Thursday, April 11, 2013

Life In Extremis

For the past years, life has seemed to me to be dramatic as a Wagner piece. It's either merry and looking good or hell and shitstorm. There are few days that fall as neither anymore. For the very little that it matters, I protest! Dammit!

Once again I'm on my own damn nerves, which happens when there's been little sleep and lots of stupidity. Last night, the lights and shrill alarm of a SUV parked out back went off every time I was falling asleep, and this kept happening until 7:30 this morning. 6, 7 times? I lost count. Nobody came out to shut it off. It stopped after a while, each time. And as soon as I got to that slipping away point, BEEP BEEP BEEP again! There was a small gaggle of the offended out there, circling and cursing the offender, soon after the 7:30 a.m. show, but no driver/owner/asshole. When I emailed the manager to bitch, she said nobody had even mentioned it and this is what happens, the people here talk and bitch but nobody does anything.

And when I opened my email I learned that a young woman whom I'd known when she was a kid, had died of an opiate overdose. There are no words.

And will this sloggy weather stop!!!??? I can barely handle the pain. Shoot me now. Please.

The only solution to such rotten rot is very good stuff and the pursuit of very good stuff.

Like my friend Paul picking up a hitch hiker with a very sad life story, and not giving into the suspicion and cynicism we've accepted as normal. He just helped him, like a good person would. Thank you, Paul.

My brother has decided on the 3 wheeler, for which I'm so relieved I could plotz. It looks like he and Strider will both be here on the weekend of the 3rd-5th. And while they take off I'll have sheer puppy madness love to myself, a very healing thing.

And I'm in search of a car-singing pal. Someone who likes the same loud music I do, to drive around with and sing arena rock at the tops of our lungs and blow stress out. I'll put in for gas and have lots of music on cd. No 50s music, no bad hair metal, just 60s-70s-early 80s loudness. There has to be one person in town who's not an anal pseudo-musicologist or dreary old fart yet.

For total transporting goodness, there's this incredible performance at the Kennedy Center honoring Led Zep. Ann and Nancy Wilson and Jason Bonham take "Stairway" right on up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK_DOJa99oo

There's Lewis Black's whole "In God We Rust" show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELji4-TogMI

With music and laughter, we can carry on through most anything.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does seem that things are mostly extremes these days and somehow when you do get an ordinary day it seems a little dull..perverse creatures that we are.

MunirGhiasuddin said...

I wish I had the lung capacity to sing to loud music. Sometimes it is such a release of tension.
Yes a lot of times it seems like it is either total excitement or total dismay. It is very rarely that we have a lul, humdrum day anymore.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

I love to sing in the car and don't really care if anyone hears me or judges. However, I love singer/songwriters from decades past and present and maybe they would not be considered mainstream genre,( although many go onto be).. I listen to XPN from U of P and get introduced to new artists everyday. A plus is that I can hear and understand all the words. A good few hours driving around singing our hearts out sound like a lot of fun and laughs. Wish we lived closer.

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

I read your first two lines about merry and shitstorms and went AHA! YES! I hear ya, sistah!

If you lived in my neighbourhood I would totally go singing with ya.

Geo. said...

Unattended car alarms are a true challenge to my lifelong pacifism. Most men of a certain age(geezers)get interested in welding equipment for hobby projects. I have considered welding SUV doors shut when they sit for hours making alarm noises. No one would interrupt me so long as the alarm kept going. Upshot is, SUV owners just don't care.

Elephant's Child said...

Oh bottom. Naughty words if I knew any. Sometimes life gets stuck in the sucky gear.

However, I am glad about the three-wheeler - you really, really don't need any more worry. And I hope that you car person materialises - quickly.
Shame we are so far away. I don't drive, but our musical tastes overlap rather a lot. As do those of my youngest (driving) brothers.

Austan said...

Lawless, it resets us to expecting upset and being on edge. It's bad all the way round.

Austan said...

Munir- if we lived closer together I'd get your lung capacity going. :) It'd be nice to have some not-much-of-anything, wouldn't it?

Austan said...

Arleen- I think if we ever got to hang out in person we'd be hurting ourselves laughing, and that'd be just fine by me.

Austan said...

The world isn't ready for you and me to go singing together, Cathy. It might tear a hole in space and time, and then where would we be? ;)

Austan said...

Geo.! I wish you could teach me to weld!!!!! Did I ever tell you about the welders down the street in NYC. They had an always-dusty wndow and their name, in gold letters on the glass, was "AGINA WELDERS". You can guess the rest.

Austan said...

EC- Perhaps in our lifetimes there will come a way to do it, wherever we are. We've seen stranger things happen in our life spans...

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's time to get an SUV, L, put all of us in it, open the windows, and crank up the volume! I'm ready to sing!

Austan said...

TFR: I haven't seen you in what, nearly 20 years!