Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
A little Wallflowers invaded my stream this morning. “6th Avenue Heartache” came out in 1996. About a homeless man, the lines that caught my fancy this morning is the refrain.
h/t Genius.com
The song has a Bob Dylan/Tom Petty flavor to it. That shouldn’t surprise; Mike Campbell, the guitarist who worked with Petty so much, plays the slide guitar, and Jakob Dylan, who wrote the song, is Bob Dylan’s offspring.
It’s a mellow throwback. Enjoy your day, and wear your masks, please.
Cheers
I was half asleep while attending something in the middle of the night. Was it a noise outside that awoke me, or a cat going through the pet door, or just something in my nervous system? Tag it with ‘things I’ll never know’.
But, momentarily awake (with Tucker licking my knuckles and purring) (did he wake me?), I drifted through fragmenting dream memories. Lyrics from “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” (Primitive Radio Gods, 1996) join the dream memories.
Am I alive or thoughts that drift away?
Does summer come for everyone?
Can humans do as prophets say?
And if I die before I learn to speak
Can money pay for all the days I lived awake
But half asleep?
h/t to Genius.com
The song is slight, mildly catchy in a hypnotic sort of way but I enjoy reflecting on the lyrics and their twists. What’s usually most memorable from this song for me is B.B. King singing, “I’ve been down-hearted, baby, ever since the day.”
Yesterday was cooler outside — eight-eight F — a drop of ten degrees from the day before and night from the one before.
Summer had arrived. Temps are night were falling to sixty, fifty-nine, but it was often seventy by ten AM and quickly climbing.
We have a gas fireplace. Standing by it yesterday, I felt the heat from its pilot radiating out and thought, time to turn that puppy off. So I did.
Clearing their throat, Nature declared, “Hold my beer.”
It’s my custom to keep windows open at night. A wind was blowing through the night, bringing what felt like Arctic air. Getting up, I closed all the windows and thought about turning on the fireplace.
Made me smile. The capricious fates had fooled me again. It’s like, if you study something expensive to buy, and finally pull the trigger, it’s bound to be on sale immediately after you take position.
I guess Alanis Morissette expressed it better in “Ironic”.
Out in the backyard last night, breathing in the quiet and cool air, looking for stars through the clouds. A cat twined around my legs and then did a tuck and roll, stretching out for a belly rub.
Lyrics from a Smashing Pumpkin song, “Tonight, Tonight” (1996) came to mind. I’d just retired from the military the year before and was in my first civilian position ever as an adult. It was a bit different, and I was questioning myself and my plans back in that era.
And you know you’re never sure
But you’re sure you could be right
If you held yourself up to the light
And the embers never fade
h/t Genius.com
Funny, but I’m still questioning myself and my plans, in this era. ‘Nuff said.
Watched a FB video of a dog. Reading in a car, he seems to attempt to bite cars passing in the opposite direction. Guess it’s a dog car game. I thought, he’s only trying to bite white cars. That introduced blue cars into my thoughts, and then, voila, Dishwalla’s “Counting Blue Cars” (1996) arrived.
Must of been late afternoon
On our way the sun broke free of the clouds
We count only blue cars
Skip the cracks, in the street
And ask many questions
Like children often do
We said,
Tell me all your thoughts on God?
‘Cause I would really like to meet her.
And ask her why we’re who we are.
Tell me all your thoughts on God,
Cause I am on my way to see her.
So tell me am I very far –
Am I very far now?
h/t – http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/countingbluecarslyrics.html
BTW, some were offended that they referred to God as a female.
Just from the line, “Don’t look back in anger, I heard you say, at least no today,” I began streaming Oasis and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (1996). I like the song but some of the rhymes don’t make sense. It’s like several different stories and perspectives are being shared, and none are finished.
But to not look back in anger is my takeaway for today.
Have a bit of Oasis in my stream this morning in the form of “Champagne Supernova” (1996), just cause, you know, smelling the smoke of someone getting high, landslides, the sky, and the eternal question, why, why, why?
Walking with a sense of ennui yesterday, I noticed several blue cars. Teslas, Priuses, Subarus, Volkswagens, BMWs…it was an odd parade of mostly blue cars, with a few silver and green in the mix. All those blue cars brought home the 1996 song, “Counting Blue Cars” by Dishwalla.
I always identified this song with ennui. They’re counting cars and jumping over cracks, like children do, asking questions, like children do, like some people often do without end, searching for an answer, not knowing the question.
Yeah, Happy New Year.
I found myself singing, “Kitty did a bad, bad thing,” to Chris Isaak’s song, “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” (1996).
The situation: the neighbor’s cat enjoys our food and company. She’s been our neighbor since we moved into this house in 2006. As the weather has turned and he’s often not home, she’s requested some visiting rights. We accommodate her. Since she’s a sweetheart, we brush her and provide her with cuddles besides feeding her.
But, sweetheart has recently had diarrhea outside out the litter box, on the carpet (twice). No, she didn’t do a bad, bad thing, she clearly had an issue. We notified our neighbor and are restricting her access until her bowel issues clear up.
With that in mind, here is Sunday’s theme music.
Checking out a faded stop sign, I thought, man, that thing has lost almost all its color. If it wasn’t for its shape, I wouldn’t know what it is. So, yea for the shape of a stop sign, serving its purpose to let you know what it is in all sorts of conditions.
Winding along the road further down, I thought that I’d been on that road a few times the past week, chuckling to myself about it. Between that thought and the sign, the Sheryl Crow song, “Every Day Is A Winding Road” (1996), crept into my thinking stream.
Yeah, every day is a winding road. Few stay as straightforward as planned. I always think of going with the changes and shifts as, riding the wave of the day. I’d like to think the roads are taking me somewhere, but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Sometimes, I feel like I’m in the Dichotomy Paradox, where you keep going half the distance left to go, but never get to the end. In theory, it’s impossible because a journey would then take an infinite number of steps and never end.
Yeah, that pretty well sums up my publishing efforts.
Michael Seidel, writer 