I spent 10 hours in the Charlotte North Carolina airport last Friday (thanks to storms cancelling flights rather haphazardly). In this time, 2 hours were spent on a runway, before we went back to the gate. After scrambling and booking/cancelling/unbooking 5 different flights I finally made it back to NY at 2 am Saturday morning.
The whole time, I was rather bemused and enjoying the chaos of the situation. Embracing the madness. People were freaking out and screaming at the poor Airport staffers, as if it was their fault that Mother Nature was taking a giant piss on the eastern half of the U.S. of A.
I kept Missus Nomad updated on the goings-ons and she couldn't belief my sanguine calm. Especially when, the "old school Nazz" woulda probably been arrested for leading a riot. I had a few beers- without losing my shit. And I even socialized with my fellow travelers.
I felt bad for the people with babies and young kids, but eventually everyone made it out of the airport.
Besides, it'll make for a memory of some weirdness. And ya gotta dig the weirdness when ya can!
And then I spent the weekend on a float in my pool, roasting and burning my lazy ass!
I was in the big city yesterday, lucky enough to have a bunch of meetings (meetings = hope for bizness) and I found myself around the corner from where an old friend works. This person was someone, who, for the past few years, I have been very close to. As a result of the last few months of jumping on and falling off assorted wagons of vice, I had cut off communication... as I had with virtually everyone I know (except for immediate family).
Aside from being on hiatus from my band due to the same reasons, this was the most drastic self-censure I had undertaken. This person had helped me thru alot of psychotic and personal "episodes" (and been honest enough to call me on my shit) over the last few years, but, when I cut people off, I REALLY cut them off.
I swallowed my pride and visited them yesterday. I figured, the worst they could do was have me physically removed from the premises (I hadn't done anything to this person except cease communication, but ya never know how people are gonna react). Surprised to see me, even shocked, but I was greeted warmly. We talked for about 30 minutes, with yours truly attempting to explain the craziness of the last few months. As this person is no stranger to some of the demons that have visited me, it was very helpful and even therapeutic.
It went well and hopefully, when I am ready to venture out into the world of socialization, I'll have a comrade in arms again.
It's nice to have some real friends that don't turn their back on you. T'is a rare and noble gift.
Sometime To Return (Soul Asylum)
I ran the way
I walked a fine line
Wasted time or need to find
You will call and I'll take mine
And to remind me
I am fine
What you are is
What you see and
You see me and we can be
Something we can call we
We are we are
Doing the what-we-can
Working without a plan
I'm beginning to understand
It's getting out of hand
I have seen these do-si-do's
I've walked up on this road before
Picked it apart for hours and hours and
Hours and hours
Of turning
Tossing and
Looking and
Listening
To you and all the fuckedd up things you do
But you're doing the best you can
With every grain of sand
That's trickling through your hands
So catch me if you can
If someday comes early
Comes whipping, comes whirling
To take you for all you have learned
The tables are turning
Your bridges are burning
My destination sometime to return
Throw away your calendar and
Sign up your salamander
Get up and get down
Right in the town and look around
Get up and do something
Your time to choose it
Do it do it do it do it do it!
Doing the best I can
Living without a plan
I'm taking what I can get
I haven't seen nothing yet
If one day you wake up and
Find what you make up
Come and get me
Come and take me there
Into your illusion
I make my intrusion
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere
The hourglass is draining fast
It knows no future
Holds no past
And all this too will come to pass
Never forever whatever
If someday comes early
Comes whipping, comes whirling
To take you for all you have learned
The tables are turning
Your bridges are burning
My destination sometime to return...
Reading the Sunday paper today, I commented to Missus Nomad that I would pay a premium to get a newspaper that only printed good news. She took the opposite view, that people read the paper because they WANT the bad news.
I barely read the front of the paper anymore. I don't want to know about this or this or (especially) this.
Hey check out these guys! A combo of Visigoth fashion, electric light orchestra and too many viewings of The Road Warrior! They think they're bad-ass, and then they have a chick playing accordion! Punk fucking rawk!
There's an old urban legend of an experiment where a frog is put in a pot of cool water. The pot is placed on a stove and the heat is turned up slowly over a period of time. By the end of the experiment the frog will have boiled to death without its knowledge.
A metaphor for our economy and America in general.
It must be nice to be that frog. Not having panic and anxiety over supporting a family and future income. That's where all of my anxiety is these days.
I suspect it's the same for many of you.
In the "new america"many of us are working harder, more stressfully and making less money. It's gotten to a point that the "FEAR" is overriding everything. Trying to find the help to whistle past the graveyard works sometimes, but it tends to also eliminate creative urges as well... hence the scarcity of posts (you've noticed????) as of late.
Hopefully, this fog will lift. And that light at the end of the tunnel won't be a train coming.
Reading: "Soft Apocalypse" - Will McIntosh - File under "Dystopian future reality" - A group of ordinary folks circa 2025-2035 try to survive in a dying America where unemployment hovers around 60%. Things only get worse.
Spotify finally came the US of A yesterday and I was able to snag an invite.
For those who don't know, Spotify is a "cloud based" music server that functions as competition to iTunes (as it indexes all of your hard drive music files and works as a player). The difference is that you can also stream virtually any music that you don't own as well! Unlike Pandora, which works to "recommend" music based on your preferences, you can actually search for bands and play whatever you want.
For example, I have a couple of the three million or so Guided By Voices lps on my hard drive. When I plug in "Guided By Voices" in the search field on Spotify, I can stream many of their albums, plus compilations and the service recommends "like" artists such as The Replacements, Built To Spill, Dinosaur JR, etc.
Their are levels of service that you can pay for, but I am finding the "free" service just fine. I haven't figured out if you can actually download and save the songs (like on Napster), but this entire concept removes the need to "own" the music.
Additionally, you can make playlists, post them and others can share your lists- so we are all now our own personal radio stations. It links into all the "social" networking sites as well.
Is this the "game changer"? It just might be. I assume at some point Spotify will remove the free option, but for now it's free.
One of the great "singles bands" from the 60's, The Grass Roots have had a lasting legacy, with cover versions of their songs done by such alt legends as The Replacements, and Stiv Bator's Lord's Of The New Church.
The "walking bass line" on "Midnite Confessions" has always been a source of amazement for me.
All files posted on this site are for educational, testing and entertainment purposes only.If you like what you hear, please buy recordings, t-shirts, dvds and other merch from these bands. This is a non profit site and is here to give some publicity to deserving bands and artists. If you’re in a band whose music is found on this site and you want songs removed, please let me know. Songs and other media will be up for only a short time. After that, just like our hopes and dreams, they're gone.
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