The Mountain Goats cover Jawbreaker “Boxcar”
You’re not punk, and I’m telling everyone.
Save your breath, I never was one.
You don’t know what I’m all about.
Like killing cops and reading Kerouac.
My enemies are all too familiar.
They’re the ones who used to call me friend.
I’m coloring outside your guidelines.
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Who’s punk what’s the score?
Got a friend. Her name is Boxcar.
Cigarettes and beer in El Sob.
Her hair was blue, now it’s green.
I like her mind. She hates the scene.
My enemies are all too familiar.
They’re the ones who used to call me friend.
I’m coloring outside your guidelines.
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Who’s punk what’s the score?
You’re on your own.
You’re all alone.
One day
We’ll get out of this shitty apartment
One day
Is all it takes for things to turn around now
All I know
Is I got you and you got me babe
And when that morning comes I’ll make coffee and you’ll read the paper
We’ll talk about our plans and I’ll keep saying how lucky we are
One day
We’ll get in the car and drive anywhere we wanna go
And then we’ll stay in a five star mini bar luxury hotel room
Cause all I know is I got you and you got me babe
And when that morning comes I’ll make coffee and you’ll read the paper
We’ll talk about our plans and I’ll keep saying how lucky we are
How lucky we are
Oh oh ohh
How luck we are
Oh oh ohh
How lucky we are
Oh oh ohh
How lucky we are
One day
We’ll turn on the tv and won’t see nothing ’bout war
And when that morning comes I’ll make coffee and you’ll read the paper
We’ll talk about our plans and I’ll keep saying how lucky we are
How lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are
Oh How lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are
Oh How lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are
Oh How lucky, how lucky, how lucky we are.
Saw Michael Franti & Spearhead last night at Workplay. A great, great, show. (Incidentally, this is the second show in a row I’ve seen at Workplay where the lead singer is not wearing any shoes. Damn hippies!)
This is the first time I’ve seen Michael Franti & Spearhead – and I was highly impressed. The show was super-high energy, smart, political, and fun (they covered Sublime AND Sesame Street!). About halfway through the show, he played a fantastic, powerful song called “Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong”. Powerful enough to make me cry. You should go listen to it (track 11 in the player). It was at this point I stopped just listening to the music, and began to be filled up from it.
Yesterday was great. Emily got me a GPS for Christmas, so we went geocaching. Basically, people hide a container with random things in it and put the coordinates on geocaching.com. It’s like a treasure hunt! Got stumped on the first one (it’s in the UAB mini park, somewhere…) but found the second one easily, and took a mix tape (as in, cassette!). How awesome is that? I’m totally stealing that idea. The third cache we tried was up at Vulcan Park but it was too busy ti get to, so we went on Vulcan Trail and found one there. It took *forever* to find – somehow I managed to turn geocaching into a contact sport by trying to scamble up the side of Red Mountain and tumbling down a bit of it instead – but finding the cache (even though there wasn’t really anything cool in it) was well worth the red clay on my jeans.
It was near sundown when we decided to stop, so we came back to the apartment and I made dinner. Then we went to a movie (a *real* movie, too, not the dollar theater variety!) and saw “Pursuit of Happyness”. It’s a feel-good story to top all feel-good stories, and even though it does not give any sort of accurate portrayal of any homeless shelter I have ever heard about it was still worth the 7 bucks. Plus – and this is a little known secret – I absolutely love Will Smith.
Took Em to work early this morning and have been playing with the cats and browsing the web. Need to head to the store and hope to have time to curl up with a book for a while before fnb this afternoon. Ah, this is the life for sure.
Happy Thanksgiving! Todays menu: various forms of pumpkin. I had to go out to the farmers market to get a pumpkin – who knew they wouldn’t be available in grocery stores after Halloween? I’m (hopefully) having pumpkin-seed-crusted-tofu with baked pumpkin and cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.
I’m feeling mighty anti-social today (or rather, I’m feeling mighty self-centered today), so I’m just hanging out at the house and maybe going for a nice crisp bike ride later on.
The whole family is watching the Macy’s day parade; Mom&Dad in MT, David in ME, me in AL. Not sure if we’ve ever been further away from each other, and yet I feel closer to each of them than I have in years. I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful for having more money than I need. I’m thankful for being able to spend a little bit of that money on organic gala apples. I’m thankful for finding “Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance”. And the fact that my philosophy paper is based around the Phaedro, which I already know a little bit about. And a great girlfriend, who just got a job closer to what she wants to do. And friends I know I can count on. And for a warm jacket on cold days, and heat I can turn on with the touch of a button. And for dreams, which keep my wrists intact.
the dog days of summer are in full effect, and it seems that the world outside my window is moving extra slow from having to cut through the humidity that won’t fall from the sky, no matter how hard i try to coax it down with my mind. it’s hot outside. so hot that i think i could probably fry an egg, although i’m not going to buy a carton of eggs just to test that theory.
i’m still in love, and i still love records, although the two feelings are usually kept separate. in the instances where they are equal, well, i try to keep that to myself.
it’s during the slugishness of summer that i realize i am not the person i want to be. i need to read more, write more, meditate more. i need to study even though i am far removed from that ivory tower. i need to take less for granted.
if you’re me, you choose (d). it’s too cold for anybody to be out, and he can’t stand up enough to get out of the middle of the street. plus, cops in the neighborhood like to rough people up.
so, we tried to talk to him, tried to get him home. ended up riding in the back of a frat boy truck, holding him up and on, feet dangling. he couldn’t tell us where to go, and we tried to drop him off but he just drug himself into the street and collapsed again, so we took him to the e.r. at least it was warm there, and emily knew the lady behind the counter, and maybe they just let him sober up there.
i feel terribly bad about the whole thing.
let me preface all of this by saying that there are a handful of people that i would die for. i know that sounds like some exaggerated bullshit, but i really mean it.
one of those people had a crazy ex shoot herself in the head *while being restrained by my friend*. and then, the crazy ex (after shooting herself) tried to shoot my friend’s current girlfriend. no, you’re right, i *couldn’t* make this up. you know what i am? helpless to have done anything about it, helpless to do anything about it now, beyond just letting both of them know i care about them deeply and that i am here.
then, another one of those people i would die for calls me in a panic, because he is sick. sick, as in can’t walk from one end of his shotgun apartment to the other, can’t talk to me on the phone without taking a breath every few words. he’s living below hand to mouth, no insurance, has a job waiting for him if he gets better in time. i tried to help but it didn’t work out. his lack of insurance combined with his complete distrust of the medical profession is resulting in a very difficult situation. i am reminded again how helpless i am in his situation, helpless in how fucking much i care for him, helpless to do anything that would really truly help. if he’s not better by tuesday i’m dragging his sparkly little ass to the free clinic.
i only slept about an hour last night, and i’ve been clandestinely crying all day. i am so tired.
