Song of the Week #13

It's going to get cold finally...
I hope it snows again this year.

clocks and hearts can stop..

..but time marches on.
I am 34 years, 266 days, and 21 hours old. Give or take a few minutes. ;)
I was born two weeks late, and when they finally convinced me to come on out, I refused to breathe for a bit.
When I was one, I remember standing in my grandparents' livingroom in my snowsuit, looking out at the snow falling through their big window, and waiting for someone to take me out to play.
At two I loved Steppenwolf and Pink Floyd, and I would sit at the kitchen table with a pencil circling every "it" and "the" I could find in the articles and ads in the newspaper.
At three I had two imaginary friends, Dotsy and Pansy, who were as real to me as any of my family. When my sister learned to crawl, she'd make her way over to where I was playing and mess up or knock down whatever I was building (I was often building). I started dragging her as far from me as possible to buy some time to play a bit more in peace, and she'd always come back.
At four my grandmother died, and I remember how sad everyone was. My mom was never the same.
When I was 5, I told my parents that I refused to go trick-or-treating anymore because it was begging. I also figured out that Santa Claus, etc. were lies. I had to keep the secret from my sister for another four or five years.
At six, when I started school, I was completely lost.
Assimilating myself with the world has been very exhausting, and I think I had it all figured out back then. I'm only just recently realizing how little so much of the last thirty years or so has mattered fundamentally. Honestly, if I weren't such a natural optimist, I don't think I would have made it to this exact second in time.
So..what does all that time add up to?
I have a middle-aged friend who thinks their life will end sooner than average. I have a young friend that asked, "How does anyone know when they're middle-aged? How do you know it's the middle?" My dad is close to retirement, and I told him I want him to spend every cent he has living..that when he goes I want nothing left behind but memories. My mom seems to have nine lives, and has only used five of them. She seems afraid to live. My sister is like a cockroach..I don't think even nuclear holocaust could do her in, despite her best efforts. She was born pushing the limit. I've been too careful, and I've had too many close calls in spite of that.
I'm also only just beginning to live in ways. Picking up where that 5-year-old left off. How old am I again? ;)
So far I have very, very few regrets. I'm waiting out the biggest ones, and refusing to add any new ones to the collection. However many lives I have and wherever I am in their time-frames, I've decided that I'm doing pretty well. If I met myself, as I am now, at age 5, I have to think I'd very much like me.

Mystic
by: Sylvia Plath

The air is a mill of hooks----
Questions without answer,
Glittering and drunk as flies
Whose kiss stings unbearably
In the fetid wombs of black air under pines in summer.

I remember
The dead smell of sun on wood cabins,
The stiffness of sails, the long salt winding sheets.
Once one has seen God, what is the remedy?
Once one has been seized up

Without a part left over,
Not a toe, not a finger, and used,
Used utterly, in the sun's conflagration, the stains
That lengthen from ancient cathedrals
What is the remedy?

The pill of the Communion tablet,
The walking beside still water? Memory?
Or picking up the bright pieces
Of Christ in the faces of rodents,
The tame flower-nibblers, the ones

Whose hopes are so low they are comfortable-----
The humpback in his small, washed cottage
Under the spokes of the clematis.
Is there no great love, only tenderness?
Does the sea

Remember the walker upon it?
Meaning leaks from the molecules.
The chimneys of the city breathe, the window sweats,
The children leap in their cots.
The sun blooms, it is a geranium.

The heart has not stopped.
__________

Exactly.

Song of the Week #12

Song of the Week #11

Well...songS. :)
The first one is part of one of the songs Big Freedia performed. She was the opening act for Matt & Kim at the House of Blues in New Orleans last night. She's a Bounce rapper, and is from N.O. She invited some peeps on the stage with her dancers..hahaa...8-/ It was both mildly disturbing and completely awesome.



The second one is Matt & Kim's opening. They were also truly kick-ass, and I don't think I've had more fun at a show. I'm hoarse today, and couldn't help but dance, even if I suck. :)



I HAVE to go see them again sometime.

US education...

This was discovered accidentally via a friend of a friend on FB. I laughed my ass off, because it's actually very true.
Below is a map of what about 85% or more of Americans think of Europe, eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean region geographically.

Yup. I need to move.

I love these lyrics..

..so I'm putting them here.

The Trapeze Swinger

by: Iron and Wine

Please, remember me
Happily
By the rosebush laughing
With bruises on my chin
The time when
We counted every black car passing
Your house beneath the hill
And up until
Someone caught us in the kitchen
With maps, a mountain range
A piggy bank
A vision too removed to mention
But

Please, remember me
Fondly
I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then
They went on to say
That the pearly gates
Had some eloquent graffiti
Like "We'll meet again"
And "Fuck the man"
And "Tell my mother not to worry"
And angels with their gray
Handshakes
Were always done in such a hurry
And

Please, remember me
At Halloween
Making fools of all the neighbors
Our faces painted white
By midnight
We'd forgotten one another
And when the morning came
I was ashamed
Only now it seems so silly
That season left the world
And then returned
And now you're lit up by the city
So

Please, remember me
Mistakenly
In the window of the tallest tower call
Then pass us by
But much too high
To see the empty road at happy hour
Leave and resonate
Just like the gates
Around the holy kingdom
With words like "Lost and Found"
And "Don't Look Down"
And "Someone Save Temptation"
And

Please, remember me
As in the dream
We had as rug-burned babies
Among the fallen trees
And fast asleep
Aside the lions and the ladies
That called you what you like
And even might
Give a gift for your behavior
A fleeting chance to see
A trapeze
Swing as high as any savior
But

Please, remember me
My misery
And how it lost me all I wanted
Those dogs that love the rain
And chasing trains
The colored birds above there running
In circles round the well
And where it spells
On the wall behind St. Peter's
So bright with cinder gray
And spray paint
"Who the hell can see forever?"
And

Please, remember me
Seldomly
In the car behind the carnival
My hand between your knees
You turn from me
And said, "The trapeze act was wonderful
But never meant to last"
The clown that passed
Saw me just come up with anger
When it filled with circus dogs
The parking lot
Had an element of danger
So

Please, remember me
Finally
And all my uphill clawing
My dear
But if I make
The pearly gates
Do my best to make a drawing
Of God and Lucifer
A boy and girl
An angel kissin on a sinner
A monkey and a man
A marching band
All around the frightened trapeze swingers

Na-na
Na-na-na
Na-na
Na-na...




Because I think this is how we'd have been if we'd been able to grow up together. Still a mess, but with more and younger history. ;) Maybe. Mostly it's just perty.

Song of the Week #10

:)