S-Boys: Episode 6 – Album Titles

We got right to work. I started painting idea-canvases for album covers. I wondered if “Eat Me” was too risque. Or did it have just the right amount of appeal?

Joey dove right in to practicing singing.

I had to question his taste in music.

“Laughter in the Rain?”

I wasn’t the only one who doubted we were due for a Sedaka retrospective.

“Logic,” I heard Rylan muttering to himself. “A good logical algorithm can predict the next hit as well as intuition, and both mind and heart say ‘Try a different move.’ Sting, The Police, anything but Sedaka!”

It didn’t deter Joey.

“I feel a shiiii-ffer run hup my spine!”

“Aaaw-ooooh! I heer laffter in the rain! 

La-dee-da, ooh-la ay!”

“Oh, how I love the rainy daze and the happy way I feel insye-aye-aide…”

He was adorable. Dorky, handsome, cute, and adorable.

I caught Akira walking down the hall.

“Hey, ‘Kira!” I whispered. “Can you show them how it’s done?”

He went right to the mike, punched in one of my old songs, the charmer.

“It’s another, just a day.

You can’t come, know you won’t stay.”

“I been hiding! Stay away!

Call the dogs, keep you away!

I ain’t gonna love you anymore! 

I can’t abide you no, no more.

You make me, heart-poor.

You make me, rainpour.”

There was a reason they called that my blue period.

At any rate, Akira rocked it. I always sang it sweet and melancholy, but he he punched it and mixed it with gravel. I really liked his sound.

Maybe we should call our first album, “Monster.”

Or, maybe not.

The hardest worker, from the start, was Vee-Jay. Oh, I loved his style–still do.

Even when he was learning how to dance, he knew how to move, even before he was in good enough shape to do the moves.

Vee-Jay closes his eyes, and what he hears mingles with what he feels and it comes out through him.

I could watch him for hours, even back when he was first training.

“Hey, Vee-Jay,” I suggested. “Want to run through a song together?”

“Vivaan.”

“What?”

He wanted to choose one of my oldies, too. “Sunshine.” Not written in the blue period.

“I turn?”

“I’m there.”

“I look?”

“I stare.”

“It’s a moment–“

“–moment”

“Momentary”

(together) “Pleasure!”

His singing still needed a lot of work, but dang if there wasn’t a spark of magic there for a moment.

That was something. He really came alive behind the mike.

“I could use a glass of water,” I said. “Can I get you anything, Vee-Jay?”

“Vivaan.”

“What?”

“I’ll have a cup of tea, Sierra. But don’t bother. I’ll make it myself.”

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