Modern Day Romeo and Juliet

Alright! I couldn't resist this one:


Dire Straits Live with a very nice opening Saxaphone solo.


Check it out!

I've always liked this cut. In particular, the catchy tune, the guitar chords, and the passionate lyrics. Some of the lines are sappy but they are contrasted with some of the deepest and most romantic prose ever.

Here are the Lyrics:

"Romeo And Juliet"

[Dire Straits cover]

A lovestruck Romeo, sings the streets of serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Find a streetlight, steps out of the shadeSays something like,

"You and me, babe, how about it?"

Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack

"He's underneath the window, she's singing Hey, la, my boyfriend's back"

You shouldn't come around here, singing up at people like that

Anyway what you gonna do about it?

Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start

And I bet and you exploded in my heart And I forget, I forget the movie song

When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame

Both dirty, both mean, yes and the dream was just the same

And I dream your dream for you and now your dream is real

How can you look at me, as if I was just another one of your deals?

Well, you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold

You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold

You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin

Now you just say, "Oh, Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him"

Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry

You said, "I love you like the stars above,

"I love you till I die"There's a place for us, you know the movie song

When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

I can't do the talk like the talk on the TV

And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be

I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you

Can't do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be

All I do is keep the beat, the bad company

And all I do is kiss you, through the bars of a Orion

Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time

Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry

You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"

There's a place for us, you know the movie song

When you gonna realize, it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

A lovestruck Romeo, he sings the streets of serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Find a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade

He says something like, "You and me, babe, how about it?"

Anyone know what's really going on here? I'd love to hear your intreptations of the lyrics....

What's in a Name?

Romeo and Juliet.


Juliet:"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet."


This book remains one of my favorite memories from High School. And that quote remains one of the few that I still remember and understand. Let's not discuss it took me three reads and some extra instruction to fully understand most of the book. Fortunately, I was able to locate one of those books with the text on one side and the translation on the other side. Did that Shakespeare cat really speak English? I'm not so sure. Well, at the end of the day it was the movie: Romeo and Juliet (the 1968 version) starring Olivia Hussey, that finally put it in perspective for me. And I mean total Technicolor! We took a field trip to the theater to watch the movie. What a treat! For a teen aged boy with raging hormones, Olivia Hussey was more than an eye full. And I was a captive, or should I say captivated, audience. She totally wooed me into submission as I watched the tragedy unfold. Completely knowing and understanding the ending, I still found it difficult to hold back my emotion as the two lovers met their tragic end.



Today, my vision of Juliet has been smeared. I learned that her (Actually, Shakespeare's) immortal words are false: A rose by some other name perhaps would not smell as sweet. Or at least it wouldn't be as smart and could have a lower batting average.


I came across this story today:


Yale University researcher Joseph Simmons and Leif Nelson of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals' initials played a role when looking at their success in baseball or academia, a news release from Psychological Science said Wednesday.
In the duo's first study, they took into account Major League Baseball players' initials and strikeout percentages during the last 93 years.
Since strikeouts are typically recorded with the letter "K," the researchers attempted to discover if those players whose names started with that letter struck out more often.
They determined that those players did, indeed, strike out more often than those whose names began with different letters.
The second study took into account letter grades in academia in relation to students' initials and again a link was found.
By looking at the grade point averages of M.B.A. students from an unidentified university during the last 15 years, they found students with names starting with "C" or "D" typically had lower grade point averages than those whose names began with "A" and B."


So just think.... Now, after all those years my parents harassed me about my GPA, I learn that it's their fault. If they had named me Andrew or Brian, Bruce or Arthur,.... I would have had better grades and perhaps even made it into the Major League.

Is it too late for a name change?