I have of late had not just one song maddeningly lodged in my brain, but the entire oeuvre of Billy Joel* taking up valuable space there. Mainly this one** (why?) and Piano Man. So many thoughts about this song, which I've known by heart at least since junior high:
What on earth is a "real estate novelist"?
"Makin love to his tonic and gin" was like nails on a chalkboard to me, even when I was 12.
As a kid I assumed being in the Navy for life was a much worse fate than never having time for a wife or becoming stuck as a bartender, unable to pursue your dreams of being a movie star.
And finally, I wish I were a skilled cartoonist so I could draw my initial interpretation of "they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar."***
My work queue has recently included so many antiquated, obscure, and fancy words that I feel like I'm writing a Decemberists song. Banderole. Cumbrous. Breviloquent. Ailurophile. Kemp. Maybe I'll call it Here I Dreamt I was a Vexillologist.
Weather report: fairly summerish. Summer-adjacent. The sun is shining at the moment, Mark and I were last-minute invitees to a wedding this afternoon, there are farmer's market strawberries in the fridge, and the only thing I'm concerned about right now is where my crow friend is this morning. It's the first time in several days that he hasn't come by to eat one single, solitary peanut in my back yard.
Today in "I Can Read Dogs' Minds," while walking Clover this morning we saw a Pyrenees leaping joyfully, sniffing the ground, then leaping again, gleeful, as close to smiling as dogs get. There was a layer of frost on the grass, and obviously this dog (who normally saunters slowly along, aloof) was thinking "IT'S PRACTICALLY SNOW."
So yes, frost and soft striped flannel sheets and two-sweater mornings and warming hands on mugs of coffee.
(I love Patti Smith. I don't love all her music, but I love this song, and I love the story that goes with it: Paths that cross)
Ooh, I like the new retro design, Facebook! Nicely done!
Hey I keep imagining writing about how we've now officially lived in Maine for 20 years and forgetting to do it. Which means we've lived here approximately 20 years and a week. We moved to Maine in February and instantly fell ill with the flu, all four of us. I remember it was vacation week — we planned to have that week to settle in before Zoë started school, but we stayed sick well into the following week. I picture us lying on mattresses on the floor and kids vomiting into the popcorn bowl* when I think of that time. We had a dog! Poor Happy, I don't even remember how we accommodated her needs for those first weeks. I guess we had a fenced yard full of dog poop. Twenty years. Time is weird, and it keeps on slippin slippin slippin into the future,** doesn't it? Also, this makes both our refrigerator and stove approximately 20 years old. *Popcorn bowl = vomit bowl, sorry if you've eaten popcorn at my house. **You're welcome, that's today's earworm especially for my favorite Academy Award winner!
"Fox in the snow, where do you go
To find something you can eat?
Cause the word out on the street is you are starving
Don’t let yourself grow hungry now
Don’t let yourself grow cold
Fox in the snow."
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
"And if the snow buries my,
my neighbourhood.
And if my parents are crying
then I'll dig a tunnel
from my window to yours,
yeah a tunnel
from my window to yours.
You climb out the chimney
and meet me in the middle,
the middle of the town.
And since there's no one else around,
we let our hair grow long
and forget all we used to know,
then our skin gets thicker
from living out in the snow."
Snowstorm
"Well I'm lookin at the snowflakes
And they all look the same."
Blood Bank
"Then the snow started falling
We were stuck out in your car
You were rubbing both of my hands
Chewing on a candy bar."
White Winter Hymnal
"I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats
With scarves of red tied 'round their throats
To keep their little heads from falling in the snow,
and I turned 'round and there you go
And Michael, you would fall
and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime."
For Emma
"My knees are cold..."
Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961)
"Oh, I could show you the way shadows colonize snow
Ice breaking up on the bay off the Lassiter coast
Light failing over the pole as every longitude leads
up to your frost bitten feet oh, you're very sweet."
January Hymn
"On a winter's Sunday I go
To clear away the snow
and green the ground below
April, all an ocean away,
is this the better way to spend the day?
Keeping the winter at bay."
1 // I throw my head to the heavens and ask, "WHY IS 'SISTER GOLDEN HAIR' PERMANENTLY STUCK IN MY HEAD? WHY O WHY?"
2 // Usually things are much more simple than we think, but occasionally they are way more fucked up and convoluted and crazy than we'd let ourselves believe.
3 // I am reading that great big fat book everybody's reading! Donna Tartt...The Goldfinch, that's the one! I like it. It has sucked me in and I stay up too late nightly reading just one more chapter.
4 // The dog is not my child, the dog is my friend, my dog, my beloved companion. It's just that the protocol at the dog beach seems to be that we refer to each other (us humans, that is), as "Blackie's mom" and "Sparky's dad." Mark and I do not do that, even though Mark secretly wants to run away with Gus and live in a little cabin in the woods.
5 // So much TV, but SO? You wanna make something of it? Also, see: book-reading, above. Most days, I also complete many hours of billable work, and clean the basement for an hour or so, and sometimes I even vacuum & such. We have started The Good Wife, and finished season one of The Leftovers.
6 // Still with that salad. It's so good.
7 // I need to not listen to the news for a while.
i was just making an appointment for minnow's annual check up, and i was on hold listening to this song, when i realized that i've always thought there was a line in it that started, "baby, am-scray..." as in scram. in pig latin. which is probably not correct.
*i am also still doing this, but i have fallen thousands of words behind.
*thanks to the awesome shopping skillz of my friend mama d, who found me free shipping and discount codes, the red boots have been ordered and are on their way!
*i like marvin gaye and all, but don't you agree that this is the least sexy song of all time? what would you do if someone leaned into your sleeping ear and said, "wake up wake up wake up wake up because you do it right"?
*did i tell you that the dog ban didn't pass? m and i took minnow to willard beach yesterday to celebrate!
*in other minnow news, he and i now have an official song. which means i sing it to him, and he wags his tail. also, plans are in the works to have that thingy removed from his eye and his teeth cleaned.
i had the radio on just now while i was dealing with some laundry, and down memory lane was on maine public radio, which is actually kind of an adorable show. and guess who i should hear singing i was born in kansas but frank sinatra!? i never in my wildest dreams imagined frank singing that song. in fact, i only ever imagined my own kansas-born relatives singing it. or me, singing it to myself. i was born in kansas, and i was partially bred in kansas, and when i got married, i was wed in kansas. i'd certainly never heard this verse before:
troubles end in kansas, folks unbend in kansas, everyone will be your friend in kansas and they'll be there to help me celebrate with my sunflower from the sunflower state
she died this weekend at age 82. my meandering train of thought leads me from blossom dearie to cal ripkin thusly: i really love dearie's funny little voice, and she always makes me think of my wonderful writing teacher, carolyn, who was a fan. dearie was a jazz chanteuse for sure, but my favorite is the oddly melancholy song figure eight, from schoolhouse rock. which also makes me think of my bean, who had a curious passion for the number eight when she was very young (at baltimore orioles baseball games, she would yell, "NUMBER EIGHT!" when cal ripken came up to bat). see? and isn't "blossom dearie" the best name, ever?
this is so amazingly wonderful -- i love they might be giants, and this song is one that bean absolutely would have memorized if it had been around when she was about six or seven (just as she, and her baby brother, memorized every single song on this tape). plus, it brings to mind all the world travelers in my life.
almost forgot to mention this movie, which we saw last night with pop (mom was working, so she couldn't join us), and which we all loved, despite the fact that it was weird. weird, weird, weird. in a good way.
every single trailer, of the five or six which preceded the film, made me teary-eyed. i guess it's just that time of year.
I wandered in these big blue shoes, till we had nothing left to lose. Nobody wants you when you're a circus clown. I should know. I looked all over town.
I guess folks just don't like my face. They make out like I'm some disgrace. But nothing's gonna change this painted frown. And I know. I looked all over town.
Maybe somewhere I could be free. Somewhere they won't throw rocks at me. Somewhere this crazy hair could be my crown. But all my life, I've looked all over town.
So whistling this circus tune, I inflated one more balloon. And as I floated up I looked straight down. And I looked all over town.
okay, i actually do know that it's thursday (i even remembered to put the trash out last night), but i still keep having to check the calendar to remind myself what day it is. it's that post-holiday frame of mind -- it takes a while to get back to the regular routines. bean and i did go the the gym today, yay us!
hey, adam did post that cute teacup video of three adorable girls on the teacups ride!
might i brag about how many books i read while on vacation? i think i read, uh, five: slam; the rope walk; run; harry potter seven; and listening is an act of love. i feel like i'm forgetting one. also, media-wise, i watched high school musical. twice -- the second time was the sing-along version, and over a week later i still have that damn song stuck in my head.
