance.... Well, not really, but God did create man and woman and from them came the idea of romance. What is Romance? Is Romance a rose, a poem, a work of art, a look, a touch, a kiss, a beautiful garment and how it is draped, an attitude, a way of perceiving the world, a fairy tale? Does Romance exist today in what is a very unromantic and cynical world? Is Romance still possible? Is Romance an anachronism, so therefore very dated? I hope to answer all of the above questions here and more.
I would define myself as a romantic. I relate more to the world previous to World War I better than I do to the present. I have long been a lover of history. When I was in elementary school and the teacher would take us to the weekly excursion to the school library, I would always approach the librarian with the request, "Do you have any more fairy tale books I can check out?"
I love the romantic ways of some of the people of history. There was the period of courtly love in the Middle Ages. There were many great and romantic figures bred especially in the middle 18th to early 19th centuries in Europe which influenced so much of western civilization through their artistry and lives, people like Lord Byron, Napoleon and his empress Josephine, and Jane Austen among others. I admire all of these because they epitomized in their own way the ideas of romanticism and romance. Along with love, conservation, and preservation this post modern age also is dying for romance, but the inhabitants of this age know it? Of course some people have a caveman and woman mentality and aren't interested.
This blog is going to be about romance not only in the past, but how to recapture romance and beauty in this time period. People have to be taught and exposed to romance in all its' forms. We learn romance by instinct like a bird learns to fly or a baby sea turtle knows within itself to head for the sea once it is hatched.
When I write about romance here, I will not only talk about romantic love, but also romance which encompasses a way of carrying oneself and viewing the world. Romance is the ultimate form of class. So lets begin exploring and learning about the concept of romance.
I would define myself as a romantic. I relate more to the world previous to World War I better than I do to the present. I have long been a lover of history. When I was in elementary school and the teacher would take us to the weekly excursion to the school library, I would always approach the librarian with the request, "Do you have any more fairy tale books I can check out?"
I love the romantic ways of some of the people of history. There was the period of courtly love in the Middle Ages. There were many great and romantic figures bred especially in the middle 18th to early 19th centuries in Europe which influenced so much of western civilization through their artistry and lives, people like Lord Byron, Napoleon and his empress Josephine, and Jane Austen among others. I admire all of these because they epitomized in their own way the ideas of romanticism and romance. Along with love, conservation, and preservation this post modern age also is dying for romance, but the inhabitants of this age know it? Of course some people have a caveman and woman mentality and aren't interested.
This blog is going to be about romance not only in the past, but how to recapture romance and beauty in this time period. People have to be taught and exposed to romance in all its' forms. We learn romance by instinct like a bird learns to fly or a baby sea turtle knows within itself to head for the sea once it is hatched.
When I write about romance here, I will not only talk about romantic love, but also romance which encompasses a way of carrying oneself and viewing the world. Romance is the ultimate form of class. So lets begin exploring and learning about the concept of romance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
