Forty-three years ago, in September 1978, a rock album was released that revolutionized the music industry. The group Blondie released their third studio album “Parallel Lines”. The disc contained songs blending different genres of music and ushered in Dance Rock as a new category. The smash number one single Heart of Glass can still be heard on the radio to this day. The song has held up over the years just as well as the band’s lead singer Debbie Harry.

I discovered Blondie in March of 1978 when their second album “Plastic Letters” was released. I was a huge New Wave music fan in the late 1970’s. My top-forty taste in music put my favorite songs somewhere between Disco and Hard Rock. My eclectic playlist included everything from Abba to Zeppelin, with lots of obscure groups in between.

Blondie’s Plastic Letters album had it all — songs about the Bermuda Triangle “Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)”, secret agents “Contact in Red Square” and life after death “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear”. I was instantly hooked by the quirky lyrics and crunchy beats. I ran to Strawberry’s music store to nab a copy of the group’s first album, 1976’s self-titled “Blondie”. Rolling Stone magazine music critic Ken Tucker called the album “a playful exploration of Sixties pop interlaced with trendy nihilism” and he noted that all the songs “work on at least two levels: as peppy but rough pop, and as distanced, artless avant-rock”. Whatever that sound was, it worked for me. I finally had a musical group I could call my own.

These early albums were an integral part of my college days. The group’s music echoed my fashion sense — unkempt hair, suit jackets, skinny ties and sneakers. I was an art major so I felt right at home with anything avant-garde. Among the trendy pins on my lapel, was a button stating “Blondie is a Group”. I wanted people to know that I knew that Blondie wasn’t the lead singer. Blondie was the band’s name. I was in with the in-crowd for sure.

My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I saw Blondie in concert at the Orpheum Theater in 1979 just as the group was reaching new heights of popularity. The song Heart of Glass was burning up the charts and would soon gain the number one slot.

I was fascinated with Debbie Harry. Her punked-out glam look made her stand out from the crowd. Her hobnobbing with Andy Warhol made me like her even more. That and the fact she speculated she was the love child of Marilyn Monroe and JFK. I was captivated by her vocal range which ran the gamut between a sexy growl and an ethereal whisper. This woman could sing anything from rock, folk, jazz, and the classics. Every song on every album had a different sound. I wasn’t surprised to learn the group was influenced by David Bowie, a master musical chameleon himself.

Between musical releases, Debbie Harry made television and movie appearances. As a guest on The Muppet Show in 1981, she sang The Rainbow Connection with Kermit the Frog. She also landed a disturbing movie role in David Cronenberg’s prescient film Videodrome in 1983.

Debbie’s autobiography entitled Face It, published in 2019, filled in gaps of the years when the band wasn’t recording music. Debbie Harry’s boyfriend, lead guitarist Chris Stein, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, pemphigus vulgaris, in 1983 which put him out of commission for years. He recovered and the band continued to release albums sporadically over the next few decades.

I saw the band play live a few more times over the years. The most memorable performance was in 2005 at the Bank of America Waterfront Pavilion as the tail end of hurricane Katrina descended upon Boston. Heavy rains forced concertgoers to huddle in the only dry area in the middle of the wind-swept venue. Outdoor tent seating wasn’t ideal during torrential downpours, but it made for a unique spirit of camaraderie among the fans in attendance.

In 2018, my son took me to see Blondie at the Mohegan Sun casino for my birthday. He also thought it would be fun for us to rush to the front of the stage within arms length of the band before security made us return to our seats.

The bands latest album, Vivir En La Habana, is a live concert recorded in 2019 during a trip to Cuba. They performed their songs with a Latin flair incorporating Cuban musicians into the mix. A documentary of the groundbreaking tour is forthcoming. I can’t wait to experience it.

I would love to see the band play live again. Debbie Harry, now in her mid-70’s, seems to have boundless energy. I continue to scan their concert tour calendar with a watchful eye waiting for an announcement of a return to the Boston area. Until then, I’ll play my favorite selections from my album collection, not only from the band but from Debbie Harry’s extensive solo releases as well.

I no longer have my punk rock lapel pin that says Blondie Is A Group. It’s out of date anyway. After all this time, the group is much more than a rock-and-roll band to me. Blondie’s music is the soundtrack of my life.

HIPAA laws be damned. I’m going to break some patient/doctor confidentiality. It’s legal if the patient does it, right? I’m not the one who took the oath.

At the end of September, my annual medical examination was looming large on my calendar with a big red “X”. This past year I’ve had more medical “nuisances” than I’ve had in a long time. The dual threat of the pandemic and old age setting in hit me like a ton of bricks. And no amount of Extra Strength Time-Released Tylenol can ease that pain.

As the day of my doctor appointment approached, I typed a running list of medical maladies into the Evernote app on my phone. I wanted to make sure I mentioned all my ailments to the doctor. I have to write them down ahead of time. I can never remember all of them all when I’m on the exam table in the doctor’s office.

I won’t bore you with the details, mostly a lot of generic aches and pains. When added together, I was afraid they might be a sign of something more ominous. I was concerned about the toll the pandemic has taken on me. I’m not comfortable returning to my workouts at the gym. My exercise program has been severely curtailed. I wasn’t exceptionally active before the pandemic, but I thought fear of Covid-19 was a good excuse to scale back even more. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. According to my doctor, my elevated blood pressure is high enough to warrant a second pill added to my regiment. I need cut out my weekend martinis and stop liberally dusting everything with kosher salt (thanks, Food Network).

I watched my doctor take notes as I explained a years worth of health problems to him. I told him about the pain and soreness in my left arm since I got vaccinated last April. I noted on certain days I have trouble opening water bottles and food packages. I told him about waking up in the morning with pain in my hands and going to bed at night with pain in my feet. Some days it feels like my legs can’t support the weight of my body. I think his exact words were, “Uh-huh” “Mm-hmm” and “Hmmm…”.

I wasn’t prepared for the results of my exam. Luckily I was sitting down.

“You are not alive,” the doctor concluded.

When he matter-of-factly told me this, I’m sure I didn’t look very alive as all the color drained from my face. I had an out-of-body experience for a split-second as I tried to digest what I just heard. I may not be alive, doctor, but you certainly have no bedside manner.

The doctor continued. “You need to snap out of this post-pandemic funk and start doing things again. It’s easy to let what is happening in the world bring you down. You have to get back to some kind of normalcy. We all do.”

He was right. Working from home doesn’t give me much of a social outlet. I told him I used to enjoy the adventures of my everyday life. Sadly, I can’t remember the last time I met a new person. He told me he sympathized. The only people he sees are his patients and only because they are sick. I started to feel better as I realized the pandemic was affecting my doctor as much as it was affecting me. Misery loves company, as they say.

I’ve lost a year-and-a-half of my life, like everyone else who has endured this pandemic. I’ve been fortunate not to catch Covid-19, and I still feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I know I’m not alone. Our entire way of life has changed. This virus, and all that comes with it, has crushed the very soul of our society. We’ve got a long way to go just to get back to square one (if square one even still exists). My doctor was wrong. I am alive. Now I just have to start living.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Halloween. On every street corner you see 12-foot skeletons and giant inflatable jack-o-lanterns looming over leaf strewn lawns. These scary home decorations are multiplying every year, threatening to become more popular than Christmas displays. Another sign of the twisted times we are living in.

This Halloween there will be some noticeable changes due to the pandemic. The mask debate still rages on. Should children wear a protective mask under their Halloween mask? Over their Halloween mask? Both? Some communities have banned Halloween masks in schools, but medical masks are mandatory. No wonder our children are confused.

Mask wearing is a polarizing question with many different viewpoints depending who you ask. People have become much more mask lax than they were 18 months ago when everyone was living in fear of the virus. Today inside grocery stores, from what I’ve noticed, mask wearing seems to be about 50/50 with the general public. I felt uncomfortable the other day picking up a book at the Stoneham Library when I realized I left my mask in my car. I apologized to the young man working behind the plexiglass partition.

“No worries,” he said. “You don’t have to wear masks inside the library anymore. I only wear mine so people don’t freak out.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. I left with my book in hand and a sense of confusion as to just what the rules are.

But getting back to Halloween, Dr. Fauci says it’s okay to enjoy the October holiday this year so we have his blessing. Hopefully he will give us his blessing for Thanksgiving and Christmas too.

The Halloween holiday has lost some its spirit since I was a kid. It’s safe to say, bobbing for apples is a thing of the past. That’s probably for the best, with or without a pandemic. (Murder mystery fans, if you’ve read Agatha Christie’s novel Halloween Party, you know what I’m talking about.)

The good news, random acts of vandalism should be down this year. The popular prank of egging houses is out of the question. Egg prices have skyrocketed. As well as the price of shaving cream, and our most valuable commodity, toilet paper. In the old days, the morning after Halloween looked like a war zone in neighborhoods inhabited by rowdy children. The cleanup took forever.

Most communities now have trick-or-treat strolls through the center of town where youngsters in costume can safely visit local businesses in the afternoon. I guess that’s better than tripping over curb stones in the dark of night with only a tiny flashlight beam to guide you.

Some traditions haven’t changed. The nice houses in the rich neighborhoods still give out the best candy bars (full size even). The trade off — long driveways and hundreds of steps to the front door. But it’s worth it.

I was surprised by the list of the most popular Halloween costumes for 2021. At the top of the list, outfits worn by the mysterious masked soldiers from the South Korean Netflix series Squid Games. The costumes are as disturbing as the television show itself. The costumes consist of mono-colored jump suits with a black mask and a symbol of a circle, square or triangle in place of a face. Simple, yet simply terrifying. Equally popular and even more horrifying is the covered-up head-to-toe dressed in all black look that Kim Kardashian wore to this year’s Met Gala. Don’t be frightened if you see more than one Britney Spears ringing your doorbell as well.

Maybe some Halloween hijinx are just the distraction we need right now. Grab a candy apple and a popcorn ball, turn on The Nightmare Before Christmas, and let’s get this party started. We’ve had enough tricks this year. It’s time for some treats!