Musicophile

Posted on June 5, 2026 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Music is the soundtrack of your life.”
Dick Clark

The definition of a musicophile is an avid lover and enthusiast of music. Point of fact, a musicophile’s passion is deeply rooted in the artistry, history, and emotional experience of the music itself. If this definition is true, I believe most people would call themselves a musicophile.

My love of all styles and types of music began as a child. There was music always playing in our home. My parents had a large collection of albums, 45s and even large reel tapes. I learned how to use the record player long before I could read.

Recently I read Oliver Sacks 2007 book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. In this book, Dr. Sacks explores a range of psychological and physiological ailments and their connections to music. He wrote the book in an attempt to widen the general populace’s understanding of music and its effects on the brain. Sacks states at the outset of the book’s preface, music is omnipresent, influencing human’s everyday lives in how we think and act.

For those of you not familiar with Dr. Sacks work, he wrote the book, Awakenings, which the 1990 feature film by the same name is based. In the book and movie he describes his medical experiences using a drug levodopa on Parkinson’s and post-encephalitic patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital, later Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, in New York.

Since the 1970s, there have been multiple studies on the benefits of music therapy for people with medical conditions, trauma, learning disabilities, and handicaps. Most of the documented studies for children have shown a positive effect in promoting self-actualization and developing receptive, cognitive, and expressive capabilities.

For me, music can evoke a time in my life. Can evoke emotions and even the memory of pleasant scents from decades past. All this from listening to a single song.

During 2023 I published my first poetry book, Heartstrings, An Anthology From A to Z. All the poems in my book I always imagined as lyrics to songs. Then in 2026, I wrote, produced and put together a 13 track album, Dragonfly. I’ve uploaded the album to SoundCloud and will soon add the album to Spotify and Apple Music.

My life long love of music has come full circle, for this full-blown musicophile.

Shine On

Persistent Illusion

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction
between past, present and future is only
a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
Albert Einstein

Shine On

Musketeer Mania

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“One for all and all for one.”
Musketeer Motto

BBC TV series, Musketeers – from left Aramis, Porthos, Athos, and D’Artagnan

As a child I was captivated by the French writer Alexandre Dumas 1844 novel, The Three Musketeers. Dumas was the Stan Lee of his time, creating the first youthful super heroes, Aramis, Porthos, Athos, and their protege D’Artagnan. The only difference is, Musketeers actually did exist and Dumas based his characters on some of the most famous of Musketeers.

Anything I could find to read or watch about the Musketeers was on my radar. Mostly because they were excellent equestrians and fencers, two of my favorite combinations, and all Musketeer entertainment had plenty of those two activities.

My late great uncle was an Olympic fencer. I never had the honor of meeting him, but I like to imagine his passion and talent for fencing was passed on to me. I was fortunate to attend a high school that offered beginning fencing, and this was my first hands-on introduction to this 14^th century sport. It’s amazing how much fencing requires a great deal of mental and physical stamina, balance and fast reflexes. I took to this sport quickly, learning all the common moves and French words for them such as, Advance Lunge, Assault, Extension, Flick, Touché and the most famous En-garde.

Most are introduced to fencing through Hollywood movies. There have been numerous movies about the Musketeers dating as far back as the 1921 silent film adaptation starring Douglas Fairbanks. The first movie I remember watching about the Musketeers was on TV in the 1960s, and was the 1948 movie with Gene Kelly. It’s still one of my favorites because it not only had fencing and horses, but as an extra bonus it had Gene Kelly performing ballet type moves while fencing.

In the 1970s the studios came out with a Raquel Welch and Michael York Musketeer version, which wasn’t one of my favorites. As a little trivia note, this movie was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles.

Disney released their Musketeer movie adaptation in 1993 starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt and Chris O’Donnell. This became my favorite version of all time, until now.

A few weeks back, I discovered on Amazon Prime a 2014 BBC Musketeer series. This exceptional rendition of the swashbuckling Musketeers is now one of my top go to TV series. The acting, costumes, romantic locations, storylines and cinematography is awe inspiring. If you’re looking for some great entertainment to fill your evenings, I highly recommend this series. It certainly is fulfilling my Musketeer mania.

Shine On

Funny at Any Age

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Keeping an active mind
has been vital to my survival,
as has been maintaining
a sense of humor.”
Stephen Hawking

I’ve always been a sucker for anyone with a sense of humor.

I grew up watching the Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, W. C. Fields, Judy Holiday, Abbott and Costello, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, I Love Lucy, Looney Tunes, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, and Martin and Lewis.

In my teens I was a huge fan of sitcoms, musical comedies, and comedians such as Steve Martin, David Steinberg, Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams, The Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett, Flip Wilson, Dick Cavett, Don Rickles, Robert Klein, Albert Brooks, Dudley Moore, Soupy Sales, Steve Allen, Rich Little, Johnny Carson, and Woody Allan just to mention a few.

In my 20’s through my 50’s the comedians and the type of humor I’m drawn to are not much different from the one’s I enjoyed in my youth. Some of my favorites are thankfully still alive today.

I still enjoy a good joke, a great sitcom and a romantic comedy. There are a lot of great comedians around today. My taste in humor hasn’t changed much over the years. Funny is funny at any age.

Shine On

Dreamy 007 Rides

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“No action hero is more closely associated
with cars than James Bond.”
Richard Hammond

1967 Toyota 2000 GT at Petersen Automotive Museum — 1966 Toyota 2000 GT at Petersen Automotive Museum

The cars driven by the James Bond character started a Worldwide love affair with the automobile. I was not immune from this love affair. On the contrary, Bond cars were extremely influential in my taste in automobiles throughout my life. Out of the dozens and dozens of sexy cars driven by Bond, there are so many, I decided to list just five of my top favorites.

The white 1966 Toyota 2000 GT from the movie, You Only Live Twice, is my favorite of all the Bond cars. I was fortunate to see this work of art in person at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles Mother’s Day 2019. How apropos that Bond’s first film to take place in Japan should feature the country’s first supercar. Just like Bond, the Toyota 2000 was sexy, fast, powerful, and rare. There were only 351 models produced in total. Sean Connery was too tall to move around comfortably in the Japanese supercar, so Toyota modified the traditionally hard top coupe so Connery could zip around in a special open-top version.

The 1962 Sunbeam Alpine Series II, is the car he drove in the first Bond movie, Dr. No. This little gem of a car was not Mr. Bonds most extravagant car, but the two-seater, droptop with its lake blue coat of paint was a perfect introduction to the James Bond character.

I had never heard of Aston Martin before seeing the 1964 movie, Goldfinger. The silver 1963 DB5 Aston Martin was the first to make its motion picture appearance with James Bond. Aston Martins continued to show up in future films such as the 1965 Thunderball, 1995 Goldeneye, 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies, 2006 Casino Royale and 2012 Skyfall. Since its 007 film debut, the Aston Martin has become one of the most infamous Bond franchise movie cars. It is often referred to as, “James Bond’s car.” Some even argue that James Bond films were what really put Aston Martin on the map.

A yellow 1970 Triumph Stag was driven by Sean Connery in the movie, Diamonds Are Forever. Loved the design of this sports car but due to its unreliable engine, the Triumph Stag was not a big success.

In the 1999 movie, The World is Not Enough, starring in his first 007 role, Pierce Brosnan drove a silver 1999 BMW Z8. The appearance of this roadster screams Bond. It was a sleek and classic designed sports car, and of course was equipped with surface-to-air missile launchers. BMW’s decision to put James Bond in their car was a good choice because every movie they were featured in caused a huge spike in their sales.

Throughout the James Bond film series, Q Branch has given 007 a variety of vehicles to battle his enemies. They have been equipped with various modifications to include elaborate weapons and anti-pursuit systems, and various other functions to make memorable dreamy James Bond rides.