mehlsbells.wordpress.com
In which pre-speculate about how @NBCHannibal fits in @BryanFuller’s oeuvre.
The Three Movies I Watched Last Week. Now With Even More Thoughts!
(Does this count towards my self-imposed 3 tumbls per week? Probably only if I add new thoughts, too. Thoughts are so hard! Just read the blog and comment, and I’ll reply. Then we can count that, ok?)
Today is for Music
There is nothing better than your first time.
It may be awkward. It may be uncomfortable. You may be unsure. You may not understand all the words or catch all the chord progressions. But putting in/on that album and pressing play/dropping the needle on the best possible sound system you have available* to you and closing your bedroom door/email client and completely abandoning yourself to the combination of notes and words that are unique and will never be completely fresh and new again is always a spiritual experience.
(*for me right now, my gorgeous open headphones I got as a birthday gift and spent the past month burning in just so I could use them for the album I’m listening to today.)
Spiritual experiences, of course, can be glorious or horrid. I save the most ceremonial of listens for albums that cannot possibly disappoint me. Because I have seen reviews, sometimes, but also because I still have faith, which in this case equals ‘trust in a particular artist not to release anything that will crush my soul.’
Nothing else exists quite like the experience of first listens. It is beautiful. It is day-making. It is approximately an hour of bliss.
I’m going to go lock my door now. See you on the flip side.
I Do My Father’s Drugs
Working on a new playlist I started some time in 2010, I re-discovered Joe Pug’s I Do My Father’s Drugs. I listen now, in between seeing newsstand magazines hawking the latest Size 0 model and talking over dinner about the aftermath of Wisconsin’s recent recall election, and it’s utterly heartbreaking. A lot here, especially the use of ‘drugs;’ everything from the State’s propaganda, to the depressants and antidepressants and weight pills and placebos doled out, to the ‘illegal’ substance method of dealing with the reality of holding a rifle never wanted.
-
When the party starts on Monday
Christmas starts in June
When no one minds I’ve just arrived
And I’ll be leaving soon
If I return with eyes half-opened
Don’t ask me where I was
I do my father’s drugs
When every revolution
Is sponsored by the state
There’s no bravery in bayonets
In tearing down the gates
If you see me with a rifle
Don’t ask me what it’s for
I fight my father’s war
When hunger strikes are fashion
And freedom is routine
And all the streets in Cleveland
Are named for Martin Luther King
You will see me at the protest
But you’ll notice that I drag
I burn my father’s flag
So when the party starts on Monday
And Christmas starts in June
When no one minds I’ve just arrived
And I’ll be leaving soon
If I return with eyes half-opened
Don’t ask me where I was
I do my father’s drugs
I do my father’s drugs
- Joe Pug, I Do My Father’s Drugs, from 2007’s Nation of Heat
