Week Thirty-Five: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "Dreaming" - The Best of OMD

I bet most of you automatically assumed that I was going to end this week with OMD's hit, "If You Leave" - (I'll include a movie montage video for it under the lyrics for good measure) - but what else is there to say about that song that hasn't already been said? I'll agree that it helped to make the epic ending to the phenomenal film, Pretty in Pink, but I always secretly wanted Andie to end up with Duckie, not with Blaine!!!

**UPDATE** 2/9/2013 --- Look what I found when I was supposed to be researching case law on the theory of escheating property back to the State:

Blaine did get the girl in the end, but that's not what filmmakers initially planned. Andie's best buddy Duckie, played by Jon Cryer, won her heart in the first version of "Pink," but that ending failed to impress test audiences. "I was disappointed,” Cryer told Entertainment Weekly back in 2006. ”You sorta go, ‘Oh, guess I’m not the leading man." As for McCarthy, he had to put on a "bad wig" to re-shoot the ending with Ringwald because he had shaved his head for a New York play. "If they knew we'd still be talking about it 25 years later, they would have paid for a better wig," he told Access Hollywood in October.

Even though it didn't end that way, it still makes me feel better to know that this ending was once in existence!!!

I was not aware of this, but I read on wikipedia that "Dreaming" was the last single that the band released before they split up; however, one of the members did continue on using the OMD name for later releases. I can't remember if it was at Retrocadia or at Red Square Retro, probably the latter, but one of the dj's had an amazing mash-up of OMD tunes with both "Dreaming" & "If You Leave" included... I looked for something similar to it on youtube, but I sadly could not find anything.

Well, that's it for this week. Don't forget that I won't be posting again until Monday, January 7th! And may all of your "Dreaming" come true in 2013!!!  ;-D

But before I go, I have another picture to share with you... I had an opportunity to make it out to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park last night, and the whole setting was very dream-like. Here's a picture of my favorite scene from the festival... it just reminded me of the vivid dreams I used to have as a little girl before my brain became cluttered with so many adult issues and quandaries...

If you were born in heaven girl

I'd understand so well

But ever since I met you child

You've made my life such hell

With every day that passes

I fall nearer to the ground

It seems that I've been looking for 

Something that won't be found

I was only dreaming
I was only trying to catch your eye

I was only wishing you would notice me

Instead you said goodbye

Could this be the new answer then
To all the dreams we've made

Could there be some solution please

To rid me of this craze

But every single second that you

Held me in your arms

You build me up you raise me up

You kill me with your charms

I was only dreaming
I was only trying to catch your eye

I was only wishing you would notice me

Instead you said goodbye

Won't you stay here tonight?
Won't you make these feelings last?

Can't we start this all again?

Would that be just too much to ask?

I was only dreaming
I was only trying to catch your eye

I was only wishing you would notice me

Instead you said goodbye

I was only dreaming
I was only trying to catch your eye

I was only wishing you would notice me

Instead you said goodbye

Week Thirty-Five: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "So in Love" - The Best of OMD

This song reminds me of every schoolgirl crush I ever had. When I was younger, I would fall in love so easily. I had a new crush or a different love interest almost weekly!!! 

I would constantly be consulting my Magic 8 Ball about my new crush/love interest's feelings towards me - (Nevermind actually going up and asking him, right? Oh heavens, no, that would have been way too embarrassing!!!) And wait, why in the world did my parents even let me own a Magic 8 Ball??? We were Catholic --- shouldn't I have been praying about it to some Patron Saint of Young Girls With All-Consuming Crushes or something of that nature, instead of consulting pagan oracles?!?!?! 

And I just returned from seeing The Perks of Being a Wallflower for the second time - it's at the dollar theater now, so you have no excuse not to see it if you haven't already - and I noticed that Charlie had a Magic 8 Ball sitting next to his bed --- must be a crazy person thing!!! :-D

I would also read all the Teen magazine articles about what a guy's actions "really meant", and I would take every quiz to find out who was my "perfect guy" or what was my "perfect date".

It turns out that all that Magic 8 Ball consulting and girly magazine reading taught me precious little because I have been so unlucky in love. However, I would like to consider myself to be a bit more wise these days when selecting love interests... but this song still puts a smile on my face when I think about all those silly boys upon whom I spent countless hours doting!!!

Talk to me, don’t lie to me 

Save your breath

Don’t look at me, don’t smile at me

Just close your eyes

I was so impressed by you

I was running blind

I would fall for every trick

Every twist of mind

Heaven is cold

Without any soul

It’s hard to believe

I was so in love with you

Don’t say your prayers, don’t build your hopes

Just walk away

Don’t phone me up, don’t call around

Don’t waste your time

You were so in awe of me

You were so divine

You would do just anything

To still be mine

Heaven is cold

Without any soul

It’s hard to believe

I was so in love with you

All the things you said to me

I was so obsessed

You were always talking talking

God I did my best

Heaven is cold

Without any soul

It’s hard to believe

I was so in love with you

Week Thirty-Five: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "Forever (Live and Die)" - The Best of OMD

Happy New Year!!!

The New Year always puts me in such a reflective mood... I was just thinking about how even though my family has experienced a great deal of loss over the past year, with the deaths of my last two remaining grandparents, this year, we will be celebrating the birth of my younger sister's baby in April. I will become a first-time auntie, and I could not be more excited! Not that I even need a reason to go to places like Chuck E. Cheese's and Disney World (fyi - there will be matching Mickey Mouse ears involved in this excursion), but now I will have a completely valid reason to go to such locations.

She's naming the baby Carter, and I warned her that there was a 90's British band called Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - (I'll post one of their songs below the lyrics); so I told her not to be surprised if her baby turns out to be a nympho. She assured me that her baby is never having sex. Poor girl is totally delusional... I'm guessing that is what pregnancy hormones do to you!!! Speaking of pregnancy, I saw one of those e-cards the other day that made me laugh a bit; it said: "Everyone I know keeps getting married or pregnant. I just keep getting more awesome!" :-D

Anyway, this is another sweet, little OMD tune, and it was just a gentle reminder to me that, from the beginning of time and up until the end of time, people are forever living and dying...

I never wanted another

Come over to me and discover

I want to be near you

And you need to be far away

You always seem to make me feel at home

Hey

People I know

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

You make me wanna cry

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

Forever live and die

I look at all of the people

Doing it over and over

You never get any older

I wish that you could be near

I look at you and I

Make the same mistakes

Hey

People I know

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

You make me wanna cry

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

Forever Live and Die

(Instrumental)

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

You make me wanna cry

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

Forever Live and Die

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

You make me wanna cry

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

Forever Live and Die

I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why

You make me wanna cry

And here's Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - also known as Carter USM - with "The Only Living Boy in New Cross"...