tears of a clown

 i read a recent interview in the minneapolis paper with musician smokey robinson. what stuck with me was the part about the hit song 'tears of a clown'. i had heard it many times before but i think i must have ignored the title and the lyrics and it always sounded like a happy song to me, based on the melody. smokey said stevie wonder did the melody, which sounds like a circus. smokey did the lyrics, and said it was inspired by the story of pagliacci, an italian clown. my research found that 'pagliacci' is italian for 'clown', and it was the name of an opera. i know the song even better as being name-checked in other songs, especially 'beautiful' by eminem and 'coming home' by diddy dirty money. this time i did take the time to listen to the song on youtube, in order to pay attention to the lyrics, and they are deep. i found some other versions of the song there as well, although i think they were british bands as i hadn't heard of them and it was from a TV program called 'top of the pops'. as a performer i understand well the reality of 'tears of a clown', and it made a lasting impression in the eminem song. i spoke of the song when i was doing virtual performing tonight. also this evening, after performing, i went on a walk and picked up 29 cents. the 'big bang theory' reruns were when two scientists from fermi lab in chicago wanted to share in sheldon and amy's discovery. it was followed by the one where priya said she is moving back to india. 

at work the special requests started early. there was a skype message shortly after i arrived, and it meant i started check printing a little later than typical. although i made up the time quickly, and had enough time to finish 2 online classes that were due at the end of the month. then near the end of the day were 2 more skype messages. one of them wanted a screen shot of the icon i use to log on to the test check system. the other was a special request for a check copy, much like in the morning. it meant getting out later than i wanted to, but it was still at a fairly decent time due to starting the stuffing of check files earlier. it is necessary when the volume has went up on some business lines. i got around later than typical for the virtual performing as i was listening to the monday night football game, bears-vikings. bears lost 19-13.