A song for all you cheating husbands out there …

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“Toledo” by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach.

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach teamed up for the great album “Painted From Memory” in 1998.  The record is arguably the greatest of Costello’s collaboration albums. The album is loaded with songs of bittersweet memories, sorrowful memories, love gone lost, emotional pain, and hopeful wishes of new love. There would be so many great songs to share and discuss with you otherwise. I could not find the studio version of “Toledo” on YouTube. Instead I will share this live performance.  The lyrics are slightly different in the live recording, so I have provided the original lyrics at the end of the post. There are a lot of interesting, but painful moments to discuss. I will have to interpret, and perhaps extrapolate a little on the meaning of the lines.

This is the story as I see it:

A man had once cheated on his wife when he was on a business trip to Toledo, Ohio.  They are back together, and even though his wife has forgiven him (to some extent), the affair is always in the back of their minds. His travels take him to Toledo (not Spain) again. Imagine when he phones home and tells her that he is staying overnight in Toledo. Even if she trusts him now, there would always be that little piece of doubt in her mind.  The damage had been done.

“But if I call, I know I won’t have to say it
You’ll hear my voice – something is bound to betray it”

Lesson #1 / Men: Do not cheat. Even if you are forgiven, you will never get the trust 100% back.

Another line says “… and that girl really didn’t mean a thing to me …”.

Lesson #2 / Men: Do not cheat. Men always say that – but that actually makes it WORSE! It would be one thing to actually fall in love with someone else and have an affair, it is another thing to be promiscuous for its own sake. It means that the cheater is not romantic – he is an asshole.  At least he is now. 

I think that it is a very strong song. You can feel the pain in the lyrics. Pain that was self-inflicted. He hurt his wife, he hurt himself. He is still haunted by the fight they had the first time: You hear her voice – “How could you do that?”

Other lyrical imagery describe of how he walks around outside, and all the young people, and young lovers are happy.  “How can they be like this?”, he thinks. Don’t they understand what I have lost?!?!?  Of course, it is an irrational thought, but I think that it underscores that all is not right with the world once his vows were broken. The lyrics demonstrate that the guilt may be all-consuming.

Lesson #3 / Men: Do not cheat. Try to learn from this fool. 

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There is one other item I have never heard discussed about this song. Why did Costello choose “Toledo, Ohio” as the place where the protagonist fell? If you are a Costell fan, you know all about his famous drunken incident in Toledo. Costello and his bandmates had a fight with an American band staying at the same hotel. Costello said something outrageous.  I won’t repeat what he said here. The quip was picked up by the American press, and it haunted him for years. There is no doubt, it affected his lack of commercial success in America for so long.  

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“Toledo”

All through the night you telephoned
I saw the light blinking red
Beside the cradle
But you don’t know how far I’ve gone
Now I must live with the lie
That I made

But if I call, I know I won’t have to say it
You’ll hear my voice – something is bound to betray it
But do people living in Toledo
Know that their name hasn’t travelled very well?
And does anybody in Ohio
Dream of that Spanish citadel?
But it’s no use saying that I love you
And how that girl really didn’t mean a thing to me
For if anyone should look into your eyes
It’s not forgiveness that they’re gonna see

You hear her voice – “How could you do that?”
You hear her voice – “How could you do that?”

So I walked outside in the bright
Sunshine and lovers pass by
Smiling and joking
But they don’t know the fool I was
Why should they care what was lost
What was broken?

But if I call, I know I won’t have to say it
You’ll hear my voice – something is bound to betray it
But do people living in Toledo
Know that their name hasn’t travelled very well?
And does anybody in Ohio
Dream of that Spanish citadel?
But it’s no use saying that I love you
And how that girl really didn’t mean a thing to me
For if anyone should look into your eyes
It’s not forgiveness that they’re gonna see

But do people living in Toledo
Know that their name hasn’t travelled very well?
And does anybody in Ohio
Dream of that Spanish citadel?
But we still have Florence, Alabama
We don’t have Paris, and we don’t have Rome.

Starlight: I bought the record the week it was released. I was still a Costello fan back then.

Pokémon Nicknames: Tentacool and Tentacruel

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Today we will consider the two Jellyfish Pokémon.

Tentacool (in Japanese: メノクラゲ “Menokurage”) is a WATER-POISON dual type Pokémon.  It evolves into Tentacruel starting at level 30.

Tentacruel (in Japanese: ドククラゲ “Dokukurage” ) is also a dual-type WATER-POISON Pokémon.  They can be either male, or female, but I can see no difference in appearance.

I nicknamed a Tentacool “Joe Cool” after the dress-up outfit sometimes worn by the Peanuts comic strip character Snoopy.

You could name this jellyfish Pokémon “K-Y” but maybe that is just being too weird …

Tentacool has cool tentacles.  My idiot ex-brother-in-law once said they were “testicles”, but he was a stupid jackass … and I digress.

Tentacruel will use its tentacles and be cruel to you. … as “the Jesus of Cool” … Nick Lowe would attest: “You have to be cruel to be kind”.

I named one “NICK LOWE”, and  another “Cruel2BKind”.

I think that Man-O-War after the Portuguese Man-Of-War battleship, and the jellyfish named after it.

In general, I have fewer Female Tentacruel nicknames, but here is some good lady jellyfish cosplay:

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I know that “Tentacle” videos are a part of Japanese Culture, but I will not go there today.

I hate encountering a Tentacruel.  They are a status problem just waiting to happen.  I do not even care about the training points gained by defeating them.

Tentacruels could just be named after mean people you might know – a mean boss or the like.  “MotherInLaw” is one possiblility. All the POISON moves, plus binding moves like WRAP are appropriate.

I have named some female Tentacruel “SoulSucker”. You kids may be too young for this, and hopefully you will never be in a bad relationship, where the other person, SUCKS ALL THE JOY OUT OF LIFE …  WHERE EVERYTHING YOU DO IS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH …  THEY TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, AND EVERYTHING YOU EVER WILL HAVE …  THEY TAKE YOUR GREATEST ASPIRATIONS … THEN CRUSH  ALL YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS … AND LEAVE YOU A HUDDLED, PATHETIC, SHIVERING MASS OF YOUR FORMER SELF …

Oh. … er … ah –hem … sorry.

Now where did I put that jelly?

Hanako Oku: Troublemaker?

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Hanako Oku:  Troublemaker?

I know what you are thinking from this photo.  It looks like Hanako Oku is standing up at a political rally stirring up trouble!  It looks like she is saying at a Tokyo press-conference: “Now see here now Mr. Prime Minister Abe, come clean on your efforts to hide the truth about Fukushima” (Sam Donaldson would be proud.)

Actually, this is a photo of Oku-san talking to the audience during one of her concerts.  I obtained the image from an old blog on her website.  (She looks super-pretty in this photo too, but I digress.)  Hanako Oku talks to the audience A LOT during her concerts.  I have the DVDs to the 20011-20012 tours, and she talks, and makes a lot of jokes to the audience.   Somebody please translate these jokes for me … What’s so funny?  But I digress once more …

The purpose of this blog is to start a discussion around this topic:  When it comes to relationships, is Hanako Oku a troublemaker?   There is an American “Hillbilly” expression: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  Is Hanako Oku one of those chicks that likes to starts fights all the time?  Are these fights and break-ups fodder for her songwriting?  I will provide evidence for my argument  — using Oku-san’s own words …

Channeling Rod Serling:  “Submitted for your approval …”

Evidence tag #1

In the song “Kawaranai Mono” examine the following lyrics

Kaerimichi fuzakete aruita
Wake mo naku kimi wo okoraseta
Ironna kimi no kao wo mitakattanda

We joked around on our way home.
I made you angry for no reason.
I guess I just wanted to see your different sides …

Is she trying to start arguments, and “yank the dude’s chain”, in order to get a reaction?

Evidence tag #2

In the song “Cinderella”  Oku-san is clearly the instigator of the breakup when she states:

Sukisugite kurushikunatte shinjitai no ni utagatte
“Wakareyou” tte itta no wa
“Wakaretakunai” tte kotoba ga kikitakatta dake na no ni

I loved you too much that it became painful
Even though I wanted to believe you, I had doubts
I said “Let’s break up” because
I only wanted to hear the words “I don’t want to break up with you” …

Was she testing her lover by trying to start a fight?  … just so they can make-up again?  Thus, Hanako Oku … TROUBLEMAKER?

OR …

Is it the opposite true?  Is it that when she thinks about the break-up, she blames herself somehow, thinking that she MUST have done something wrong.  (Similar to all those American country-western songs where the lady singers will lament “Ah did him wrong …”)  So, it may be that the GUY is the one that caused her so much trouble, and broke her heart.  She sits there crying, and blaming herself?  Damn! That makes me angry!!!  If I get a hold of the dude that broke The Little Great One’s heart, “I’m going to open me up a can of whoop ass.”  (Now running out of  folksy American colloquial expressions …)

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 It took five years for this starlight to reach my world.