Tommi Tikka
Rebecca’s Curse – DD Allen
27 August 2019
My father once told me to be wary of women. I laughed at him. I remember the day well. We were in his car, eating sandwiches, I was nineteen and helping him out at work. He wanted to show me the ropes of being an entrepreneur. Hence, we hung out together every day for a month. I learned the ropes of being an entrepreneur but didn’t understand a fig about what he was trying to explain about women. I wish I had listened to him more closely…
Sailing – Rod Stewart
17 June 2019
Dear Dad,
You passed away yesterday, on June 16 and left a void that cannot be filled in the hearts of the people you loved. Anyone who knew you will know exactly how incredibly huge this void is for my mom, brother and me. You were everything to us. I know anything I ever did was done to make you proud of me, proud of the fact that I was your son…
Meet Me in Stockholm – Sir Douglas Quintet
12 June 2019
A friend from Detroit wanted to experience Finland and traveled here to visit my ex-wife and I in 1993. We showed her around Helsinki, hitting all the hot sights, mandatory restaurants and clubs. We even took a ferry to Stockholm, Sweden, so she could discover another stunningly beautiful Scandinavian capital…
If I Can Dream – Elvis Presley
5 June 2019
I’m never going to sing another song I don’t believe in. I’m never going to make another picture I don’t believe in.
– Elvis Presley after hearing ”If I Can Dream” for the first time.
Speaking of first times, I remember the first time I saw Elvis on TV. This was in the early 1980s. I must have been no more than ten. It was the day before Christmas and there was a rerun of the King’s ’68 Comeback Special on NBC…
Let Your Love Flow – Bellamy Brothers
28 May 2019
Okay, so I have a question for you: Do you enjoy the first signs of spring, when the nature wakes up, flowers and trees blossom and people around you start showing symptoms of spring fever?
I for one love it…
Fab Four And The Russian Pirates Of Sound
18 May 2019
Did you ever visit St. Petersburg in the early nineties?
If you did, my next question to you is: How many pirate CDs/DVDs did you bring home with you?
Quite a few, no doubt. A box set of the sitcom Friends perhaps? Or Sting’s entire catalog? Or maybe you just bought a few famous CDs like The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd and Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen…
And The Cradle Will Rock – Van Halen
16 May 2019
When Van Halen came on the scene, they blew people’s minds. It was the type of music that hadn’t been heard before. I remember my parent’s feeling a bit iffy about the band. My dad especially was concerned when I had the MTV on and was watching the long-haired lead singer jumping around in tights…
Melancholia – The Who
8 May 2019
The world is filled with webpages that’ll teach you how to be happy. Presumably that’s what people want, constant happiness. Lo and behold if you have a negative or deep thought. This has become a crime almost, especially in social media. Our lives must be incredibly cool and blissful all the time…
Lone Bulb – Crooked Cat Adams
24 April 2019
I have a confession to make. Kate Chopin is one of my favorite authors. I remember the first time I read her most critically-acclaimed novel The Awakening. I’m not a feminist and obviously, not a woman but I nevertheless found the novel touching. For those of you haven’t read it, it’s a story about rebelling against the expectations that society places on us…
Hurt – Johnny Cash
17 April 2019
I remember being in my twenties and not really understanding why people get burned out. It was hard to grasp. I was young, happily married at the time, had no kids and in retrospect, not that many responsibilities. I led the kind of life that would make a great holiday resort for someone needing to recover from a rocky patch. Of course, when you are knee-deep in the Garden of Eden, you rarely realize that this is the case…
Can’t Kick The Habit – Spin Doctors
2 April 2019
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.
– Henry Ford
And yet that’s what most of us do. It’s actually rather crazy. We just keep going. I for one seem to have a master’s degree in that. It doesn’t matter if what I’m doing or who I am with isn’t good for me, I’ll see it through to the bitter end. I call it quits, all torn and broken, only after all other alternatives have been exhausted…
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
26 March 2019
I’m writing this on a plane, flying back home from California. As my fifteen-year old son would put it, it’s a long-ass flight, close to eleven hours, and I’m only three hours into it. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I have plenty of time to write my upcoming post for Celebrate Life. And yeah, you guessed it right, this one is inspired by my trip, during which I drove about 2000 miles – a hell of a long way, at least by my standards…