Tag Archives: Dark Was The Night: Red Hot Compliation

I Was Young When I Left Home

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What a gray, gray day. And cold too. Feeling out of it most of the day. Can’t get into it, whatever it is. Slept really well though.

Had a few dreams and one in particular was me with my brother Frank walking towards the corner of Midland Avenue and Outwater Lane, and he says in the dream something about me always competing with him.

He brings up his stroke and I say in the dream, ‘Yeah but I’m not competing with you, I’m having a nervous breakdown.’

Of course, dreams usually last only a few seconds at best so out of the thousands I may have had, that is the one I remember. And it was probably one of the last dreams that I had before waking up.

Still writing on Bill’s Mac. My computer is great for playing solitaire.

My day had the usual ear worms. Today brought Endlessly Jealous by Lou Reed from the album New Sensations. My then roommate, Jimmy Lee turned me onto that album.

I also remember when I was carrying a torch for Steve Saporito, I explained that Endlessly Jealous summed up how I felt about the situation I had put us both in. That was a difficult time.

I fell for him hard but he didn’t feel the same way. He wanted to be friends, but I couldn’t reconcile with that. It was only in the past few years when I would occasionally see him that I could look him in the eye without any romantic feelings or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

I am happy that he’s doing the things that he wants to.

Another ear worm was Cry by Johnny Ray. I don’t know why that popped in, I hardly know the song. The last ear worm was the Outro to Layla by Derek & the Dominoes.

Besides being in Goodfellas, it brings back a memory of the Lodi Boys Club. They had a jukebox there and on it was the song Layla, a double sided single. The main part, with the lyrics and guitars was the A side, the B side was the outro.

I mentioned that I liked the B side more than the A side and my brother Brian told me I was a jerk for liking that side. Actually he didn’t say jerk.

Now I’m listening to Dark Was The Night, which seems to be the record I play the most so far this year. I played it all the way through on the bus ride to DC last Sunday.

I burned a copy of it for Billie as well as for other people. I wonder if they like it as much as I love it.

So cold and damp it is. Settles in the bones and all I want to do is sleep. I even made it into the city for a little while. Nothing like being around cold, gray buildings to cheer one up.

I’m writing this in the twilight of the day, the only light is the gray sky outside. Seems rather poetic, especially for such a downbeat entry. The weather matches my mood and my mood matches the weather.

Considering the weather, the atmosphere and my spirits were so much higher only a few days ago, and now it’s like Seattle. Or at least what I know of Seattle gathering from what I know about Seattle is that it rains a lot.

Maybe it’s like the weather in Ireland and England.

Ah, everything is a drag today. I know it’s not going to last. This will generally improve sooner or later.

I had an idea for a story, the opening line was concerning a knock on the door. The character asks who is it. The other side of the door says, ‘Despair.’

I couldn’t tell if that was the one who knocked on the doors name, or merely an instruction.

Then the light changed and I crossed the street.

Just had a nap for about 90 minutes. Quite nice.

Happy birthday Oscar Wilde.

Search and Destroy

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A nice Saturday afternoon, unspoiled. Last night was nice too. Bill and I hanging out, watching a recording of the Office from Thursday night and Talk Soup. Both enjoyable and filled with laughs and as usual the Office provided nervous chuckles.

Bill went to bed midway through Bill Maher’s show on HBO. It seems I enjoy Bill Maher if someone else is watching with me. Otherwise I just pick up a magazine and read while it goes on. I did pay some attention though.

Bill Maher’s guests last night were Andrew Breitbart and Michael Eric Dyson. Breitbart playing the role of conservative blow hard to a T while Dyson intelligently explained his own point of view (the liberal side) which effectively made Breitbart look like exactly what he is, a conservative blow hard.

I went to bed a little while after that, Bill fast asleep in the bed. It is nice to have him there though and I find myself falling asleep to the sound of his snoring.

Woke up before 9:00 which was nice for a Saturday. Had my cuppa before heading out for morning foodstuffs.

Totally unlike last week, Fake Patrick’s Day. No groups of twenty somethings heading off to parties at 10:00AM. Came home and Bill was awake and puttering about.

Read the papers and helped Bill with cleaning up the apartment. Needed to get vacuum bags for the new vacuum cleaner I got from work last week.

He was planning on heading out at 1:00, at least thats what he told me at 12:50. We actually left together at 2:30. He was off to the dry cleaners and laundromat while I stood outside smoking a Joya De Nicaragua that I picked up yesterday.

Walked Bill off to the bus stop and then I ambled down Washington Street. . Nice enough day in the sun, chilly in the shade but I didn’t mind. A good cigar and I listened to the second half of A Hard Days Night on the iPod.

Came home and finished Mojo magazine with Pete Townshend circa 1967 on the cover from The Who Sell Out photo sessions. Very good interview with Nick Lowe inside and for once a not too pretentious article by Dave Marsh about the Who.

Picked up some adequate vacuum bags and came home and started vacuuming. Very powerful vacuum cleaner, it sucks so strongly that if you put the nozzle to the floor it takes two hands to lift it. Good to know I think. I don’t think it was ever used in the office.

While I vacuumed I listened to Dark Was The Night, the Red Hot compilation that I picked up last week. It was better than I expected it to be. 2 discs that I played in sequence. Even Antony sounds good on it which for me, says something. Highly recommended.

I’m presently listening to War Child- Heroes, another charity CD I bought last week. It’s fun, but I tell you the guy from the Hold Steady who sings Bruce’s Atlantic City seems to have graduated summa cum laude from the Springsteen School of Singing. I find it annoying, but the singer is known for his love of all things Bruce.

Hot Chip’s cover of Joy Division’s Transmission is a lot of fun, a lot more fun than Ian Curtis and company. I never really ‘got’ Joy Division. Always found them depressing. New Order I liked. Go fish.

Rufus Wainwright singing Brian Wilson’s Wonderful/Song for Children is a wonderful reminder of what a beautiful voice Rufus has. Scissor Sisters singing Roxy Music’s Do The Strand is as much fun as their cover of the Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.

And after trying to figure out why the Blood Bank EP by Bon Iver was so pricey, I downloaded a copy. 4 songs, pirated. Argh.

I would have purchased a physical copy if the price was right, but it wasn’t.

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It's a trap!

It's a trap!