Getting away with murder!
|
Posted:Feb 15, 2009 6:47 pm
Last Updated:Sep 20, 2009 9:49 pm
7687 Views
|
An ugly motherfucker…
He hided behind a chimney and then carefully looked back trying not to even show his face. Yes, it was still there...Of course...where else it could be? That big, dangerous...but very stupid too monster. But he had a mission and he should accomplish it...And his mission was none other than...exterminating that monster. Not an easy task of course...But he was trained specifically for that purpose. And he was considered to be one of the best for it...Not to mention that he had done it before though the last time was quite a long before. But that was the past anyway...And he had to do something right then, for the present...He just had to accomplish his mission.
He inspected the field again with the eyes of an expert while his mind was working very fast, making the best use of years of accumulated experience...He admitted to himself that the monster had learned some new tricks...Maybe it was just survival instinct. But his job was exactly to find ways to bypass its tricks...And he had the chance to study those new tricks those last few years. And he was faster than the monster...in any sense and way. The only thing he had to do was to think clearly...as he was taught and trained to do.
He made up his mind quickly...A straight, face ‒ to ‒ face confrontation with the monster in the open wouldn’t be for his benefit. The monster had become too dangerous for anybody to attempt that...No, physical or even mechanical power wasn’t his greatest weapon in that case. He could only use intelligence...or even better craftiness. What he really needed was a decoy...And since he hadn’t one he should find...or even invent one. Or rather simply to turn himself into one...He took out his smaller ‒ than ‒ pocket size laptop and connected with the main server of the Agency...Then he pulled the short cable of the stereoscopic scanner and turned it towards himself. He typed the appropriate command and waited...In a few seconds the procedure started. And although he had seen it happening and other times it never failed to amaze him...He couldn’t even understand how those damn «brains» in the laboratories were doing it! Did they change the molecular structure of the fabric or just somehow the impression it left to the eye? But one way or another it worked...and that was what really mattered. His clothes had already started changing colour...and when he looked again in a few seconds his black ‒ bullet proof too, just in case...- suit was...pink. A very bright, cute pink...
He laughed in the idea of how ridiculous he would appear to anybody but he knew very well too that in that silly sight lied not only the accomplishment of his mission but most probably too and his chance to stay alive...Now he needed only one more thing for completing his plan. He looked around him for quite some time until he found it...Yes, that silo was just fine. «And now it’s the two of us motherfucker...Watch out for your ass!» he thought with anger. He only had to make the monster to notice him...That was the reason that when he walked from behind the chimney he didn’t do it sneakily at all, on the contrary he made as much noise as he could. He knew that the monster was half blind...But he had no doubt that he could see him at that time. There was no other way with all that pink he had on him!
He waited until the monster almost reached him and only then he started running...towards the silo of course. He couldn’t see it but he was seeing its huge shadow...all over him and around him, covering a quite large area. But even more he could sense it...He was hearing his heavy breath. «A dirty old bastard really» he thought and he couldn’t but smile. But then he heard a hissing noise...the first arrow. He just moved his body to the right without stopping running...Two seconds later he heard it being smashed on the rooftop. That was the easiest part really...It was one of the very first things they were taught. Until he reached the silo he had managed to avoid another six or five arrows...He touched the cold steel of the silo and only then he took a short breath. But he had no time, just mere seconds really...He had to decide how he would actually do it. Fortunately there was a checking window at that point of the silo...big enough for the body of normally sized human being.
He opened the window and pushed the upper half of his body inside...almost up to the point of the waist. He found a lever and pulled it...The top of the silo opened. Because that small window was enough for a human being but not for a monster...that was the key point of his plan really. It didn’t take it too long to reach the silo...he could feel its weak eyes examining the scene. The way he had positioned his body it could hardly see him...just a pair of legs. Even if they were pink that made it difficult in the monster’s eyes...So it did what he hoped that it would do. It flied a little further and stopped over the silo’s opening...He could even see it through the opening. And it was the first time he had the chance to observe, even to just see it from so close...Geez, that was a very ugly of a bitch! The fat belly, the stupid face, the pathetic wings, the ridiculous arrow...Not to mention the pink g-string! «That’s not a way for a dude to be dressed...You are a bloody disgrace asshole!» he thought and he felt a wild joy inside him. The killer instinct...It was about time that it showed up, in less that a two minutes he would need it more than anything else he had needed in his life.
The stupid big thing could tell him through the opening only because of his pink suit...It was what he counted on. The pink colour had on the monster a similar effect that the red had on bulls...though in different way. In that case the pink colour would also be his nemesis...He could feel it getting ready to attack. But he was ready too...And suddenly the monster literally dived! It was coming for him...He concentrated on what he should do in such an intense way that he felt every inch of his body tightening...exactly what he needed because he shouldn’t let the fear to overcome him. He shouldn’t move but only when it was time to...And indeed he managed to stay at his place until the moment the fat, moronic face was no more than two meters away for him. It was only then that he pulled his body out of the silo but not before he had put the lever back to its previous place and he pulled another one that was next to him. He stood up and kept the little checking window open as for being able to see what would happen next...
The first thing he saw was the monster passing that point and still heading down carried away by its own momentum and the force of gravity. Those were the consequences of being a fat sucker...The inside part of the silo was gradually getting darker as the opening at the top was closing. But then another, smaller window opened within but at the opposite side, a little higher than the point where the checking window was. A small package wrapped up in pink paper popped out, obviously propelled by a non visible mechanism...And then another...and another...and another. That was the opening from where the content of the silo was coming in...which was exactly what was happening at that moment! In less than a minute hundreds of thousands, millions most probably of packages were coming in. Small, many of them heart shaped but all wrapped up in pink paper...And they would keep on coming because that was a very big silo.
But not big enough as for the monster to be able to stand on its feet and fly again upwards...But even if it could...to fly and go where? The opening at the top through which it had come in was closed...there was no way out. No, it would stay there...Until it would be buried alive under the packages. Alive but only up to a point...Because the packages were keep on coming in like there was no end of them. And as small and light each one of them was...when there would be too many of them the sum would be heavy. Too heavy...In about three minutes time the upper side of the pile had reached the checking window, some of the packages were even coming out of it from time to time. As he figured out the monster should had over it something like twenty five meters high of an at least another seven meters wide silo worth of packages by then...And right at that moment...it happened! He heard a funny sounding, almost stupid bang...like the noise of a thousand tires that went flat at the same time. And immediately after there was that so unpleasant smell...like the worse and cheapest imitation of a fine French perfume anybody could ever imagine. That was it! It was over! «Fuck you bastard!» he shouted while he kicked with all his power a heart shaped pink package that happened to be in front of him.
Always on the run…
But there was no time to celebrate his victory...Because he suddenly heard clatter and loud voices. He turned around and saw give or take two hundred people...They monster’s disciples, some of the too many of them at least. They had come up to the rooftop from the side staircase...but they were too late. Most of them were men but there were some women too...All of them though were dressed in expensive, even formal evening clothes but for some reason with a really impressive lack of taste...all of them too! Of course he was the last one he could even mention elegance at the moment with his pink suit but...at least he had a reason for it and there was no time under the circumstances to reverse the colouring procedure. But them...grown up women dressed all in pink? Maybe it was OK for a set of underwear but...that? Please, it should had been declared illegal for girls over the age of five! The other funny thing about them was that almost all of them were holding something in their hands...For many of them it was small pink packages, heart shaped in the most cases...exactly like those the monster was buried under. Others had flowers...And a few others had smaller boxes and a very few of them some very small boxes...perfumes and jewellery respectively he assumed. What a fucking mess that bunch really was!
But it was neither the time nor the place for observing social traits and behaviours...Because those people were already coming running towards him! And by the looks on their faces and their angry voices he could tell that their intention definitely wasn’t to congratulate him for killing their god/mentor/idol! (choose whatever it feels more applicable...). So it was time for him to exit the stage...actually to leave the show for good as for that day. His part was over anyway...But he needed the necessary place to do that. He inspected the area in a hurry until he found what he was looking for...A quite large, open space about three hundred meters from the building. He turned around and started running towards the edge of the building.
While running he started talking with a steady voice...on a first sight to nobody but in fact to the very tiny super blue tooth device that was implanted in his left earlobe. «This is 0999 to Fox Base Alpha...Mission accomplished. Exiting the field in about five minutes from now...Channel CXR-3478, possibly Gate A4312...or 431. Get ready for recalling procedure…». «»Excellent job 0999, impeccable and efficient as ever. We saw everything on the time frame monitors...that most probably was an all time high both for the Agency and for you personally. Really nobody does it better 0999...Just get back safe now. We are all here in the control room, waiting for you...» said the vibration of the voice that was transmitted directly from the super blue tooth to the aural nervous centre in his brain. His first reaction was to answer «why don’t you keep the advice for yourself or even better you don’t shove it where it seems more appropriate?» but...that was no way to speak to the Director General so he just shut the fuck up. He had reached the edge of the rooftop anyway...Time for the fancy trick, he always enjoyed that... even at the time of training. It seemed difficult and very impressive too but it was a piece of cake...if of course you knew the ropes. And he knew every one of them more than well...
He closed his eyes for a mere second, just as for concentrating better and then...he jumped on the air, not even high really. But instead of landing on his feet the next second like most other human beings...he just stayed on the air! It wasn’t even like he was flying, he just stayed there without moving...Until of course he positioned his body in the right way as for to start moving...forward and downwards as for him to reach the ground. You only had to place yourself in the right angle regarding the aerial masses...but of course the ultra micro gravity altering decelerators that were an integral part of the fabric of his suit and were activated the moment his feet stopped touching the ground helped a lot. But then he heard a...shot! Years of training though couldn’t but paid off...When he turned around he was able to locate the bullet that was coming towards him even before he heard its hissing sound. Easy then, just careful moves...Very quickly he raised his right arm, placed it in front of his chest and with a twitching of the fingers he activated the momentary time freezer that was on his every pair of sleeve buttons.
Funny really...When those people that made that movie...«The Matrix» over two hundred years before spent so much time creating such things with special effects they didn’t know that a long of time afterwards some other people would watch it so many times but not for entertainment purposes. They were the «brains», the sciences in the laboratories or in other words the Technical Department...And they saw it so many times just for analyzing the key action sequences in every possible way...as for being able then to turn any useful gadget and device into reality but in much more advanced and well functioning versions. But that was always the spirit of the Agency...Only the very best for every job worked for PETRF. And the proof of how good the «brains» were in what they did was what he was doing right then...The time freezer changed for a very brief the molecular structure of the bullet...but it was more than enough to change too the ratio of its speed to time. Put it simply he could do whatever he wanted with it...He could send it back to the ones that fired at him. But instead he sent it to the ground...
While he was doing that he hadn’t stopped for a second his very long leap...if that was what you could call it. He was just a couple of meters above the ground...He gave his body a turn of ninety degrees and pushed himself downwards with all of his power. In a second his feet were back on terra firma, the gravity altering accelerators went off immediately and without pausing for a moment he started running again. Another shot...That time he reacted even more quickly, just instinctively. The briefest turn of the head, hand raised, fingers’ twitch, time freezer on, bullet stopped...just frozen on the air. Let the gravity take care of it in a little...Who the fuck was firing at him? That fat man in the middle of the first row of them, he had a smoking shotgun in his right hand... And both a very small package and one of the heart shaped pink ones in the left! He knew about him from the thorough pre ‒ mission research he had done...Somehow he was the leader of the others...he was the owner of that entire place, a very rich and successful manufacturer of patisserie products. So he had one more and very good reason to worship the monster...He hadn’t anything better to do anyway. He was so fat that he could barely move, let alone run...He could even hear his heavy breath from that far away. Just a large chunk of fat on two legs... Exactly like his beloved monster.
Not that the others were any better...He knew about most of them too from his research. Florists, manufacturers of stupid cuddly toys...All people that were somewhat fed from the monster...just like it was fed off them. And of course they made some very good money out of it all...As for them to buy furs or something as much useless and tasteless for the kind of women they were with them at the time. Dead animals’ skins over the skin of some other animals...Which kind of animal though was the worse...and the most dangerous? Yeah, those people and the monster just deserved each other...But he had every reason to be pleased, even satisfied with himself. He had accomplished his mission...It was the sixth time that he had killed the monster and ‒ without bragging, he was always a man of modesty ‒ really that was his best execution thus far. And considering the fact that most probably it was the last time he took on such a mission...yeah, he was leaving the field assignments like he always wanted to: With a real bang!
Like it was natural for him any time he felt something strong, was it good or bad, positive or negative, his mind entered a very certain train of thought...Because 0999 had only one real passion, there was only one thing he not just loved but adored to do the very few free hours his job left to him. He collected music...But not just music in data format like everybody else. He collected music from the time when it wasn’t only stored in hard disks, it existed on some objects called CDs…and even from the pre digital era, when music was on some bigger and very difficult to store objects called vinyl records. But he wasn’t just a collector...He did that just because he really loved music, it meant more to him than anything else...except human feelings (which somehow he thought that they were the purest form of music but he hadn’t ever dared to confess that to anybody). And because he knew his music...the too much of it very well, always, but always there was a song or an instrumental piece that came to his mind for every occasion...That happened that time too, it was a very old song by a guy who seemed to know very well about such matters as those that concerned the monster and its disciples...most probably from a time when guys managed to really learn and not just «know about» such matters. So although he was by all means the worse singer in the history of human kind he started singing in a low but merry voice and while of course he was still running as fast as he could:
Don't know that I will
But until I can find me
The girl who'll stay
And won't play games behind me
I'll be what I am
A solitary man, solitary man...
The one that had chosen…
By finishing the chorus he had reached the large, open area. He stopped and immediately he spoke in a rushed voice to his super blue tooth device: «This is 0999, on targeted location and all set up and ready. Start withdrawal process...». «Scotty...Call me Scotty. Just say it, I want to hear it from you 0999. Just say...beam me up Scotty!» said the vibration of a joking voice that reached his aural nervous centre. «Your name is not fucking Scotty and if you don’t beam me up at once you’re going to have your butt very seriously kicked, I promise that to you. Idiot!». «But...» «Beam me up now!». «Roger...Yes sir. Starting procedure sir...» said the voice which that time was somewhat in awe and full of respect. What he had done really to deserve that? Why it was always him that was unfortunate enough as for having to bear that stupid young technician who had a very serious obsession with a really ancient television show being in shift? Shit, what kind of people and based on what criteria really PETRF hired those days? Some serious update was obviously needed as for the qualifications of the new personnel...if they didn’t want to end up with a bunch of clowns as staff in a few years!
Sore Suehpro aka special agent 0999 (with licence to thrill!), distinguished officer of PETRF’s (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Real Feelings) DCFE (Destroyers Of Corny Fake Emotions) task force and deputy chief of the elite AVU (Anti Valentine Unit) special squad of exterminators looked around him anxiously…And he couldn’t but feel a sense of relief knowing that it was his last time…down there. In the beginning of the next year the Head Of Operations would leave his position due to age reasons to become a member of the Board…and he was the one who was already tipped for the to ‒ be ‒ vacated position. Rumour had it that the Director General had already said off the record to some members of the Board that there would not be another candidate for the position, he just wouldn’t allow to anybody else to apply for it…he had already made his decision. And the Director General had a habit that everybody knew about…he was a bit like God. He not only didn’t like anybody to tell him that he was wrong…he just didn’t even wanted to think that anybody could ever go against His Will. So it was a little less than absolutely certain…to him because his colleagues were more than sure, to the point that they used to tease him about that. The most any «0» agent could ever have as a code number was three digits...so since he was 0999 there was no other way for him than going to be the Head Of Operations. «There never was any 01000 and never is going to be», they were making fun of him.
The «O» prefix...That which used to tell the field agents, the real agents, the people of the action from the white collar «agents» who did office work for all their time with the Agency. He could remember like it was yesterday the long, hard training period...with the future Director General as his training officer, not incidentally at all. The two of them went a very long way back...And how proud he was when he received the desired «0» prefix in an official ceremony with the entire Board present! It was one of the very few times too that he had seen the then ‒ to ‒ be Director General smiling...He was only 09 back then, that was how few the special agents were. In fact it was him and the also future Head Of Operations who set up the DCFE. As for the AVU he had written its training manual all by himself...and everybody in the Agency knew ‒ though nobody ever talked about it ‒ that the only reason he wasn’t the chief of the elite unit was because he had asked, almost begged the Director General to bypass the Register and appoint his best friend as chief and not him. He had a family while himself not...so he needed the money of the better salary much more than him.
It was so many years really since he had entered the Agency...more than half of his life. But he could remember them very well...As he was standing there waiting for his last ‒ final maybe? ‒ withdrawal memories started flooding him. Memories of so many missions...Because there weren’t only the six times he had to kill the monster. There were and many other assignments, minor maybe but not less dangerous and difficult because of that...Undercover missions, full frontal attack missions, all kinds of missions. A few times with the entire AVU, some more with his trusty team of five or six people but most times...all alone. He preferred to work that way, maybe just because he had never trusted anybody more than himself...the nickname The Lone Wolf was not an accident. Just it wasn’t incidental and something else: No other agent had such a personal record, each one of his missions was successful. «Up there with the very best...yourself», as the Director General said the rare times he was in a good mood.
Yes, he was damn good, at last he could give that to himself...But he also had enough of it. He had done his duty, paid his dues or whatever else they wanted to call it...Next year on that very same day somebody else would have to do the dirty job and being chased by maniac florists and candy makers. He would only have to plan the mission and then, on the execution day, just to watch from the time frame monitors, exactly like some others were doing with him right at that time. Eventually he was done with that! No more field for him...And then that it was over he couldn’t but feel really glad about it. Suddenly he felt tired, so tired...For so many years he couldn’t really tell between his job and his life. The Agency was his life and vice versa...
So that was about time to change! He had done everything he could for the Agency and its cause, he had given his best to it...The time has come for the Agency to give back to him some of it. And to his surprise he realized that it was probably the first time that he wasn’t even slightly bored in the idea of the honorary ten day leave of absence he would get like any other time after a successful mission, that was one of the Agency’s standard general policies. On the contrary...he actually anticipated it! He could even go for a short vacation, why not? But…alone? It wouldn’t be that easy for somebody else to get a leave of absence...After so many years in the Agency though...he could at least pull some strings! What the fuck! It wouldn’t be a crime if he used his connections and acquaintances in the Board...he had done it such a few times anyway. And none of them for himself...That if only he couldn’t find the nerve to talk straight to the Director General...but most probably he would.
Shot, another bullet...He froze it just going through the motions, almost like he was programmed for it. Some people didn’t know when to quit...But the bad thing was that they were getting closer. That fat bastard...And right then he was shouting something, they were that close that he could hear him. «I’ll catch you and kill you! Just like you killed love!». What? What love? He hadn’t killed any love...He only had killed a monster...which would be reborn anyway in a year, just like the phoenix out of its ashes. And another unlucky agent would have to kill it again...And then again and again. It never ended...But what were those people talking about really? Love...Did they have any idea what love was? For sure nothing to do with their monster...that Valentine.
He reminded of something and started laughing...There was a very good rock group of old - which in the short period it existed made very demanding for the listener but excellent too music - that was named...My Bloody Valentine! But the best thing was the title of their third and final album which had been released in the beginning of last century’s last decade: «Loveless»!! Exactly what was happening with those people, that was their problem...But that was not his fault and not anybody else’s. It was only their problem and they had to deal with it themselves. And he had every right to say that because he knew very well what he was talking about...He had dealt with that problem himself too...he could remember the very long sleepless night during his training that he only thought of that. But and a long after that really...very long periods interrupted by much shorter periods when he thought that he had found what he was missing. But by then he had come to realize that those long periods were really just necessary, everybody had to go through that long, even painful phase...as for him/her to understand what love really was all about.
Exit centre stage…
One more shot...That time from so close that he hardly managed to freeze the bullet. He looked at the fat man...He could see clearly the hate, the worse kind of mindless hate in the eyes of that man who was shouting about love. For a brief moment he thought of pulling out his ray gun as for helping that waste of human life to find his true nature...that was to send him to the eternal oblivion quite a long before the time that it was scheduled for him. But although the temptation was too big he avoided it and just rejected the idea...First of all that wouldn’t be noble of him...Like all the «0» agents he had taken an oath...to take a human life only when it was needed to and never for fun or even just for personal reasons. And the fatcho didn’t even deserve that...Instead if he had the time he would just make him stuff his mouth with all his candy...together with the box that was in and then put the box with the jewellery somewhere else...Or maybe the exact opposite. For whom was each one of the packages really? he couldn’t but wonder. Which one for the wifey and which for the mistress? Or one of them could possibly be for the very young secretary...in the secret hope that after so many years that he had forgotten how it was he would feel a mouth on a certain part of his body? But even if that was the case...what was the use of it really? With all that belly he wouldn’t even had been able to see it happening! Whatever...
One more shot...He stopped and that bullet and almost opened his mouth to say something very nasty to the fat man but he didn’t say anything, there was no reason really. Because it had already started...The untrained eye maybe could only see a very strange, both in shape and colour, cloud in the sky. But he knew that it was just the corresponding Gate which was opening...Somewhere, very far away, the positron accelerator was getting into gear, the very next second it would be in full functioning mode. He couldn’t hear its buzz of course but he could already feel its effect on him as billions of positrons were bombarding him and altered rapidly his molecular structure...The last thing that would be off was the heart, the source of blood...just as for the body temperature to remain stable. But he wouldn’t even notice that...By then he would had been turned into a ray of light which would go through the Gate. When the last bit of ray would had gone through the Gate would close and be turned again into an cloud like all the others...and all that so fast that not even somebody who would watch on purpose the scene could ever see what happened.
Nice trick that beaming thing, it was one of the good parts of the job...But although he didn’t know how that Neo in the movie managed it...he always had back pains after it! He would probably need some back rubbing afterwards...Maybe that somebody who would accompany him on the short vacation could help with that. She was so very caring anyway...But he couldn’t afford anything that would distract his attention at the time, he should stay absolutely concentrated...In fact he should just empty his mind of every thought just as for helping the accelerator’s effect to function even faster. Easier said than done though...Another shot! Fortunately for him the fat man didn’t really know how to use a gun...Because they had almost reached him, they were no more than five meters away from him. He saw the sweaty, hateful face of the fat man and his small eyes...so full of malice but and fear too. But he couldn’t care less any more...Because time was running out for both him and them. But although he knew that he should stay calm the sight of that horrible face made him to close his eyes, like he was trying to keep it away...But then another sight came through his mind and that he couldn’t make it go away even if he tried...her face. And that was something that was not typical at all as for the mentality of the good exterminator… «Fuck, I’m too old for this shit!» he joked loudly to himself by reminiscing a line from another old movie, «Lethal Weapon» that time. He didn’t get to hear his own laughter though...
The angry people reached the spot two seconds later, the fat man running - with considerable effort - ahead of all the rest, his finger on the trigger...But he couldn’t do anything more than to throw his gun to the ground with furiousness. Because the only thing that was there was some dust though not even that was visible to them...Special agent 0999 had just left that world for another...maybe not perfect too but at least one where he could communicate, understand and be understood by most of its inhabitants…just because many things that mattered to him mattered to them too. He had exited that mess of a world for one more time, even if it wasn’t the last one. Just like he used to do every time he didn’t have to be there...
 |
|
|
4
Comments
|
|
A place to live, a place to go...
|
Posted:Feb 12, 2009 5:25 pm
Last Updated:Sep 20, 2009 9:49 pm
7313 Views
|
All creative people, the great and the...less great and regardless of the field they are in, have a manner, a certain way in their work. The interesting thing with the great ones is that sometimes some of their best work comes up when ‒ for some reason or totally incidentally ‒ they go out of that way, they act differently to what is expected from them. And that’s the case with today’s song...After their first two masterpieces (the incomparable self titled debut and the wonderful «Strange Days», both in ’67) 1968’s «Waiting For The Sun» was ‒ if we have to be frank ‒ the last decent Doors album before alcohol and drugs took their toll for good on Jim Morrison. After that «The Soft Parade» was really them going by numbers, «Morrison Hotel» just slightly better than that and when they found again a bit of their stride for the quite substantial 1971’s «L.A. Woman» it was already too late...it was bound to be their last record. But even amidst the rest of the other songs on the fairly good «Waiting For The Sun» «Love Street» doesn’t sit that well...And that’s just because...it is not the kind of song that was usually found on Doors’ albums!
The reason for that is very simply that «Love Street» is not Morrison’s and not even the entire band’s baby but solely of Ray Manzarek. Many tend to underestimate Manzarek’s role in the Doors but if Morrison was the face/frontman, persona and even the undisputed leader of the group Manzarek was definitely the brains behind it and by all means its musical mastermind. Without Manzarek the Doors wouldn’t just be a very different band, they simply wouldn’t have ever existed...First of all because it was Manzarek who persuaded a co-student of his at the cinema department of UCLA - who until then imagined himself only as a poet and actually he had no real interest in music - to start singing some of his poems as for the two of them to form a rock band. But and after that and until the untimely ending of the Doors Manzarek’s contribution to both the compositions and the overall sound of the band was immense...
If John Densmore was a good, functional drummer and Robby Krieger was a gifted guitarist Manzarek’s keyboards were really the heart and soul of the Doors’ music (not to mention the fact that most times in recordings and permanently on stage he also filled in for the absence of a bassist with the bass pedals of his organ which just means...two men’s work by one!). Slightly older than the other members and of European (Polish) origin Manzarek had studied a bit the classical piano as a before he turned to the boogie woogie and blues style of playing and through that he graduated towards jazz. Actually before going to UCLA he had formed a jazz trio with his brothers which means that he was a working musician even before the Doors. And it was his love of jazz really that was the cause for the creation of «Love Street»...
That is obvious even from the intro riff that is played on the Fender Rhodes (the most famous and widely used electric piano and Manzarek’s second instrument of choice after his trademark Hammond organ which in this case is kept at the background) and leads to a breezy, really summer ‒ like melody while Manzarek’s short, simple but truly beautiful solo (in an almost cool jazz mode, reminiscent of Dave Brubeck...) in the bridge is in fact the key point of the song, even more than Morrison’s vocals (there was one and only other occasion that this had happened and it was of course the almighty keyboard part of «Light My Fire», another Manzarek baby). And although it may seems a little strange this piece of music inspired Morrison to write a few of his best lines...A little before he started losing it completely «Love Street» is one of his finest lyrics and not only as for the meaning but also form and structure wise: Unlike many of his other songs of the period it doesn’t drag at all but on the contrary it is distinguished by a very economic, almost careful (for him at least...) use of words, a very clear meaning, his always very vivid imagery of course present but it is also one of the very few times that a sense of humour is visible in his work. You can tell it even by some parts of the lyric but and from the tone of his voice too and even from the fact that in the finale he allows himself to sing some «la, la, la, la, la, la» like he was one of those show biz performers he despised so much! A sweet, light hearted and pleasant little song all in all...
So it comes as not a great surprise that most things in it are descriptions of real situations and not products of the troubled mind of the Lizard King. The Love Street itself was Rothdell Trail of Los Angeles, the «store where the creatures meet» was a store in a nearby road and the «house and garden» was located at a certain block of the aforementioned Rothdell Trail. And also real is that «she», the tenant of the house...She is none other than Pamela Courson, of the too many women that were in Morrison’s life probably....«the one and only». She then went on to be his wife ‒ though not through any kind of conventional marriage ‒ and she was the only person that accompanied him to his fatal trip to Paris where he died in 1971...So what Morrison is talking about here is a witch...a real life witch. He was lucky enough to meet his in his short life...just like is lucky anybody who gets to meet his/her wizard/witch in his/her life. A person that just «has wisdom and knows what to do»...I can only wish to you to have that luck if you hadn’t it till now, even this weekend, why not? But have it the best way you can anyway!
She lives on Love Street
Lingers long on Love Street
She has a house and garden
I would like to see what happens
She has robes and she has monkeys
Lazy diamond studded flunkies
She has wisdom and knows what to do
She has me and she has you
She has wisdom and knows what to do
She has me and she has you
I see you live on Love Street
There's this store where the creatures meet
I wonder what they do in there
Summer, Sunday and a year
I guess I like it fine, so far
She lives on Love Street
Lingers long on Love Street
She has a house and garden
I would like to see what happens
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la...
[Yes, I know that I had promised that there was going to be a follow up to the last post...But this week was too busy, messy and complicated to me. It will come though...together with the other missing posts of the week. But after tomorrow when there is going to be something that just HAS to be posted!]
 |
|
|
2
Comments
|
|
Face value
|
Posted:Feb 10, 2009 6:05 pm
Last Updated:Feb 11, 2009 10:28 pm
7215 Views
|
This post started as some thoughts caused by a conversation I took part in a few days before...Some people happened to be at a friend’s house and there was talking about something that I think that concerns pretty much everybody in the world right now, the economic recession. One of those present, an economist and really very good in his profession, started giving us advice about how one should move in the current economical climate. He has this theory called «smart moves aren’t necessarily the costly ones»...Up to that point somebody could either agree or disagree but keeping in mind that he is an expert on the issue so he knows very well what he is talking about. But suddenly he didn’t exactly change the subject...though he took it to whole different level. The economist you see is right now at the end of his second divorce...and it is not at all amicable. So he started explaining to us how his theory about economics and money matters in a time of recession could also be applied ‒ without a single change it has to be noted ‒ and in personal matters. One way or another quite...interesting point of view, I have to say that...
Actually the whole conversation and even more the end of it were very interesting to me and that’s why I’m going to quote some parts of it here but in my next post. Because for some reason it seems more right to me to start with the conclusions I came to because of it...Even in the cases I have great and very serious objections to what somebody says (or writes) on an important matter I have also the vice to try to follow his/her train of thought at least until to the point that I get to realize what he/she actually means and even more how he/she arrived to that conclusion. Maybe it is just because I am always very curious about any intellectual procedure, that is a trait of mine that it will not leave me until my very last day, by now I am more than sure about that...
In this case I didn’t let myself to be carried away by the fact that I had an objection even on the basis of his thinking. You see it happens to be a fundamental belief of mine since a very early age that ‒ although necessary, I can’t but admit to that ‒ money is definitely an evil, one of the two or three that are the worse for the human race (the fact that the latter invented the damn thing can’t be more ironic to me really...) and if it was possible we should had got rid of it a long time ago. Unfortunately of course it isn’t...But having such an opinion couldn’t of course but make me not just surprised but really angry with the fact that somebody could ever put on a parallel the use of money and the way a person handles his/her personal relationships...which pretty much means that he believes that even feelings have a price. A money price, not of any other kind...But I didn’t show anything, I just sat there listening patiently and carefully what he was saying. And later, when I was alone, I really tried to see if all those that he was claiming could ever be true...or even to turn out being such sometimes and under certain conditions.
What he was really saying was that there are ways that can be applied to both things but in a different manner...The first one of them is that «you can buy things that cost more than the money you have». I never was a supporter of that...I always like the best thing that my money at that time can buy. And that also means ‒ and always following his way of thinking, I’m reminding that one more and last time ‒ that personally I like to think of myself and also present him exactly how he is...Who I am, how I am, what I know, what I like, what I don’t like, what I want, what I look for...such simple things. And I don’t disagree with him on that as far as I’m concerned...But it is at this point that he gives a twist to things that really demands a lot of talking about.
First thing he suggests is that you should always want to get the most expensive thing...Why really? As much as it is true that good things never come too cheap it is as true that after a point you are just paying for a label, the signature of a famous designer (who in some cases hasn’t even seen the thing that he/she is supposed to have designed!) or the very high rent the shop owner has to pay each month. «Some extra luxury is the best thing to get you through times of crisis» he says though...OK...let’s take it a step further like he does. The same and for personal matters? Well no...not for me at least. I know what I want...and that’s enough for me. But let’s stay with the man to see where he is getting to...
«And even you can’t buy the most expensive thing...you can buy that which looks the most expensive...». Wow! Hold on a minute mister! Does this mean that I should buy something more or less overpriced and fool myself into thinking that I found a bargain? Well in my language this is called «being a sucker» and that’s something I was never very happy admitting to...Yes, I have paid for things more than their real value...and some other, fewer times I left a sales person thinking that a nice packaging or the neat way something looked could make me believe that it was much more expensive than it actually was. In both cases for the same reason, the thing was good enough for what I wanted it for or at least the closest I could get to that...But I knew very well what was going on. And ‒ again in my language ‒ this is called a compromise. OK, it’s not the best thing but nobody can go through life without a number of them...and definitely it’s very different than being a sucker! Much more so than also knowing about it and somewhat enjoying it...
Obviously our economical brain thinks that you can do something alike, have a similar behavioural pattern and when you deal with people...I’ll do him the favour once again and I will think along his lines. And for some reason it’s again the same word that comes to my mind...Compromise. I had people in my life...probably most of them who although they saw very clearly who I was ‒ because I never try to hide it, on the contrary I show it as much clearly as I can...just because I believe that honesty is probably the greatest virtue anybody can have ‒ somehow...they missed something. There is no other way really to explain that after a period of time, short or longer, that doesn’t really matter, they started ‒ straight or in an indirect way ‒ to want me to change things about myself. Some others, much less of them, they did the same the opposite way...They kept asking ‒ literally or through their behaviour - the question «is there anything that you don’t like about me and you want me to change?». Yes, that’s happening too...
I said above that nobody can go through life without compromises...But I plead guilty on that...I have done too many, many more than my fair share. Both when buying things and...in the other case...And for both things the reason was one and only and the same...I don’t just despise, I really hate even arguing and much more fighting about things...about anything really. I just think that it’s an incredible and awful waste of the not too much time we have on this planet...But I certainly overdo it, I know that very well...that is a huge mistake of mine and I have paid for it too many times. In money and not only...Regarding things I have bought stuff that proved to be even lesser than I thought that it was...Regarding people...it’s not nice to have people telling you to change this and that about yourself...somehow it is like in the beginning they saw on you a projection of what they had in their minds and not the real you. As for changing things about themselves...it is like they either didn’t show you at first their real selves or they doubt your ability to tell what you like and want. Both of them not nice things too and I really don’t know which one is the worse...
But that’s what a compromise is all about, right? Accepting that something isn’t exactly like it should be...But it’s all in the definition of that «exactly» for anybody. Or in other words...everything can only get up to a point! If you go past that you just turn into the aforementioned sucker...I have never paid too much money for buying a piece of trash because it was «designer made» - first of all because I don’t like trash and I would never buy a single piece of it! And I can buy something slightly overpriced but never twice or more its real price ‒ why not buying the whole store instead? It seems much more reasonable since its net profit is that high...Accordingly with people I have accepted to change ‒ or at least to try to...- a thing or two about myself but never more. Because when you start changing too many things eventually at some moment you realize that without really understanding how you have turned into a whole different person, you have become a stranger to your own self...And as for those who asked what they should change about themselves...I just never bothered even answering.
So up to here we already have a crack or two in the great economist’s theory...Because he is no fool at all ‒ on the contrary, he is not only a very clever person but he also has a very fast and accurate way of thinking ‒ he knows very well that this is pretty much the way things are for everybody. And what he has to suggest about that? The same he suggests and about money and buying things, to obey to the rules of the market at least as he sees them at a time of recession: «Bluff your way the best way you can, do as much haggling as you can, cut yourself the best possible deal...Get the best thing or at least what seems, even just looks as the best each time. Even if you have to be in debt because of it, what matters is not to be deprived of the goods...Somehow you’ll manage with the debt when the day to pay the interest comes. In the worse case you can bluff and haggle a little more...». How easy is to manage that is of course up to anybody to guess...
But then suddenly comes ‒ like it happens with all theories because that is probably the only way that they are put into trial as to be proven beyond doubt as right or wrong ‒ the...x factor! What if you supposedly meet somebody who doesn’t want you to change anything about yourself...who just takes you as you are? And what if he/she doesn’t say, not even imply in the slightest sense that he/she could change anything about himself/herself? Not for you but for nobody, it is just something that is out of his/her way of thinking just like it is out of yours...But for some strange reason...even if he/she gave you the chance you wouldn’t change the slightest about him/her. No compromise this time, not even a glimpse of it...
But still following the economical brain’s train of thought we’ll reverse the procedure...we’ll try to apply that to money matters. What it could be the parallel to that when buying things really? I guess that it would be walking into a store, seeing a very good, well made, beautiful and quite expensive item on a shelve and suddenly the thing to start shouting «yes! It was you that I was waiting for all the time! Buy me, take me home with you»! And then an all smiling shop assistant to take it down from the shelve, wrap it up, offer it to you and to answer your question «how much does it cost?» just by saying with an even wider smile «please sir/madam...It’s on the house. Just for you...it’s free. Didn’t you see how much it wanted you to buy it?». Has anybody heard of anything alike ever happening? No and I don’t think that it is possible to see it happening regardless of how much this world could change...Which just means...wrong suggestion through the reduction to the absurd! And like we all know one of the ground principles of the most elementary mathematics is that when something is right ‒ or wrong like in this case ‒ as for the converse of a hypothesis it is also and for the hypothesis too...and vice versa of course. Up goes the whole theory then...
So I think (and regardless of how atrocious I really believe that is even the notion of applying any rules of any market to human feelings) that I can now safely say virtually ‒ not that I would have any problem to do it and face to face, he is no friend of mine but just somebody I know, I have to say that too ‒ to the economist a glorious...SCREW YOU and your theory! Or, if you like it better that way, you can take it and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine...You may be very good in what you do, you know very much about money, markets, buying, selling and material things. But you don’t know shit about people and what moves them...And that’s why you should keep your mouth shut about that, you really have no right talking about such issues. I will even allow myself to be mean for once ...I really hope that the second alimony would be such as for you to realize the cost of not only saying such bullshit but also preaching it to others. In the only way that matters to you of course...your beloved money. But I owe something and to somebody who helped me see much faster, easier and better through all that so called practical nonsense. Thank you for being there...Thank you for being true...Thank you for just being you, nothing more nothing less...
|
|
|
1
comment
|
|
Too much needing
|
Posted:Feb 8, 2009 2:20 am
Last Updated:Feb 10, 2009 4:19 am
7233 Views
|
If you haven’t been born yesterday some things are bound to have happened to you more than once in your life…One of them is that there were times when you really needed people…that is a certain person at some point of time. I have to say that I never enjoyed too much that part, sometimes I even hated it…For one reason really, that it made me feel too much, extremely vulnerable. And feeling that way is both a sign for and a reason too for somebody, even more people than one sometimes, to take advantage of you…And indeed that has happened…not all the times but quite a few. Not a good thing by all means to happen to you…and even worse in such a case.
So this time I should like it less than any other…Because the need too is greater and more than any other. I don’t just need you…I need even to breathe the air that you do, if not the air that you have already breathed because it just seems more fresh and clear than even that which there is on the highest mountain tops…I don’t just need your lips but even that little curve between them and your chin…I don’t just need your eyes when they are open but even when they are closed and you are sleeping…I don’t just need you when you are in a good mood but even when you are in a strange, bad one…And not only I like all that needing but in fact I enjoy it too! Strange maybe? Bizarre even?
Not at all really…Because there are some other things that are different this time and make the need not just an enjoyable but a wonderful really thing. First of all it is always good ‒ but doesn’t always happen! ‒ to get some need from the other side as a return for your need, that helps any time. But that isn’t the greatest, the most important reason for making it so different this time. What really matters the most is the sense that nobody will use or even turn that need against me…The fact that I can be sure that unlike any other time at no point that need will be turned into a means that ‒ consciously or not, that actually makes no real difference…‒ will be used to manipulate me in one way or another. And really few other feelings are nicer than that…
Because that allows the need to go all the way to the point where it is its natural destination…where it turns into a wish. And a wish is not an open end thing like the need…Wishes most times tend to be realized...or in the worse case they have very good possibilities for that. And that just means that the wish actually becomes a part of your wants…Wait a minute though! Wants I said? But doesn’t everything start when you want something…somebody? That’s it really, as simple as that! This is the point where we came in so I can just stop and go now! It’s definitely one of the cases where things have come full circle…
But that also makes me understand and some other things…That and all the other times it wasn’t the intensity and the power of the need that was wrong. In fact there is nothing wrong or bad with the notion of the need…There are only wrong kinds of needs. Those that they can never get to be wishes and then just simple, real wants from the gut. And as it seems most of them tend to be like that…Maybe though then they aren’t even needs but much lesser things which we perceive as such just because we are too weak or too scared of being alone to just let them pass…but that’s another and very long story. But as much as it is true that you can never change the past and make its wrongs rights it is probably even truer that it can teach you really valuable lessons. So since things have come full circle it is my turn to go back to the drawing board for a total change of point of view as for that issue…«Elementary my dear Watson!» if I am to recall one of the greatest, most brilliant minds of all time. Even if it existed only in…another mind, that of a truly brilliant writer...
|
|
|
1
comment
|
|
The heartbeat of Saturday night
|
Posted:Feb 7, 2009 2:17 pm
Last Updated:Feb 8, 2009 9:07 pm
7173 Views
|
It’s a pleasant night, quite warm for this time of the year, so a lot of people really are out…The streets are full of them. People in cars, taxis, buses, the metro or on foot. Couples, small or large companies of friends, families and some others walking in a hurry, almost running, probably because they are late for the place they are going to and/or the persons they are going to meet. People in movie theatres, cafes, restaurants, clubs, bars…There are even those who are looking in the shop windows although all stores have closed for the weekend by now. People dressed casually, trendy or even formally, depending on the occasion. Some are talking loudly, some are laughing merrily and from their hearts, some are just smiling and others are silent. Some really seem happy, others appear to be detached even from those that they are with at the time looking either absent minded or lost in their thoughts but there are those too that definitely have some trouble in mind or they are just sad…maybe even in sorrow, who knows? And who can ever know? People…All kinds of people, being in all kinds of moods.
But this is no different than any other day around this time…There are just more people out there, more than any other day…except probably on New Year’s Eve or something. But is that enough of a reason for everything…this time of the day or rather the night, the night itself, the places, the city, even the people, people that probably I have seen ‒ or I could have seen ‒ and other nights at such a time to seem so different in my eyes? No, of course it isn’t…The reason really is that the pace is not as fast…make that not as frenetic as of other days. So I may just be able to see things that there are there every day but I just don’t notice them…Just because now, tonight, I’m not running like all other times and also because it is a little more than twenty four hours that I haven’t been («officially» at least) at work. Yeah, probably other nights I’m in too much of a rush and too tired too to notice such wonderful things that happen right here, in front of my eyes, in the middle of the street, in the heart of the always crowded downtown...
Like the sound of your laughter covering all that awful traffic noise...Your face in the glow of every street light, everywhere I turn my eyes...And you...just you, in the cool night air, like born from it, made of the same aerial material. But how strange really...Your reflection in every shop window, every passing car’s widescreen, even in every pair of eyes mine meet incidentally, is more than real. And that’s really the biggest difference to all other nights...Like then and now too there are people in the streets of the city, more or less of them. But it’s only today that I feel that there is another person except me out there. The only other real person and because of that the only one who matters...
 |
|
|
3
Comments
|
|
At play in the Sea Of Serenity...[*]
|
Posted:Feb 6, 2009 1:08 am
Last Updated:Feb 7, 2009 11:12 pm
7222 Views
|
OK, there is the general rule which says that the best love songs are the break up ones...But like I always say there is no rule that doesn’t have exceptions! Or rather and if you like...what you just read is the one and only rule that doesn’t have exceptions! So yes, break up songs are the best love songs...But there are some good love songs that aren’t such ones. And some of them are good despite the fact that they don’t even talk about the serious aspects of love...To make myself clear I’m not implying that the pleasure, the sheer joy, just the happiness - if you prefer it that way - that this feeling gives when it is true, strong and happens in the right way (whatever that may mean each time for two people...) are not serious or important things...Actually they are the most serious, important and of course the best things about it! And although admittedly they are hard to be obtained it’s not like that they don’t happen to anybody...The problem is that they also are the most difficult to be described and disserted from a creative point of view when somebody is living and experiencing them, inconsiderably more difficult than the hard times of love. And even more obviously when somebody has to imagine or just recall them as for expressing them. But at times some people manage to do it...And today I felt the need for such a song. Not that I’m celebrating anything in particular...I just think that a brighter, lighter mood for this weekend will do nobody any harm! Neither me nor you...
LeAnn Rimes is a great singer, full stop. The star system ‒ and in the States that happens more than any other country, in fact for entire decades now ‒ tries to sell to the public many « wonders», in singing, acting and maybe in other fields too. But most of them are fabricated and not real talents and that’s why they are forgotten by the time they are twenty or a little later than that...LeAnn Rimes was not yet fourteen years old when she debuted with the single «Blue» in 1996 which just means that today she is twenty seven years old, still very young but having passed for good the age limit of teenage stars. And she is going more than strong and doing more than fine, thank you very much...which in turn means that she is just a true talent. One of the finest voices to come out of country music at least in the last twenty years...There are many who claim that although their respective timbres couldn’t be more different if Rimes reminds them somebody else, a singer from the past, she would have to be the late, great Patsy Cline. And I can pretty much understand why...Both of them share a certain «wide scope» that doesn’t have so much to do with the vocal range as with the inner qualities of their voices.
It’s exactly that scope that somewhat doesn’t sit that well with country, a musical genre that is fundamentally rather conservative and narrow...not only in its values but also in its shape and form (in every kind of creative expression anyway the latter are directly connected to the former...but that’s too long a matter to be ever discussed in a blog post). And that’s the reason why Rimes, just like Patsy Cline really, fits equally well...if not actually more and better than in the scheme of things of country into the one of pop. As for Rimes herself one of the best examples regarding that is definitely «Can't Fight The Moonlight»...It was first heard in the 2000 movie «Coyote Ugly» which really has to be one of the worse films ever made (not only fucking boring but also awfully, incredibly sexist with its only use being that it brought the quite talented Piper Perabo to the spotlight, Maria Bello was already heading towards it one way or another) and then went on to be on her 2001 album «I Need You».
«Can't Fight The Moonlight» was written by Diane Warren and it also has her distinctive technique written all over it: You can see from miles away a very large chorus coming and when it arrives it builds and builds without seeming to stop...actually the entire song is a little more than a giant chorus. But on the other hand it is by all means one of Mrs Warren’s more inspired moments which was also fortunate enough to find itself in the magical hands of producer Trevor Horn (drawing the sonic landscapes of Art Of Noise couldn’t ever really go amiss although typically he is now well past his heyday, just notice his trademark razor sharp edits of the rhythm): A joyful, life affirming melody which constantly moves forward pushed by the driving, almost pulsating beat while the female choir really and not just mere backing vocals are so meticulously organized that it could really be...a subject in the lesson of vocal arrangement in music schools! An exemplary pop song which is a little less than perfect for its kind, that’s all about it really...
But of course it is LeAnn’s voice, not just bright but really crystal clear like the most pleasant early morning sunshine of one of the first quite warm spring days, that mostly makes it that and literally shines throughout it...The girl has the lungs and also the...guts and she proves it in her towering crescendo at the beginning of the two last repeats of the chorus (or that should really be the chorus’...chorus? ) by hitting sky high notes without even trying while not losing even a glimpse of her clarity, her voice cutting through the mix and amidst Horn’s sonic storm and the wall of backing vocals like the most well sharpened knife. And at the same time she manages to remain not just really sensual but also so enjoyably playful....
Because make no mistake, there isn’t anything nasty in here, nothing is hidden between these lines. This is an as much naughty by mutual consent as to end up as adorably innocent game between two people who are very simply in love with each other...the kind of game that only real lovers can play. I can only wish to you then if you really have a partner of that kind to play with him/her, for real or in your imaginations, in the same place or even far away from each other, being together or each one alone but at the same time with the other and having him/her in mind, one or more of such games...Personally I can’t think of a better weekend and I don’t believe that there is anybody who can seriously doubt that. But if there is someone who does...the first one that will manage to hide from a kiss in such a case gets a gold membership on the expenses of this blog! But I have to tell you that I have lost barely one bet in my life...A good player in one, a good player in all!
Under the lover sky
Gonna be with you
And no one's gonna be around
If you think that you won't fall
Well just wait until
'Til the sun goes down
Underneath the starlight, starlight
There's a magical feeling so right
It will steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know
That you can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark, you'll surrender your heart
Don't you know, don't you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight...
No, you can't fight it
It's gonna get to your heart
There's no escaping love
Once a gentle breeze
Weaves a spell upon your heart
No matter what you think
It won't be too long
'Til you're in my arms
Underneath the starlight, starlight
We'll be lost in the rhythm so right
Feel it steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know
That you can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark, you'll surrender your heart
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
No, you can't fight it
It's gonna get to your heart
No matter what you do
The night is gonna get to you
(You're gonna know
That I know)
Don't try, you're never gonna win, oh
Underneath the starlight, starlight
There's a magical feeling, so right
It'll steal your heart tonight
You can try to resist
Try to hide from my kiss
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
Deep in the dark, you'll surrender your heart
But you know, but you know that you
Can't fight the moonlight
No, you can't fight it...
[*And for the knowledge prone...In the case that you don’t know it the Sea Of Serenity is the name of one of the biggest «plains» or «valleys» of the moon which were created by volcano eruptions that happened a very long time before the human race walked on earth.]
[Note to G.: Try to listen to it with an open mind, I think that this one is right even for you dark minded, metal bashing and eating, whiskey sucking dirty old bastard...Even up to the fact that LeAnn is...blonde, damn it! Because if even this doesn’t work I’ll be left with only one choice as for you...Smiths’ «Sweet And Tender Hooligan»! ]
 |
|
|
3
Comments
|
|
Alien talking
|
Posted:Feb 4, 2009 11:25 pm
Last Updated:Feb 7, 2009 11:18 pm
7261 Views
|
I touch your kisses...I see your heartbeat...I hear your blood running...I smell your moves...I taste the look in your eyes...I get the rays of your sighs, the thousands different kinds of them...I sense the vibrating meaning of your words, coming through solids, liquids and gases...Those said and even those that aren’t, the latter even more...And all your thoughts, each and every one of them, speak directly to my mind and my soul...Like mine do to your mind and soul...And that’s not ESP as they call it on that place...That’s only a different form of communication...It just takes some training, the necessary extra organs that we have, our ability to transform our molecular structure according to our emotional - physical ratio and our twelfth sense called intuition, pretty much easy stuff that is...For us though! Oh and of course knowing the codes and they are not a few...Signal received, deciphered, analyzed, saved...Signal transmitted in reply…Meeting on the way out and in the middle of the distance another incoming signal...
So here is one more encoded message for you...In their universe, in their world and in something called blog I post every Friday such songs. But this one could never be one of them...Just because it is only for a very few...and it can be understood by even less.
Pretty amazing grace is what you showed me
Pretty amazing grace is who you are
I was an empty vessel
You filled me up inside
And with amazing grace
Restored my pride
Pretty amazing grace is how you saved me
And with amazing grace reclaimed my heart
Love in the midst of chaos
Calm in the heat of war
Showed with amazing grace
What love was for
You forgave my insensitivity
And my attempt to then mislead you
You stood beside a wretch like me
And pretty amazing grace was all I needed
Stumbled inside the doorway of your chapel
Humbled and awed by everything I found
Beauty and love surround me
Freed me from what I feared
Asked for amazing grace
And you appeared
You overcame my loss of hope and faith
Gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to a higher place
Showed your amazing grace
When grace was what I needed
Look in a mirror I see your refection
Open a book you live on every page
I fall and you’re there to lift me
You share every road I climb
And with amazing grace
You ease my mind
I came to you with empty pockets first
When I returned I was a rich man
Didn’t believe love could quench my thirst
But with amazing grace you showed me that it can
In your amazing grace I had a vision
From that amazing place I came to be
Into the night I wandered, wandering aimlessly
Found your amazing grace to comfort me
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
Pretty amazing
You overcame my loss of hope and faith
Gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to that higher place
Showed me that love and truth and hope and grace
Were all I needed...
[For the curious watchers of the skies and those interested in extra terrestrial intelligence: The song is «Pretty Amazing Grace», the first single off Neil Diamond’s «Home Before Dark» album from last year. Yes, that Neil Diamond who used to go on stage dressed as a walking circus and with an enormous American flag as the backdrop...But underneath all that kitsch there always was a damn fine songwriter ‒ and a good singer too although too melodramatic at times, if truth has to be said ‒ who (at sixty seven!) with that record came to the fore more and in a better way than ever before...Of course he didn’t do it all by himself, it also took (actually it had started on his previous record, 2005’s «12 Songs») Rick Rubin. Yes, that Rick Rubin, the producer who with Run-DMC gave hip-hop to the mainstream while at the same time and with Beastie Boys he gave the white the chance to prove that they too can (not to mention bringing the almighty Public Enemy to an unsuspecting world) and then went on to champion thrash and speed metal (Danzig, Anthrax) before he turned all neo - retro rock with records by Donovan (!), Tom Petty and Jayhawks. But by re-discovering vintage Americana he came to mastermind 1994’s «American Recordings» which set the stage for a more ‒ than - fitting, powerful comeback of the not just legendary but really great Johnny Cash which lasted until his death in 2003...And pretty much the same, that is giving a second leash of creative life, he also did to Diamond with his last two records and even more with «Home Before Dark».
But if you think that this is a religious song or even worse a cover...well, better get your facts right and clear because certainly you have them all mixed up! The religious hymn is titled simply «Amazing Grace» and it was written in England give or take two hundred and thirty years ago...As for any religious content...try to read between the lines, if of course you manage first to understand the lines themselves. And for the seriously UFO ‒ minded the photo is from 1976’s «The Man Who Fell To Earth», directed by Nicolas Roeg and with David Bowie starring. Now if there is a movie that it is extremely difficult to read and understand its lines, let alone the meanings between them, it is that (so deservedly!) cult classic...]
 |
|
|
3
Comments
|
|
The sense of balance
|
Posted:Feb 4, 2009 7:19 am
Last Updated:Feb 4, 2009 8:50 pm
7133 Views
|
There are some things that you only learn as you grow up ‒ both literally and as a person -, there is no other way about it…When you are younger definitely you don’t know the right way to deal with them so you are bound to make mistakes. That’s more than alright, a problem arises only with some who are turn out to be really…dunce in learning about such things, they can’t be taught anything from the lessons ‒ call them experiences ‒ that life teaches us all on a daily basis…For instance there are many times in somebody’s life that he/she feels like he/she loses the balance. It doesn’t take anything big, dramatic or even worse tragic, two or three unexpected things happening together or a couple of them going the wrong way or even not the one destined for them are more than enough. Small, ordinary things of those that happen in everyday life, at work or at home…The inexperienced then tend to get panicked and react under frustration or even while being upset which actually causes even more damage than the thing itself.
But the experienced know that such a situation is not that much different really than when you are in, let’s say, a ship that sways left and right because of a turbulent sea…If you are standing up then it is for sure that you’ll lose your balance. But even more than to keep holding from somewhere as not to fall down anybody that has been in a ship sometimes knows what to do then. He should look to the point of the ship where the most weight lies and position himself/herself according to that…But again there is a fine line between those who just know how to keep standing up in such an occasion and the really experienced sea travellers…just like there is between those who just manage to go through life and its…advanced users.
The first often make the mistake to run towards the place where the weight is and of course by doing that they add more to it. The result obviously is that the balance is disturbed even more, that time because of a sudden change of the centre of gravity and not because of the initial reason. And in that case there could be a danger that is much greater than them to just fall down…It is exactly the same in life really, the weak in mind, heart and soul get scared and start running towards the things that weigh more…those that matter and mean the most to them. And this not only doesn’t help them in the slightest but can also cause damage to those things, just like any time that you don’t have complete control on your moves…But an advanced user knows that you never move in a rush because then it is more than sure that a wrong move, an error will happen. So in this case he/she stands firmly and keeps in mind to never lose sight of the things that matter as for being able to position himself/herself in the right way towards them. And then he/she only has to be a little patient, to wait until the turbulence is over and perfect balance has been achieved again…
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
Running
|
Posted:Feb 3, 2009 12:25 am
Last Updated:Feb 4, 2009 4:19 am
7114 Views
|
The rushing of all things…The speeding of the traffic in the city streets…The haste of people who nowadays don’t have time even only for their jobs, not all the other things they have to do…The faster and faster recently train of my own thoughts…The urgent, sometimes even frenetic pace of the night like it’s trying to get even with the day by running even more within than how much the latter does outside…The galloping of desires and wishes…The rush of blood…The sense that you can’t even think of slowing down because then you can’t be sure that you’ll be able to start running again as fast as you should…And amidst all that a couple of thoughts, some people, a very certain face…Fortunately enough not only to help you keep that required ‒ if not just necessary ‒ rhythm of life but also to give a meaning to your running…And more than enough to give you that momentary stop for breath and thinking all over again the course and the procedure just as for reassuring yourself that you are on the right track. Because you’ll always be running, there is no doubt about that…But what really matters is to run to the right direction and - even more than that - always with a reason…A good enough reason not only to make you run but also for keeping you wanting to run and eventually even enjoying your endless running…
|
|
|
2
Comments
|
|
About lucky charms...
|
Posted:Feb 2, 2009 3:49 am
Last Updated:Jun 29, 2009 7:16 pm
7196 Views
|
I never believed in the thing they call «luck», I don’t believe in it and I will never do too. Unless very certain things like a meteoric stone falling on your head when you are walking in the street (but even that is an incident...and anyway afterwards you don’t care that much if you had good or bad luck, actually you don’t care about anything at all!) the word luck just doesn’t exist for me, ditto the word fate. Everything that happens to us and every situation we find ourselves in is because of actions (or lack of them) of people...our own, others’ or a combination of both. So I don’t have neither to be grateful nor to curse any luck for anything that happens to me...And that means too of course that I don’t believe in any lucky charms. The very few material things that I’m really attached to are very useful to me or for some reason I just love them very much...
So how do you call it when...something like that happens: You are just at the end of a very difficult week and you face two or three days that you will be in really very deep shit (oh yeah! Give me more of that, I really enjoy it!). And suddenly something comes up, something very simple, very ordinary...But because of that you feel all the energy that was missed during the past week coming back to you, your mind doesn’t only get absolutely clear but also starts working better and at a faster pace than other times (like it should be in such occasions), you have the necessary stamina and strength to deal with the facts and it even makes up for some of the meals that for sure you are going to miss in the next days!
What do you do then? You thank the universe that such a thing exists and it made it happen on you? And if it’s only...a voice? You thank the owner of that voice? Pointless because it wasn’t even done deliberately, you haven’t even talked really about the stuff that you have to go through...So this is no luck or anything mysterious and incomprehensible like that. It is something much simpler and absolutely more real...That thing called caring which you can feel even when it is not said with specific words just because there is, you can see it between words and sense it behind them. And that’s something that by all fucking means has nothing to do with luck and it’s incredibly much more than any lousy charm...
|
|
|
1
comment
|
|
Exhaling
|
Posted:Feb 1, 2009 3:39 am
Last Updated:Feb 3, 2009 9:27 am
6998 Views
|
Why the city smells that bad tonight? Who knows...and who cares...But I don’t have to smell it. With some concentration you can make your sense of smell to focus on certain things...just like that of hearing or even the vision. And having a slight cold actually helps to that...I only have to make the wind to stop blowing, even that little...Yes, you will...And stop resisting! Fine...And now I just want the night...the air...and even the clouds to breathe deeply. Deeper please, you can do it...See? Nothing difficult...Now exhale what you breathed on the trees...All the trees, those nearby and even those far away...And now wind you may start blowing again...Bring me from the trees what the night and its friends breathed...And it does...It is your exhalations...And suddenly the night smells better than any other, like the most wonderful fragrance of the world...Even time somewhat seems to have changed into the rhythm of your exhaling...The miracles some mind exercise can really do...
|
|
|
1
comment
|
|
That tender fragility...
|
Posted:Jan 31, 2009 9:53 pm
Last Updated:Feb 1, 2009 3:36 pm
6853 Views
|
For better or worse I do not ever bend, even under the worse conditions and in the most difficult situations. Always have been that way...Maybe because I hate bending...or because I’m not made of material that bends easily...or because of both those. And either deliberately or not a lot of people took advantage of that...Really in my life I have acted as a shield to too many weak people. I had much more than my fair share of them...and I’m really sick and tired of their kind! It isn’t really that it cost me anything or that I had any damage because of that...I just think that it is incredibly unfair to be asked to do so many times for others something that you haven’t even ever thought to ask from anybody, you just don’t need to do that. And unfairness is one of the things that to me act like the red colour to a bull, it just makes me wanting to smash in pieces everything around. Maybe and everyone too...That’s why I decided quite some time ago that I’m once and forever through with all those who need «guardians», last time I checked anyway there was no sign «shelter for the emotionally distressed» on my door. And I don’t need any excuses about that anymore, I just deserve it. Yeah, I think that once in a while we are entitled to use that verb and for ourselves and not only for the others...
So there is no way that you could be of that kind...I knew that from the very first moment and that’s why we are both still here...otherwise we would be in very different places. But there is an enormous difference too between being constantly weak and having occasional moments of weakness...The latter is just a human trait, nobody can avoid it and you can’t ask that from anybody. I can’t even demand that from myself...There are always cracks in your strength, the thing is how you deal with them. And the problem starts when those cracks are getting to be more and more and wider and they appear more frequently with the passing of time...until there is only one huge crack, an empty hole that doesn’t hold back anything but instead just absorbs, sucks in whatever happens to pass in front of it. Feelings, vital energy, the love for life itself...But a crack or two are bound to appear to anybody at times, that’s the way if not the law of nature. Otherwise there would and the word super before the name of our kind...
That’s why I awaited with interest, even with some curiosity too the first time that I would see such a big crack on you...Not that I worried about you, by now I know for sure that you too are not of the bending kind. Not at all really...What I really wanted to see was how I would react in such a case...exactly because my dislike for weakness has got to the point of being almost some kind of allergy. Maybe I wanted to test my limitations too, a bad habit of mine maybe but I always like to do that...And with you being really sick for more than a week now I had more than a good chance to find out. Well...test not just passed but we got even higher grades than we could expect, plus points for the degree...so to speak!
Yes, it was the first time I saw you so vulnerable, more than any other time...And I have no problem admitting to the fact that it made me feel fragile, really fragile...which was a rather nice surprise actually because the times I feel that way are very, very rare. But not even for a moment I didn’t feel, didn’t think even that I was bending...On the contrary, that momentary fragility because of your vulnerability actually made me feel stronger, much stronger than before. For me but and for you too that you are temporarily vulnerable and you can use some extra strength, even if it is coming from somebody else...What else, what more really can a strong (self) control freak ask for? It can’t get any better than someone who is exactly alike him...
For some reason though all that reminds me something that happened a few years back, when in a short period of time there were some big earthquakes in this country. Once then I found myself in a conversation of a large group of people about buildings and their endurance. Among us there was a civil engineer, one of the best, more experienced and most distinguished in our country, who was trying to explain to the others that contrary to what they believed the so called «solid rock» buildings are not the most enduring and safe, the materials should have some tolerance or allowance ‒ depending on their nature ‒ and the building itself to be able to make some kind of move as to be really safe. Nobody seemed to get what he was saying and he was getting really upset...I have absolutely no idea about his field of work but what he was saying was really very simple so I understood it perfectly with the result being that the conversation to me was getting not only boring but also pointless. So to get over with it and without really realizing what I was saying I told him «obviously, things that appear to be softer many times are the most durable...or rather the most resistant? Not many people can imagine that but technically, anthropologically speaking the heart is the most enduring, sturdy, hardy even muscle of the human body». He turned to me surprised and he just said «you know, I had never thought of it that way...but that is exactly what I mean. It just seems that it doesn’t apply only to buildings...». He said so, not me...
|
|
|
2
Comments
|
|
A very long wandering...
|
Posted:Jan 31, 2009 12:13 am
Last Updated:Jan 31, 2009 3:55 pm
6881 Views
|
I have to say that sometimes in the past I was about to post today’s song but I hadn’t done it...I don’t know why, maybe just because I thought that it was a «love song» a very few would get. Eventually I used some of its lines in a reply and I thought that as for this blog I was over with it...Until I was reminded of it because of a friend, actually it was him that really brought it up. That happened a few days before when he dropped by at work at a time that he should be working too...and it was not without a reason that he paid me the visit. He was coming back from the airport where he has gone to say goodbye to somebody who will not just be out of the city but and out of the country too for a period of time...So he wasn’t in the best of moods, he needed some comforting, «that’s what friends are for» and all that stuff, you know. But better to quote our conversation, as far as I can recall it...
-Come on, don’t be a crybaby...She will not be gone forever.
-Yeah, I know...But three months is not that short.
-Did I say that it is? But it is not that long either...Even more if you think of eternity...and make the comparison!
-Wise guy!
-The wise guy just made you laugh so I guess that he has some kind of wisdom...
-Know what I was thinking?
-Wisdom I said, not ESP...
-That Robbie Williams song, «Supreme»...You like it, don’t you?
-If you ask for my opinion together with «Me And My Monkey» and «Advertising Space» are his only real songs...The rest are...well, OK for pop hits. But what about it?
-Well I like it too, the music is neat and the lyrics are very realistic, the chorus even more...But it was only today that I realized that the chorus is...really true, you know what I mean?
-I guess...But where are you getting at?
-It’s just that...I would be too in that plane now if only I could, know that?
-Wow, thanks for bringing me the news! Please, tell me something I don’t know...
-But it’s strange...I have my work, other stuff that doesn’t permit to be out of the city not even for a single day right now. On the other hand I don’t have any particular reason to go with her, in fact I don’t have any reason at all...Why then at this moment I almost hate the stuff that’s keeping me here? Why I would give everything to be in the plane with her? And I would definitely be...if I didn’t have obligations here. Going there...or anywhere she might go to. That is really the strangest thing...You know me, we are pretty much alike in that. Extremely difficult to be satisfied with things, even the most ordinary things...It was us two that one summer we left a group of people in one place just because it sucked big time and went to another five in just three days until we found one that was somewhat up to our standards for a holiday...If I remember well that was the reason too for you breaking up with that blonde bitch because she preferred to stay with the others...and judging by your evil smile I remember more than well! So why is it so different this time? I don’t care about places, conditions, situations...as long as she is there. That’s what I realized today about the song, the chorus...That...wandering, whatever you might want to call it...it is just so very true.
-Hmm, the thing suddenly got serious...So let me put it this way. To me any person that really has a clue about his/her life has only two options regarding that wandering: Either he/she finds something in one place and stays there or he/she keeps wandering for all his/her life, even just in the hope that somewhere this place exists. There is no third option and not in between...
-But there are those too that don’t even start to wander...Never...
-Buddy...I said people who at least have a clue about heir lives!
-You know what I always say about you, don’t you?
-The good or the bad stuff? I’m aware of the latter too...
-This is definitely of the good ones...That when you are right you are right...and sometimes even when you are wrong you are right! Even without knowing it...
-Flattery will not get you anywhere bastard, at least not with me...So?
-So...this time I think that you are more than right!
-Right...And I have more than too much work to do and as far as I can see you too have...a lot of typing to do! So let’s get on with what both of us have to do...
And I left him typing some more text messages that their length bordered to that of legal documents (all of them of course to be sent to the very same phone number, I guess that at that time he secretly wished all kinds of horrible death to those who ruled out that cell phones should be turned off during flights...) and went back to my desk. But since he reminded me of it...I think that somehow fate wants this song to be posted here. And of course he can’t be dedicated to any other than him...So this is for Andy...although I know for sure that for him the wandering is over! For any of you that it is still going on...I hope that you got some strength for it because chances are that you still have way...too much way to go! But it is definitely worth of it, believe me...just don’t expect to be through with it in just a weekend. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a very nice weekend and so I wish that to all of you...
Oh it seemed forever stopped today
All the lonely hearts in London
Caught a plane and flew away
And all the best women are married
All the handsome men are gay
You feel deprived
Yeah, are you questioning your size?
Is there a tumour in your humour?
Are there bags under your eyes?
Do you leave dents where you sit?
Are you getting on a bit?
Will you survive
You must survive
When there's no love in town
This new century keeps bringing you down
All the places you have been
Trying to find a love supreme
A love supreme
Oh what are you really looking for?
Another partner in your life
To abuse and to adore?
Is it lovey dovey stuff?
Do you need a bit of rough?
Get on your knees
Yeah turn down the love songs that you hear
'Cause you can't avoid the sentiment
That echoes in your ear
Saying love will stop the pain
Saying love will kill the fear
Do you believe
You must believe
When there's no love in town
This new century keeps bringing you down
All the places you have been
Trying to find a love supreme
A love supreme
I spy with my little eye
Something beginning with...
Got my back up
And now she's screaming
So I've got to turn the track up
Sit back and watch the royalties stack up
I know this girl she likes to switch teams
And I'm a fiend but I'm living for a love supreme
When there's no love in town
This new century keeps bringing you down
All the places you have been
Trying to find a love supreme
A love supreme
Come and live a love supreme
Don't let it get you down
Everybody lives for love
Come and live a love supreme
Don't let it get you down
Everybody lives for love...
[It can be found on 2000’s «Sing When You’re Winning». But it was not supreme but...extreme work conditions that turned «Friday’s song» (and post too...) into...Saturday’s one! I hope that next week it will be back on track...]
 |
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
To link to this blog (lonelynights63) use [blog lonelynights63] in your messages.
|
|
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
11
|
21
|
31
|
42
|
5
|
61
|
71
|
|
81
|
9
|
101
|
11
|
121
|
13
|
14
|
|
151
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
|
