Category: Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers
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Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — A Retrospective Review
Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — 1985–1997 Year of Release: 1997 Record Label: Columbia Genre: Adult Contemporary, Pop, Soft Rock I’ll admit it freely now: I almost skipped this album. When Billy Joel Greatest Hits: Volume III arrived in 1997, I was deep into my classical music phase, spending what little discretionary money I…
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A Monday Musicale for an August Afternoon
Monday, August 10, 2026 – Orlando, Florida Hi, there. I’m still on a longish break from Professional Daydreaming™. I also don’t have any interesting life updates to share, so how about some music videos instead?
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An Afternoon Musicale for a Hot Summer’s Day in Florida
It’s midafternoon on a torrid Central Florida Tuesday. I don’t have anything particularly noteworthy to share today, so here are a few music videos instead:
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All the Things She Taught Me
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, All the Things You Are, Creative Writing, Elizabeth Joan Owen, Elizabeth Joan Owen (Ms. Owen), Life in Central Florida, Life in Florida, Life in Miami (1972-2016), Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Personal Thoughts, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, South Miami High School in fiction, South Miami Senior High SchoolAll the Things She Taught Me Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Orlando, Florida On this exquisitely hot July afternoon in Central Florida, I find myself thinking about the lasting impact truly great teachers have on our lives—and how even the smallest things can bring their memories back. That feels especially true as we grow older, and…
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An American Musicale
Friday, July 3, 2026 – Orlando, Florida In honor of America’s 250th birthday, I offer this Independence Musicale! American Salute (Gould) Goin’ Home (Largo from Dvorak’s Symphony from the New World Yankee Doodle (Traditional) March from “Midway” (J. Williams) March from “1941” (J. Williams)
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(More) Songs Ms. Owen Taught Me (In Memoriam)
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 – Orlando, Florida “The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and wonderful.” — H.L. Mencken In loving memory of Ms. Elizabeth Joan Owen (September 8, 1929 – December 28, 2025), the…
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Songs Ms. Owen Taught Me (A Sunday Musicale)
Sunday, June 28, 2026, June 28, 2026 – Orlando, Florida In loving memory of Ms. Elizabeth Joan Owen (September 8, 1929 – December 28, 2025) If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying…
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Summer Heat, a Mentor’s Passing, and a Memento Mori
Saturday, June 27, 2026 – Orlando, Florida It is brutally hot outside. According to my Microsoft Weather app, the temperature here in my corner of Orange County is already 91°F (33°C) under partly sunny skies. The humidity is 56%, the wind is barely stirring out of the east-southeast at 4 MPH (7 Km/H), and the…
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A Musicale for a Hot Sunday Afternoon (Summer Solstice Edition)
Sunday, June 21, 2026, Orlando, Florida On this hot and potentially stormy summer afternoon, I don’t have much to write about, so how about a Sunday musicale for the Summer Solstice?
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How Pop Culture and Music Inform the Garratyverse
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in A Bridge Too Far (1977 film), Alex Diaz-Granados, All the Things You Are, All the Things You Are (Kern and Hammerstein), Amazon, Billy Joel, Classical music, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, John Williams (Composer), Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ludwig van Beethoven, Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Movies, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Pop Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Star Wars, Superman: The Movie, The Summer of Two Movies, West Side Story – Original Broadway Cast (1957)How Pop Culture and Music Inform the Garratyverse If you spend enough time inside the Garratyverse, you eventually notice something: Jim Garraty’s world doesn’t just contain pop culture and music—it breathes through them. Songs, films, TV shows, and the cultural noise of their eras aren’t background decoration. They’re emotional weather systems. They shape memory, mood,…
A Certain Point of View, Too 