Ned Luce

Folks it is all about the music in your life. Are you listening to the “Bubblegum Pop” of Abba or Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer Richard Wagner? 

Or both. The fact is that there is music of all brands around us, most with a message or purpose of some sort. 

The Port Ludlow Performing Arts, (PLPA), has an educational outreach program supporting activities in the schools of the Olympic Peninsula. This past year they donated $4,500 to the Port Angeles Symphony for their “Adventures in Music” program. 

The program consists of performances via, you guessed it, Zoom, so far including “What is a Woodwind Quintet” and “The String Family.” These performances are designed to increase your and elementary students’ abilities to perceive and comprehend music. This assists the local school districts in meeting Washington state’s Essential Academic Learning Requirement Guidelines. 

Having seen these programs I can assure you that even those who think we are above the elementary school level in music or frankly anything else will be entertained and educated with these 30-minute programs. Just go to the Port Angeles Symphony website and then click the “Education” button to watch the program. You will not only enjoy the presentation/performance but you will get a good look at what the money you pay for your PLPA performance is supporting beyond the performance. 

The music of the 1960s, known to all of us now as “oldies but goodies,” seemed to resonate on so many levels in my life. 

One example for me is the subject of Carol. She was a girl I dated for several months in high school. I went from the adoring lyrics of Neil Sedaka’s “Oh Carol” to working her name into “Kathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers as I changed Kathy to Carol. All that happened after she made it clear we were celebrating Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date.” Not to worry, there was another Carol. 

In the ‘60s we had the notion that we could solve any problem anytime. I was recently reminded of that belief when I saw the reports of the giant cargo ship, the “Ever Given,” stuck in the Suez Canal for six days. 

In the song “I Can’t Get Next to You” by the Temptations in 1968, you hear the group lamenting their inability to get close to the girl of their dreams. By comparison they provide a litany of all the things they can do, one of which is “I can make a ship sail on dry land.” 

Where were the Temptations when we needed them? They could have freed the ship in less than a day. Just sayin’. 

Janis Joplin counted me as one of her friends when she sang that she needed a “Mercedes Benz” because all of her friends drive Porsches. (Porshees?) My new friends Sandra Burkett and Thomas Micka of Port Townsend must also be Janis’ friends given their ride of choice!

In last week’s Leader there was a big article about the return of live music on the streets of Port Townsend with the “Buskers on the Block” program by Port Townsend Main Street. This series is part of the “Love Where you Live” program. 

I am hopeful the tourists already roaming downtown will love where you live enough to leave some of their hard-earned cash here. I suspect the good folks at Port Townsend Main Street share that hope.  

As someone said, the only truth is music. Paul Anka in 1958 may have sung it best for me when BJ is around as he croons “All of a Sudden My Heart Sings,” even with all of the scars left by Carol! Heck my father said BJ was the best girl he had ever seen me with, “Skinny Legs and All,” (by Joe Tex, 1967). Or did he say that is the best girl you will ever get?

Love a curmudgeon, keep singing and wearing that mask and have a great week. 

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow resident who, prior to this column, had supposedly given up “Carolling.” Reach Ned at ned@ptleader.com.)