Adventures In Synchronized Dancing

Last night Suzanne and I ventured to The Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, for a performance of AIN’T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS. It’s a Broadway musical not BY the Motown group, but ABOUT the group. If you’re too old to remember The Temptations, or if you’re too young to have a clue about the group, do yourself a favor and visit YouTube to watch a video or two of their classy synchronized dance moves which accompanied their complex vocals. The Temptations’ choreography was somehow simple but extravagant at the same time. The group’s tight moves were sweetly innocent, while simultaneously being slickly seductive. Their smooth moves were the equivalent of crushed velvet. The performances in this particular production at The Eccles stood up well to what can be seen in existing footage of the real shows. There are also the iconic songs themselves, like “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” and “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.” As always, my fave Temptations songs are the most desolate, bleakest songs in their catalog—like one of their lesser known hits, “I Wish It Would Rain.”

I used the night out as a chance to finally wear my silver floppy Bow Tie ‘o the Day for the first time. I won’t mention my lapel pin, although I stand by its sentiment.😏 I even wore a new jacket to last night’s show. Suzanne didn’t seem to like it though. It is cut differently than any other jacket in my closet, and the fabric’s brown plaid pattern is more traditional than what I usually cover myself with. After Suzanne first observed me in my jacket, all she kept saying was, “It’s not like what you wear. It’s not like what you wear.”—over and over again. It was as if the very sight of me in my differently-fangled jacket had stunned Suzanne into a mystical fog of confusion and repetition. Personally, my new jacket looks kind of Sherlock Holmes-y to me. Very Heathcliff-esque, if you know what I mean. I wore a splashy golf cap to balance things out.🕵️‍♀️🔍

Ever Wake Up Grouchy, For No Apparent Reason?

I woke up in a foul mood this morning. I don’t know why. Nothing’s wrong. I’m simply in a grouchy, prickly mood. It’s a good thing there’s nowhere I’m scheduled to be today, so I can busy myself at home—where I can freely be grouchy and grumpy and quick to ignite at myself. I am not a believer in pretending to feel any other way than how I feel, even if it’s not the best feeling. I believe it’s mentally healthy to let yourself feel a not-so-good feeling, sit with it for a while, work through it, and then kick it the heck out of your orbit and move on. So, this morning, TIE O’ THE DAY offers up a cornucopia of funny-true, serious-true memes for your brain—and mine—to consume. If all goes as it usually does when I wake up grouchy, the grouchiness will dissipate in a few hours, and I can write an original tie-bearing post this afternoon. Meanwhile, chew on these memes. There is something for everyone.