And I just turned twenty-two
I was wonderin’ what to do
And the closer they got
The more those feelings grew

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There’s sometimes nothing more fun than channeling Crazy Horse.

1979′s Rust Never Sleeps, in particular.

Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of the different ways
I had to make her glow

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Had a sudden desire to record a Cure track after donning a goth eyelash and getting ultraviolent as Clockwork Alex for Halloween. Halloween’s the best holiday b/c no one can ruin it. You never hear anyone say, “That a#$hat wrecked Halloween.” It’s the only day we scoff at fate by pretending to be either someone (or something) else or already dead – or both.

The Cure’s Madison Square Garden show on the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me tour was my first concert. It was an August Monday. My friend Bob D. took his parents’ car out (on a learner’s permit), then picked me up and we drove to the train station (no way we were driving all the way to the City). After a connection in Hoboken to the 33rd St PATH, we alit on 7th Ave into a raging Goth sea. Bob & I both had summer jobs so we had some scratch. A fast talking scalper talked us into his tickets by showing us where his tix were on a mimeographed MSG seating chart and we handed over 70 1987 dollars for two 8th row, 100-level stage right seats. It was The Cure’s first arena show in the US and WDRE’s Donna Donna introduced them as a liberation front. MSG was packed; loud; reeked of all sorts of smoke and butane and I kept circling my head around the arena as the misfits united went on and on and on. The band played for 2+ hours with 3 encores and closed with Why Can’t I Be You? Worth every risk (and penny) to see a show like that.

Inspired by the original version on Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.

“Quicknum and Rafferty are both closed books,” The Captain said to me. “Different books, but both closed. You’re forced to judge by the cover and then, of course, criticized for being shallow. In the end, there is only one winner, but the only one who never wins is you.”

“But they have to spend all that money trying to get my attention,” I said. “Costs them dearly to change my mind. Each of us has the power to change our mind, yes?”

“Yesmaybe,” he jaunted, using a captainism. “The thing about the thing is that most people make up their mind long before election day.”

“But there’s still an unvocal undecided that all the resources are aimed at swaying, no?” I countered, “a gloriousnumb objective group that keeps an open mind until election day. One that chooses the winner, and defines the center all the candidates run to. The opposite of an open mind is not a closed mind; it is a made-up mind, yes?”

“You really are a yesmaybe, you know that? No, make that a maynot,” he laughed.

“And you know, Captain,” I presnarled, “with an open mind you can hear things on both sides that give comfort -”

He hardened his eyes and blunted me without a breath. “And terrify, Griff. You speak for yourself from that lonely middle. I got my guy, and her name’s Trixie Rafferty.”

I forgave him his resolution. He was 25 years my senior, though when Actuarial Escape Velocity reached 1 in 2014, the differences in our ages became negligible almost overnight (at least to an actuary). Longer life was romanticized for a few years until it became apparent that semimmortality meant you spent 70 to 140 in a 70-year old body. Now, in 2020, semimmortality is considered by many a pain in the ass and the number of irascible individuals is exploding. The Captain, 50, was hardly an irascible 70, but he had his moments.

(more…)

Some people can turn their conscience on
and off like Ray Davies' Yo-Yo. Not me. You?

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we got a long road ahead
settle down. settle back. settle in.
don’t you know we’re gonna have to work until we’re dead?
we’ve got such a long road ahead

full of naked feelings
illumination
you know all those things you just can’t teach

There you go again
laughing at real life
I guess that’s the way things will always be

it’s been a long slow descent
energy lost. energy found. energy spent.
you know it takes years to make an overnight collapse
it’s been a long slow descent

we got a long road ahead
don’t look down. don’t look back. don’t fit in.
let’s have the last good time with what little we got left
we got a long road ahead

screw cynicism
and useless language
you know, all those things we say instead of what we mean

there you go again
laughing at real life
I guess that’s the way things will always be

09.10.2008 8:17p; 09.15.2008 7:38p

have you ever been really really far away
from your lover for a really really long time?
version: 08012008a

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I know you’re lonely
I’m waiting here for you
Baby, nothing changes
When you feel like I do

So now you’re far away
You got a job to do
So, baby don’t get desperate
Don’t be blue

I see that exit sign
The one you take tonight
The one you take to know you’re home

So many freeway signs
An exit for every life
Remember there’s one can take you home

Other people
They don’t have a clue
They drive on by
Like they do

I see that exit sign
The one you take tonight
The one you take to know you’re home

So many freeway signs
An exit for every life
Remember there’s one can take you home

Where’s the love in a freeway sign
That’s got nothing to do with your life?
It just says you are miles from home

07.20.2008 12:07a

title track. written and recorded in a 72 hour flurry.
have you ever had to re-write a memory?

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No one told me about what happened
To you for a couple of years
Had to rewrite all the good times
Had to rewire ½ the gears

Goodbye Monday Blue
Goodbye I did love you
You had nothing left to lose
Save goodbye monday blue

It takes all your will
To draw with your eyes closed
And it takes all the energy
To recreate this world

Goodbye Monday Blue
Goodbye I did love you
You had nothing left to lose
Save goodbye monday blue

07.02.2008 1:15a

©2008 Sock Drawer Studios

We know it’s time
to dress for Sunday morning
Smiles; well sometimes you
gotta force ‘em
Gather round the fire
And see what’s burning down…

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Mobius Band is _________. Please check out their music and buy their latest record, Heaven. And you may as well buy The Loving Sounds of Static, too, because you’ll want it after hearing Heaven.

This track is a with-all-respect take on Heaven’s sublime single, Friends Like These. Mission.08 is to cover more songs from this century. We’ll see how that goes.