I didn’t forget to mention it to her, but I didn’t say much on my blog about Michelle’s birthday beings last week. In the Yamada house we almost always celebrate birthdays on different days than the actual birthday. Still, Michelle’s birthday last Thursday gave me time to reflect on what a wonderful person, partner, and friend she is (I will spare all of you the other more intimate adjectives).
She is the cream in my coffee
She is “once, twice, three times a lady”
She is this Dawson’s Joey
She “completes me”
It is in her eyes, “the light, the heat; I am complete; I see the doorway, to a thousand churches; the resolution of all my fruitless searches”
She is this Charlie’s angel
She is Michelle ma belle
Happy Birthday, Michelle!
Posted by: Wes at May 5, 2005 02:59 AMLet's see...I spot six of the pop culture references, not sure if the "cream in my coffee" line is a specific allusion or not. Excepting that one, we have: The Commodores, Dawson's Creek (I imagine--never saw the show), Jerry Maguire, Peter Gabriel (per Say Anything--can you see Frank outside the house holding up the boom box?), Charlie's Angels (duh!), and the Beatles. Not bad!
btw, Happy Birthday to Michelle from me, too.
Posted by: Matt at May 5, 2005 05:43 PMYou are correct sir! The first is just the common expression, no pop-cultural reference. I made an allusion from each of the last four decades of the 20th C. (Beatles = 60's; Commodores and Charlies Angels = 70's; Peter Gabriel and Say Anything = 90's; and Jerry Maguire and Dawson's Creek 90's). In fact, the biblical scholar in you might recognize the symmetry, dare I say chiasm, in the structure of my verses (70's, 90's, 80's, 90's, 70's). Then it all ends with the 60's.
Posted by: Frank at May 5, 2005 09:31 PMAww, what a nice list. Except... the whole Dawson and Joey reference, thats a little shaky considering how the show ended...
Posted by: susie at May 6, 2005 03:23 AMTrue Susie, but there are a couple of reasons of why I chose Dawson, over say Pacey. 1) Pacey, even though he gets his life together in the end, is the show's flakey character--full of potential, but flakey. 2) Dawson and Joey, though they do not end up together in the end, admit that they will always forever be soul mates.
Posted by: Frank Yamada at May 6, 2005 03:32 PMAnd, of course, the chiastic structure (rightly) puts the 80s at the center, and therefore in the position of highest emphasis.
Posted by: Matt at May 6, 2005 04:18 PMOops--I should have read closer. Your chiasm (as posted) is fractured, with the Gabriel reference placed after the Maguire, instead of before. Doubtless a textual corruption has crept in during the transmission process.
Posted by: Matt at May 6, 2005 04:25 PM