what's bad is corny

is what sir butch told me one time. kakatawa. true e. the worst thing anyone could ever say about your work is that it's corny. so much less of a worry when people don't understand your works right away, or even when they contest certain turns of phrases here and there, complain about the lack or profusion of complex expressions of thought. as long as they don't call it corny, then there's still reason to plod on. this thought crossed my mind again last night at kublai's, while we were talking about MG's latest works, which are never corny. difficult, yes. opaque, sometimes. dangerous, often. interesting and playful, always.

corny is bad. what's bad is corny. thank goodness, i've never heard this said of my own efforts. perhaps it's been said, i just never heard it. no matter. they've been called many other things. some potentially hurtful, mostly harmless.

my real life though thrives in the corny and the camp. my family is corny. my parents have a theme song. we have a family theme song. we put on musical productions, video presentations. and i love it that we are corny that way. i used to be embarrassed about it, until i realized that the excessive corniness in real life is actually wonderful. they have a way of marking events, occasions, moments that memory would otherwise have a difficulty grasping. corny is deadly only on the page. otherwise, it aids in making memory come alive, especially when there is a lack of shameless laughter, or crying; when everyone's always trying to be cool about things. i love the real, the lived, so much more than the written now. so i'm fine with corny already.

here are the lyrics to some of those songs we have claimed as our own. (all of them were popularized by frank sinatra. now i know. obviously, my father's to blame.)

"Day by Day"
(Stordahl/Weston/Cahn)

Day by day Im falling more in love with you
And day by day my love seems to grow
There isnt any end to my devotion
Its deeper dear by far than any ocean

I find that day by day youre making all my dreams come true
And (so) come what may I want you to know
Im (that I am) yours alone, and Im in love (in love) to stay
As we go through the years day by day

(I said, day by day)
(as we go through the years day by day)


"The Best Things In Life Are Free"
Georger Olsen

(Charted in 1927 by George Olsen at #3 and by Frank Black at #16
Charted in 1948 by Dinah Shore at #18 and by Jo Stafford at #21
Also charted as a duet by Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson in 1992 at #10
Words and Music by B.G.DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson)

The moon belongs to ev'ryone
The best things in life are free
The stars belong to ev'ryone
They gleam there for you and me

The flowers in spring
The robins that sing
The sunbeams that shine
They're yours, they're mine

And love can come to ev'ryone
The best things in life are free


"Here's that rainy day"

I should have saved
Those leftover dreams
Funny
But here's that rainy day
Here's that rainy day
They told me about
And I laughed at the thought
That it might turn out this way
Where is that worn out wish
That I threw aside
After it brought my love so near
Funny how love becomes
A cold rainy day
Funny
That rainy day is here
It's funny
How love becomes
A cold rainy day
Funny
That rainy day is here