SEPTEMBER SONG

Day 150 of the Lower Puna Eruption.

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September Song represents a metaphor comparing a year to a person's life span from birth to death.  This is the final day of September, meaning that I am at the 75% point of my life, suggesting that I'll live to the age of 103.

September Song was originally sung in the broadway show Knickerbocker Holiday in 1938 by Walter Huston (this is the whole 1944 movie starring Nelson Eddy, with Charles Coburn doing the singing).   The 1950 film September Affair (again, this is the full 104 minute production) included Huston's version, which became #1 on the pop music chart that year.

In this movie, where Joan Fontaine (single pianist) and Joseph Cotton (unhappily married industrialist) meet on a plane, which is diverted for repairs.  They miss the connection and learned that the it crashed and everyone died.  In the meantime, they had fallen in love, so they decided to largely ignore their past and live forever together.  Go ahead, watch the film and learn about what happens.

Frank Sinatra reached #8 on Billboard in 1946 with September Song, and his 1965 album, September of My Years, included this song and another memorable one, It Was a Very Good Year, with

But now the days grow short
I'm in the autumn of the year

And now I think of my life as vintage wine 

Both songs well reflect my life today, and 2018 has been a very good year:  January 1 began with OZONI, WAGYU, OTORO, ABALONE, UNAGI, POKE, RAMEN AND HOPE FOR 2018.

• I'm pretty much sticking to my resolutions.
• It was on January 13 that my life could have come to an end, when I woke up to North Korean missiles headed for Hawaii.  But that was a false alarm, perhaps leading to a Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.

• Kyushu University paid my way to Fukuoka to provide a keynote address on hydrogen.  I felt like a rock star, as they actually gave me credit for re-starting the field in 1979 when I drafted the hydrogen bill that became law.  I asked for a fugu dinner, and that was memorable.  Can't say yet, though, if my vision has improved at all.

• The Blue Revolution is progressing.
• Had a wonderful trip to San Francisco and Las Vegas.
• I caught the flu, but Advil cured me, again, in two days.
• In  the Spring, I enjoyed a Sakura trip to Japan, with a stopover on Guam.

• This blog site came to an end on April 30.
• But was revived a few days later when the Lower Puna Eruption began.  
• I took a trip to Seattle and Anchorage for my upcoming book, Six Hours to Seattle.  Unfortunately, both cities are not good candidates for a mega-tsunami, so The Blue Revolution gained ground as possibly my next effort.
• I went to the Army game and enjoyed a week in New York City.

So tomorrow I begin the winter of my life, contented that I've lived a fulfilling first three seasons.  I'm listening to Vivaldi's Winter, and wondering if I'll be able to again equal that day in Venice when I got the last ticket for a performance of his Four Seasons, after an incredible white truffles meal at Quadri, on a day when my Blue-bar Pigeon first crossed my path.  While I still could find my way to Thailand/Japan/Korea this fall, I suspect the remainder of this year will be serene and satisfying in relative tranquility.  However, I still have a quarter century left as I leave behind September and the Fall.

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Typhoon Trami is ripping through Japan, making landfall east of Osaka at 134 MPH, rolling over Nagoya, and will exit into the Pacific Ocean at around the Fukushima site of the disable nuclear power plants.  Much more to come.

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