Sunday, March 18, 2012

Having not written one of these in a while, and having thought of a theme, I thought just this once you'd pardon me if my judgement on these tunes isn't final or convincing.

1) Supertramp, "Gone Hollywood". Prindle said that he hadn't heard a song with a fade-in intro that was ever less than excellent. (Even better when said song kicks off an album. Like Sparks' "This Town", this reminds you of one of the joys of listening to an album.) There may be only a few hundred people who listen to Supertramp and find an emotional connection to the lyrics, but by God I'm now one of them. In its non-specific dissatisfaction and disappointment with a particular stretch of the land of dreams, I see a bit of myself. Plus the sax is neat.

2) Jackson Browne, "Running on Empty". This hits a spot not unlike the one tapped by other emotional favourites from the late '70s by the new Dyland crowd - Rust Never Sleeps and Darkness on the Edge of Town, in particular. Earnest and dissatisfied enough to get my vote. And if I'm being honest, more than a little of my appreciation comes from nostalgia for the first time I heard the previously mentioned albums. Which is oddly fitting: in 2001 I was 17, and all the rest.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

By default, nowadays I basically sit around expecting disappointment. You'd think being prepared would help, but it doesn't. A particular source of anguish is being walked over by people who are unanimously praised by everyone around me. This has happened so many times that it seems like character doesn't matter anymore. But since that seems like an extreme possibility, I must consider the alternative, namely that my reading of character is based on a meaningless code of conduct. This code is nothing that others seem to be aware of or care to find out, and yet it's how I thought we were supposed to be living all these years. That's great.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Moving about on desolate strips of land, as the sun beats down and the big cars roll by. Yup. Life is going nowhere.