veterans of experience.
Actually, the sun is far from shining here this morning. It's dull and overcast and my head is still thumping from the inescapable cacophony of yesterday's Orange Walk and the faintly unnerving sounds of random violence and confrontation late into the night.
And this track written by Mick Collins from Detroit, Michigan doesn't really cut the mustard as vintage music to retire too, either. I am slipping, brothers and sisters.
▼ THE DIRTBOMBS: THE SUN IS SHINING from "Dangerous Magical Noise" CD (In The Red) 2003 (US)
DANGEROUS MAGICAL NOISE
12 comments:
Yay Dirtbombs! Detroit ain't dead yet!
Being frankly sympathetic to Irish nationalism, although not all of the politics thereof, I am somewhat ashamed of the fact that my great grandfather was a Canadian Orangeman. He was violent although I don't know the specifics. He was rumored to have burnt down a Catholic church. I grew up in a heavily Catholic neighborhood, down the street from a huge Catholic church and school, but my family were staunch Anglicans. I was raised to despise Catholicism. I have many good Catholic friends. One of my heroes, a real hero, was a Catholic convert. I'll have to read up on the Orange Walk.
The Orange Walk, which despite what it may say on Wikipedia is easily as big in Glasgow as in Northern Ireland, is really a ridiculously tolerated display of sectarianism. It has more to do with blatant antagonism and alcohol fueled defiance than any legitimate celebration of religious belief. That said, some of its band led characteristics are truly stirring in spite of how your intellect demands you react. There is a real primal quality in the tattoo of its drums. Heavy shit. I don't like to be out and about on the streets when it's going down.
Sounds wise. Being hyper rational I hate crowd scenes that manipulate me. One of the reason why I'm not much for crowds. Some people feel safely anonymous in crowds. They do things they would never dream of in a small group. Tourists in San Francisco often act like idiots when they are some mob scene tourist attraction. It's led to the occasional mild confrontation on my part: "Oh come on. Would you do something like that at home? What makes you think it's OK to act that way at my home?" Nothing too serious, but they weren't acting on centuries of ethnic and religious antagonism.
By the way, I googled Orange Walk and found myself looking at dozens of Youtube videos from Glasgow and thereabouts. There seemed to be lots of videos about "smackheads". Most of them involved someone ridiculing, beating up or insulting someone who is labeled a "smackhead". The word is sometimes used interchangeably with "junkie". I've know plenty of heroin addicts and few of them were as lively as the people being attacked in the videos. Are "smackhead and junkie" generic terms of abuse? Most of the "smackheads" looked to be just plain poor, or sometimes nothing more than unhappy loners.
(Shiver) I hate crowds as much as I detest queues. They remind me of death camps seen in news reel footage and set me off on an impenetrable sense of doom.
No, it's not a generic term of abuse. "Smackhead" is synonymous with "junkie" ; it's merely that it's often inappropriately used to describe people abusing illicitly purchased prescription medications such as valium, or just as commonly, Benzodiazepines like Temazepam.
A good deal of those people you will see in these YouTube videos have been intravenously using.
You get treated that way for being a valium freak? I hate that stuff, but I'd have to double my dose if I was subject to random beatings. Lately certain neighborhoods in SF look to be full of people quite openly shooting up and nodding on the sidewalk. I don't mean looking a little bit sleepy, I mean doubled over standing blocking the sidewalk spending five or ten minutes trying to stand up. Back when I lived in Detroit, there was a lot of heroin, but not nearly as strong as the stuff today. Junkies used to appear very very cool and detached, if nothing much was going on, they tended to fall asleep.
I've got to get away from this damn computer. It's supposed to go up near 100 degrees today. Yesterday was miserable. I need to get to the coast, or at least to some air conditioning and a good book.
Sounds like a plan.
this is marching that I can get behind.
http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2008/01/new_krewe_to_march_in_lakeview.html
Marching to bring out our freakitude instead of marching for conformity.
The midwife who delivered my son was named Brid. Cool, huh ?
Cool indeed. I became aware of the Krewe of Brid through a friend of a friend, Michael Homan. His daughter is in the Krewe and he posted some pictures of their first march.
Brid was a wholly in control and energising presence. I was not only welcome but encouraged to cut the umbilical chord ; it went a good bit toward making me feel as though I had a contributory role to perform as opposed to being in perfunctory attendance only. A very nice woman indeed.
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