1 Write Way

Not too old for this: Musical Monday #MondayBlogs #HarryNilsson

Over the last few weeks as I debated whether and how to simplify my social media presence, this song kept playing through my mind.  It’s a particularly apt song for when I open my Facebook feed.

Keeping with the spirit and intent of my last blog post and new mantra, “I’m too old for this,” I’ve closed my LinkedIn and Tumblr accounts.  I went to Facebook and “unfollowed” a slew of “friends” whose obsession with memes made me feel like I was going through some kind of Clockwork Orange intervention.  Slowly, I feel sanity creeping back into my online life.

It’s all perspective, and your comments on last week’s post were validating for me.  Thank you again to everyone who commented and shared your own stories.

Now for a change of topic:  this weekend I watched a documentary on Harry Nilsson, singer and songwriter and sad soul.

Although I was familiar with much of his work, I was still amazed by how productive he was.  I hadn’t realized how many of the songs my teenaged self sang along with on the radio were written by him, if not always sung by him.  And what a sad story: at the height of his success, he set himself on a self-destructive path that would ultimately kill him.  It’s so easy to judge but that’s not what I want to do.  Enjoying his legacy is the best way to honor him.

Marie A Bailey

31 responses to “Not too old for this: Musical Monday #MondayBlogs #HarryNilsson”

    • It is strange and even though I “unfollowed” a bunch of people, I get sh*tloads of memes in my newsfeed. They’re easier enough to get through on my 20-inch desktop monitor but it really sucks if I’m using my phone 😉

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        • Oh, indeed, and that is creepy too. One day I was hitting Likes on some memes when a cousin posted a response to one of my Likes to my Timeline. Although her post was seemingly just poking a little fun at what she considered to be my lack of Biblical knowledge (she’s a Fundamentalist and there’s very little we see eye-to-eye on), it totally creeped me out. She posted to MY timeline which everyone can see. She didn’t send me a message or try to refute the reference on her own timeline. I eventually deleted her post, but now I hesitate before hitting Like on some memes.

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          • Because many people don’t realize they’re looking at something you liked. I made that mistake once. A friend commented on an ice cream company’s post and I thought he had posted it himself. This was right at the beginning of Facebook doing this ‘your friend commented/liked this post’ thing. So I cracked a few jokes along with a few other friends. Then my friend pointed out that we were being idiots on somebody else’s post. I had to apologize and admit to not realizing. Totally mortified, but I see people doing it all the time now.

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  6. I👂U. Big time.

    I saw that documentary a while back and loved it. Harry was a dyed in the wool artist, and it took its toll on him, even when he seemed like the happiest guy in the room. One of my favorite songs of the era is “Without You,” which was done originally by Badfinger but for which only Harry could provide the necessary agony in the vocal. He sounds like he literally CAN’T LIVE, if livin’ is without youuuuuuuuu!

    Anyway. Onward with our own little authenticity movement…

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  10. I totally get that about FB friends who love to post a slew of memes. I have only unfollowed a few offenders, but one trick I do use quite a bit to to hide posts from certain pages. Seriously, who in their right mind posts to FB every ten minutes! Yikes.

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    • That’s what I often do as well, just hide the posts. Right now what’s driving me a bit batty is following friends who have Facebook pages that I follow so I might get a string of nested (shared) posts. It just gets to be too much 😉

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  11. Marie, I wonder if I should follow your example, but I’m not sure what I would get rid of. It would be better to have less. Maybe I ought to lose Instagram. I don’t enjoy it as much, and it always feels very limiting. Re Harry Nilsson, he’s one of those talents who have always been “wallpaper” to me. What a shame, huh?!

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    • Hey, Luanne! I closed my Instagram account a couple of days ago. I have a few friends on there, but they post to Facebook as well, so really, what’s the point of having both? Glad to see you back. I hope you enjoyed your vacay 🙂

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