Our living room growing up had big picture windows looking out over a forested valley.  Sometimes at dusk the whole family would sit in the dark and listen to my parents’ records, really listen to them, letting them soak into our bones and freeing our imaginations to embrace the sound.  When I was little we listened to things like Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. I liked listening to the Firesign Theater especially.  They were a group of radio DJs in California that formed a comedy troupe in the 1960′s.

From Wikipedia:

The Firesign Theater employs a stream of consciousness style that links direct references to movies, radio, TV, political figures and other cultural sources, intermingled with sound effects and bits of music. The resulting stories border on psychedelia, including the theft of a high school, a fair of clowns and holograms and aliens who use hemp smoking to turn people into crows. The stories are often interrupted by commercials satirizing real products.

The recordings we had were Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him (1968), Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (1970), Dear Friends (1972), and Not Insane or Anything You Want To (1972).

Sitting there in the dark with my imagination running free, these stream of consciousness images produced a feeling of dreaming while awake, a wonderful journey of the mind.  I think it’s good for the brain to release outside of sleep.  I have appreciation for a tight narrative structure but there’s nothing like stream-of-consciousness to break those bonds and relax.

It’s very sad.

Every day, at every moment, there’s something else I should be doing.  Everywhere I look I see something I haven’t done, know of someone I need to email, an essay I need to write, the dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, rotting vegetables in the refrigerator that need to be cooked TODAY, and oh, yes, I haven’t gone to the gym yet.  There’s a thousand books in the bookshelf that I need to finish.  There’s something I could be studying, I could get around to the two oil paintings I’m working my way towards.  Tomorrow I have this meeting and that is due and I’m so underprepared it’s pathetic, I’ll be winging it like always and looking like I don’t know what I’m talking about.  I’m paying for Spanish classes but never do the homework and where am I going with that anyway?  And then all of this is meaningless in the grand scheme of things anyway, so why try?

Today’s a Leonard Cohen kind of day.

“Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Link to event is here
Date: Sunday, 07 March 2010
Time: 18:30 – 21:30
Location: The Vitality Center, 507B Roy St., Houston, TX

Food: 6:30-7:30pm

Film: 7:30-9:30pm

I’m making “Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad” from the excellent website smittenkitchen.com.  I credit the lovely and talented Dr. Miggy (whom I have not met but just moved from Houston) for referring me to the Smitten Kitchen from her website.

It’s a lovely day, ahhh.