caleb walker

rewrite

I got to work today and there were open spots in the paved parking lot so I didn't have to park in the gravel overflow lot like usual. Not because I arrived early, but because it's a summer Friday and a bunch of people must be starting their weekends early.

I pulled into a prime spot and turned off the engine, leaving the radio on to listen to Paul Simon's song, "Rewrite," all the way to the end. I'd heard it many times as a witty little ditty but had just recently heard the words in the final chorus.

I once took a course at the Iowa Summer Writers Festival on (if I remember the term correctly, and I don't believe I do) the Dramatic Moment, the point in a story when it stops being about this particular character in this particular situation and becomes a story about humanity or the world or society. Or about me, the reader. It's the point when the skies open up and Capital-T Truth is revealed. I hope to do that. Just once.

In "Rewrite" the narrator tell us he's working on a rewrite of a story. He's gonna change the ending and trash the title so he can sell his story for big bucks. Witty and light-weight, right? Then the last verse:

I'll eliminate the pages 
Where the father has a breakdown 
And he has to leave the family 
But he really meant no harm.
Gonna substitute a car chase 
And a race across the rooftops 
Where the father saves the children 
And he holds them in his arms.

Damn. Little ditty gets me every time.

today in history

On this date 199 years ago the US went to war with Great Britain, beginning the War of 1812, which makes me think of this song:

 

The Battle of New Orleans was fought after the peace treaty had been signed.

(via)

be the boss

I had dinner with a friend tonight at Dunning's. We sat outside. A nice warm night. Lots of people passing. A waitress with a nice smile. 

He told me he'd recorded a thing called "Be the Boss" for Sirius radio's "All Springsteen All the Time" station. The rules: play five Springsteen songs with an explanation for why each is important to you.

I could do that.

1. Thunder Road: So many goddamned great words here. "You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright." "We got one last chance to make it real, to trade in these wings on some wheels." "Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk." (Cross reference Sultans of Swing, "[Guitar George is] strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing.") "There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away."

2. Jungleland: More goddamned lyrics here. "Man, there's an opera out on the Turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley." "The poets down here don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be."

3. Blinded by the Light / Spirit in the Night: I fell for Blinded by the Light's trippy lyrics when I heard Manfred Mann's Earth Band do the song. In fact, it was a shock to find out that it was Springsteen's. I've lumped these two songs together because, even now, I get them mixed up. "Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun but, mama, that's where the fun is." and "...it'll show you where you're at, or at least it'll help you really feel it."

4. Hungry Heart: When I worked at that summer camp during my college summers one of the staff once, in front of everyone, juggled rolls of toilet paper while singing this song. I was amazed that he knew all the words. "Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack. I went out for a ride and I never went back."(That's all I know.)

5. Tunnel of Love: I'd been a Springsteen fan for years, but this was the first of his albums I bought. And it was more than I was prepared for, heartbreaking songs about heartbreak. "Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us: You, me, and all that stuff we're so scared of."

sitting

Where I've sat:

I used to often sit in the fancy chairs behind the altar at church. That's where the chalice-bearers sat.

A big bunch of tourists stood inside the door of an Istanbul mosque. Most of its space was roped off, but a man came in through a door near the minbar and beckoned me over the rope. I went with him through a hidden door, up stairs, and out on a balcony overlooking the city. Three ornate uphostered chairs were there and he motioned for me to sit in the biggest one. And I sat there.

At my home computer I sit in a Herman Miller Aeron chair I bought on Ebay.

When I was a teenager I once shimmied along the trunk of a tree that had fallen into the river. Once out there over the water I sat and carved "KM SB" into the bark with my pocket knife.

In the story I'm polishing up my character sits on a tree branch from which a boy hung himself.

My fourth-grade teacher drove me and three other boys to Pittsburgh. We sat in the top row of Three Rivers Stadium and saw Roberto Clemente hit a home run.

I've sat in several music venues. One was the Syria Mosque, which Pitt later bought and turned into a parking lot. I saw Laurie Anderson there. Another was Graffiti, my favorite place to see music. The best concert experience of my life was seeing Joan Osborne there. We sat in the balcony to the side of the stage and held on tight while Joan blew the roof off the place.

I once sat in a chair at Ikea to take a rest.

by the numbers

Samples from my iTunes Library, numerically (as close as I can tell):

Songs in 2:

"Origin of Species," Chris Smither

"Bounce," Art Garfunkel

"Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night," Tom Waits

Songs in 3:

"Don't Let Us Get Sick," Warren Zevon (This is Jill Sobule's cover.)

"The Curse," Josh Ritter

"Way I Am," Martin Sexton

Songs in 4:

(Tons of them, so let's pick a couple at random)

"Wicked Game," Chris Isaac

"Oh Happy Day," Edwin Hawkins

Songs in 5:

"When You're Mind's Made Up," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Songs in 6:

"Love Doesn't Last Too Long," The Weepies

"Ain't That Peculiar," Chocolate Genius

"That's Life," Frank Sinatra

Songs in 7:

"Money," Pink Floyd (except the guitar solo)

 "Solsbury Hill," Peter Gabriel (most of it, anyway)

I don't think I have anything in 9 or 12.

I like the conflicting 3 and 4 in Fake Empire by The National.

excuse me

Oh gawd, I hate blog posts about why there's no blog post. But I think that's what this is.

I'm supposed to submit something to my writing group tonight, but I'm not ready. 

I'm also suppsed to do some work, which I'll start doing after I'm done with this feeble excuse of a post. I could have started work before now, but I was busy updating the album arts in my iTunes library. 

Here's a bit of a song I can't get out of my head: "Why don't you shake me loose instead of trying to unfold me?" 

The end.

continuation

The birthday celebration continued tonight at D's with NP over pizza and beer. One beer each. She gave me the new Paul Simon CD, in which he sings "Is it Be Bop a Lula? Or ooh Papa Doo?"

And I've got not much else to say tonight. Sleep well, everyone.

for julie

My sister and I went to Erie together to celebrate Mother's Day with all the siblings. Here are some links I promised her. (Turn up the volume.)

• Liam Finn's Second Chance on Letterman. (Ugh. It's out of sync. Here he is on CFerg.)
• The Heavy on Letterman. (Turn the volume up a little more for this one.)
• One of the Mumford and Sons songs we heard on the Sirius (with f-words intact).

And here's a joke I couldn't tell you in front of Val.

songs

I created a Smart Album in my iTunes called "Recently Added" that includes the songs that I, well, most recently added. Here's a summary of that list:

• "At Least It Was Here," by The 88. This is the theme song for Community.
• A bunch of songs by Harry Nilsson. I recently watched the documentary "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)." I never realized he's responsible for so many great songs.
• Love, a set of remixed Beatles songs. 
• "Everlasting Light," by The Black Keys, and the rest of their album Brothers. Crazy good, this.
• Paul Simon's Graceland, which I began to miss recently so I had to rip it.
• Jónsi, Go. If you like Sigur Ros (and I do) you'll probably like this. Jónsi is their lead singer.
• A bunch of songs from KEXP's podcast "Song of the Day" and Minnesota Public Radio's redundantly titled podcast "Current Song of the Day": Bright Eyes, Drive-By Truckers, Frazey Ford, Okkervil River (one of my favorite bands), Wye Oak
• I downloaded Radiohead's The King Of Limbs on the day it was released just so I could feel like one of the cool kids.
• I bought Nicole Atkins' Mondo Amore because of "Vultures."
• Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers' remake of "King Tut."

Got any recent acquisitions of your own?

the effing christmas spirit

Hi. Welcome to my first post-NaBloPoMo post. Just two days afterward. Not too shabby.

I'm certainly not ready for any spirit of any holiday variety yet, but A Christmas Duel has me moving in that direction very quickly. It's sung by The Hives and Cindy Lauper, and it reveals to me that I really like Christmas songs that drop the f-bomb.