Are those dreams or are those prayers?

Look, I could tell you about today.

But not today.

Maybe tomorrow.  

In the meantime, this song is performed by Roseanne Cash, and written by Tom Waits.  Well the smart money's on Harlow 

And the moon is in the street 

The shadow boys are breaking all the laws 

And you're east of East St. Louis 

And the wind is making speeches 

And the rain sounds like a round of applause 

Napoleon is weeping in the Carnival saloon 

His invisible fiance is in the mirror 

And the band is going home 

It's raining hammers 

It's raining nails 

Oh, it's time, time, time 

And it's time, time, time 

And it's time, time, time that you love 

And it's time, time, time 

And they all pretend they're orphans 

And their memory's like a train 

You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away 

And the things you can't remember 

Tell the things you can't forget that 

History puts a saint in every dream 

Well she said she'd stick around 

Until the bandages came off 

But these mama's boys just don't know when to quit 

And Matilda asks the sailors 

Are those dreams or are those prayers? 

So close your eyes, son 

And this won't hurt a bit

February makes me gibber

One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place is that I spend the first few weeks of the new year doing a quick rundown in my journal of the past year. It gives me a snapshot of a given year month by month, and each year, it seems to take me longer and longer to do. Last night, I decided to glance at some of these yearly rundowns, focusing on the February of each year (and perusing some actual February journal entries while I was at it).

Bad idea. The basic impression I got was that I was way happier, even in bloody February in the years when I first began keeping track. Is the unexamined life really not worth living, Socrates? Sometimes I think that the refining fires of suffering would be a lot easier to take, if I could actually see some improvement in myself as a person....

Drastic measures are needed. I checked my Facebook page where my favourite songs are on rotation, and I'm choosing three of the five of today's featured songs to cheer me up.

First, "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick. I never watched the movie Dumb and Dumber so never heard of this song until The Q radio station in Victoria had an Alphabet Weekend while I was packing up the house to move to Ottawa. This was early in the weekend, under "D", of course. I can't embed it, but I can give you a slightly higher quality link.
Rargh!

Next we have some Can/Con. I love this number by Jeremy Fisher(né Binns) who was born in Hamilton, Ontario and spent some time on Vancouver Island where I grew up:
She runs guns; everyone wants guns; she runs guns everyone wants -- there she go-hoes!

Now I don't care much for the Deadeye Dick video, and the Jeremy Fisher video is kind of cute. Both videos are new to me, although I've loved the songs since I first heard them. However, "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits is a classic, both as a song and as a video. What do you think?


Now, isn't that evocative? I mean, I've never been to New York, but this says "summer night in Brooklyn" to me. Longing, yearning, beautiful.

Okay, I feel a bit better. Maybe tomorrow I'll summon up the courage to tell you what this is all about. Maybe not.