I was thinking about the fact that Voodoo Music Fest in New Orleans is about 53 days away.
So I was screwing around on the internet, listening to music and watching videos and I came across this*
Allow me to be Frank, He said.
❤
~~~
* From Frank Turner’s new album aptly titled album, Positive Songs for Negative People
If that’s not an album that I can get behind, I don’t know what is. 😉
I was in the car the other day, listening to music on an alternative rock station.
Then, the station cut to a little promotional blurb wherein Ben Gibbard, guitarist and vocalist for Death Cab for Cutie, gave the station ID for the top of the hour. These blurbs are often created to do the double duty of promoting the station and the band, as well as to make a convenient segue into the next song, which I presumed meant that it should be a Death Cab for Cutie song.
But I was feeling rather depressed, and since I have never been a fan of that band specifically due to the fact that their sound strikes me as rather depressing, I was poised to change the station.
But then this song came on:
I’d never heard this song before, but I was immediately delighted with it.
It didn’t sound to me like your typical Death Cab for Cutie song, and in that, I was pleasantly surprised.
Hm.
Not only was this a sweet moment of pandoramancy – since I had recently been feeling morbid over the recent news concerning the impending death of a beloved relative – it was perhaps a subtle reminder to keep an open mind and an open heart.
Or to put it another way, that song is another ‘hypothetical chicken sandwich‘ of sorts.
~~~
Joy lurks in every mundane thing, just waiting to be found.
– Anna Lyndsey
I wasn’t meditating.
I was simply enjoying some quiet time after dinner, relaxing on my bed with eyes closed, letting thoughts run through my head…
I wasn’t actively thinking of L, but then, suddenly, I saw His face.
I wasn’t sleeping -I hadn’t any intention of sleeping – and yet I could see Him in front of me. I did a body inventory to check to see if I was dreaming. What was unusual was that I could still hear my kid (K) talking loudly in the kitchen, so I figured that I couldn’t have been dreaming. As a matter of fact, I could have easily followed the conversation that K was having with his brother in the kitchen – if I had to – and yet I was also experiencing this vision of L behind my closed eyelids.
I thought of how I could open my eyes.
I thought of how I could move and that vivid image of L sitting on a green hillock overlooking a valley below would have likely faded back to grey as these images usually do
… and yet I couldn’t shake it from my mind.
So I opened my eyes briefly, testing my theory, and upon closing, He remained…just as before. He was dressed in a pair of black jeans and a light blue shirt. He was, as usual, barefoot. I was standing a few feet behind Him, and He was sitting in the grass, looking over His shoulder at me, looking up at me.
I examined His face, trying to commit the details of His present form to memory: He had blue eyes, and His long hair didn’t match up with either His eyebrows or the stubble that shadowed along His jaw, as both were several shades darker than the bleached blonde of His hair. He had those familiar scars along His lips, that sarcastic grin…and He had facial piercings.
I couldn’t tell if He was going for ‘surfer dude’ or ‘suburban hipster.’
It struck me as strange, and I wondered if this was a sort of amusing game to Him; He kept tossing His head as if He was striking poses for me, and yet He slyly commented that I should stop trying to mentally inventory His face, and actually talk to Him for a change.
He was right in a way; perhaps I was trying to mentally inventory His face.
But what struck me was that I was neither sleeping, dreaming, nor meditating, and yet, I was *seeing* Him.
And even more unusual, when I tried to dispel the vision, it stayed in my mind’s eye.
So, you would not want to see Me? He pouted. He sat up straight, clasped His knee to His chest, and tilted His head prettily.
Sit with Me.
But all I could think of was how graceful was the curve of His neck as He looked up at me, and how seeing Him, feeling His presence like that suddenly engendered specific thoughts in my head that left me to grin like a smitten fool.
Perhaps you are, He drawled, and what of that?
(Perhaps those sudden thoughts that I think should remain unspoken.)
~~~~
We talked for what seemed like two or three hours, on that hillock overlooking the valley below.
I felt the rain on my face as He drew complex diagrams in the dark soft dirt. Perhaps we talked of magic or runes or other matters entirely full of important points that could only be conveyed with the help of visual representations.
I’m not entirely certain of every thing that We discussed; I mostly remember His laughter and the steady humming patterns of His voice, along with those diagrams.
For once, I didn’t do much talking.
For once, I was simply content to listen to Him.
Talk less; listen more.
~~~
Another odd feature of this interaction was that this discussion which seemed to have lasted for two hours…
actually only lasted 19 minutes.
From 9:00 to 9:19pm
Hmm.
I had just returned from walking my dog, and I sat down at the computer to check the Book of Faces to see that Lori – friend of mine – posted a link to this video:
Now, Lori might not know how much I have always loved the original of this song, as it was penned by Leon Russell, but to realize that there’s a version sung by Ray Charles makes it even sweeter.
Thank you, Lori.
You’ve no idea how much I love – and needed – to hear such sweetness today.
❤
“He’s like fire and ice and rage.
He’s like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun.
He’s ancient and forever.
He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe.
And…He’s wonderful.”
-Tim Latimer, about the Doctor
Doctor Who, BBC series
Season 3, Episode 9: The Family of Blood
Here is another song that I associate with Loki:
And, in case that it isn’t obvious, the rapped verses – performed by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien* – are the parts that certainly evoke Loki for me.
Here are the lyrics:
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
Yeah… Ha Ha!
Finally someone let me out of my cage
Now, time for me is nothing cause I’m counting no age
Now I couldn’t be there
Now you shouldn’t be scared
I’m good at repairs
And I’m under each snare
Intangible
Bet you didn’t think so I command you to
Panoramic view
Look I’ll make it all manageable
Pick and choose
Sit and lose
All you different crews
Chicks and dudes
Who you think is really kickin’ tunes?
Picture you gettin’ down in a picture tube
Like you lit the fuse
You think it’s fictional?
Mystical? Maybe.
Spiritual
Hero who appears in you to clear your view when you’re too crazy
Lifeless
To those the definition for what life is
Priceless
To you because I put you on the high shit
You like it?
Gun smokin’ righteous with one toke
You’re psychic among those
Possess you with one go
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future (that’s right) is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
The essence the basics
Without did you make it
Allow me to make this
Child-like in nature
Rhythm
You have it or you don’t that’s a fallacy
I’m in them
Every sprouting tree
Every child of peace
Every cloud and sea
You see with your eyes
I see destruction and demise (that’s right)
Corruption in disguise
From this fuckin’ enterprise
Now I’m sucked into your lies
Through Russel, not his muscles but percussion he provides
For me as a guide
Y’all can see me now ’cause you don’t see with your eye
You perceive with your mind
That’s the inner
So I’mma stick around with Russ and be a mentor
Bust a few rhymes so motherfuckers remember where the thought is
I brought all this
So you can survive when law is lawless (right here)
Feelings, sensations that you thought was dead
No squealing, remember that it’s all in your head
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain’t happy, I’m feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I’m useless but not for long
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future is coming on
It’s coming on
It’s coming on
My future
~~~
*No, no, no. Not that Del – though, he is a rather clever individual in his own right 😉