Thursday, July 30, 2009

Theme Thursday - Button

Hmmmm... Right from the start I knew that the "button" theme was gonna be a problem. My first thought had been the kind of buttons you pin on your jacket - campaign buttons, chamber of commerce booster buttons, tourist buttons, etc. But I'm not a button wearer, so I don't have a great collection of classic buttons such as I've seen in antiques malls and online. I was thinking of the buttons on clothing, but I thought that sounded boring. And after that I was stuck.

Yesterday I was getting desperate. The thought struck me that I probably had a fairly varied collection of clothing buttons around here; I do my own repair sewing, and I have things like that just laying around. I looked, and sure enough, I found a potpourri of odd buttons and some sets. I also thought that I could do something with them on that piece of black velvet I do macros on. And so my first photo of this post was born.


Then the thought hit me - I have a whole wall full of buttons: my stereo system. But of course! Complete with blinking lights and all. Well, okay, lights aren't in this theme, but certainly the button part is. And so the second shot was born.


Okay, that's enough on the pictures. What'll I do about music? Well, of course there's the button accordion, and the button accordion is one of the mainstays of traditional Irish music, so I had a whole field of choices for that one. I picked this one of John Whelan, a traditional Irish musician who now lives in Connecticut, doing three reels: "The Killavil". "The High Reel", and "The Fermoy Lasses". These are real get-up-and-dancers, so you might want to get out of your chairs about now!


And because that's just how my mind works, I remembered that in Great Britain and Ireland the accordion is commonly called the squeezebox. Ayuh! Those of you who know me well already know where this one is going. The thought of "squeezebox" inevitably led me to The Who and "Mama's Got a Squeeze Box"; I just couldn't resist, even though there are no buttons involved (unless it was the clothing buttons Daddy had to get through to enjoy that squeezebox!). So to close out this week's Theme Thursday post, here's The Who. Enjoy!


Photos & text © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

18 comments:

  1. Those are definitely some differet versions of buttons! Didn't think myself of even the REMOTE buttons I push every day! hahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  2. Some of those buttons look well used! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roy, good one here! Nay-sayers can knock the accordion all they want. One instrument I'll never learn to play, but like to listen to! And of course the Who's "Squeezebox" ( had to explain that one to a co-worker, once )HA!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fun button post, Roy. See, you had more buttons around than you thought.

    I want a button accordion.

    ReplyDelete
  5. your AM and FM buttons look well used as you surf the waves...perhaps to find these button tunes...well played.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sorry about that, I don't like typos...
    What I meant to say was, Funny, how we get rolling and it's hard to stop! -Jayne

    ReplyDelete
  8. TWO songs and TWO pictures for a theme you didn't know what to do about... now that's impressive! And you even threw in a bit of Irish too :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. well you did darn fine for that was a difficult one!

    By the way do you darn as well?

    ReplyDelete
  10. ...creative buttons--and taking it to the accordion buttons--you're always thinking. (I like according music too...it's fun!)

    ReplyDelete
  11. i had trouble coming up with something to write about buttons too... i never would have thought of the accordion.

    ReplyDelete
  12. A nice collection and with a history too I'll bet!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, I need an imagination transplant. Great post

    ReplyDelete
  14. We've had to cover some of the glowing buttons in our house. Far too tempting for toddlers...

    ReplyDelete
  15. My Mom used to say "button it" when me and my sibs got too loud, so buttoning up equals silence first - and clothing second.

    I was fascinated by the trance-like expression of the accordion player... and the way his little earring bopped to the music. I'll be humming that tune all day!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm late. Don't know how I missed you. Great buttons (although you really should give your stereo a wipe!) My grandad used to play a 'squeezebox' but we called it something else and I can't for the life of me remember. I think I'm the only person this Thursday who doesn't keep buttons . .

    ReplyDelete