rainy rheos day

i just came back inside the house, having dropped my kid off at school after lunch. and may i say this - it's raining out. but more than that, it's damn cold out and my fingers are still numb. it feels too cold to be raining. it should be sleet or snow or freezing rain. my typing is slow and clunky, but you probably can't tell...

so tonight i'm going to see the Rheostatics. i bought my ticket a couple of days ago. i couldn't find anyone to go with, so once again, i'm going it alone. hopefully, by that time, my fingers will have warmed up.

if you've been reading me in the past, you'll know about this life soundtrack i've been compiling. my apathetic tendencies have resulted in only 3 songs to date, but this week, i will officially add two more. one will be the song 'america' by simon and garfunkel. you may note a sense of irony at choosing a song called 'america', given my current taste for canadian music. however, this song describes a feeling that is universal.

let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together

i've got some real estate here in my bag

so we bought a pack of cigarettes and mrs. wagner pies

and walked off to look for america

...

laughing on the bus playing games with the faces

she said the man in the gaberdine suit was a spy

i said be careful his bow-tie is really a camera..

the song captures an innocence, and wonderment. a young couple searches for themselves, while getting lost in each other.

the other song i have added is by the tragically hip, the quintessential canadian rock band. they have many songs that define them as a band, but i've chosen a song called 'nautical disaster'. downie sings of a dream he had where he was in a war. then, in a lifeboat, he describes the scene...

one afternoon four thousand men died in the water here

and five hundred more were thrashing madly as parasites might in your blood

now i was in a lifeboat designed for ten and ten only

anything that systematic would get you hated

it's not a deal nor a test nor a love of something fated.

the selection was quick. the crew was picked in order

and those left in the water got kicked off our pant legs as we headed for home.

i once heard a live version of their hit New Orleans is Sinking. anyone who has seen these guys live knows that downie rambles endlessly, telling stories in the middle of songs. in this live song, they played a long instrumental in the middle, and downie started to sing nautical disaster. so it's kinda like the little sister to NOIS. it's a song that starts slowly and builds in intensity as the story gets more grim. then the dream ends...

so there you have it, i'm now up to 5 songs.

and all this typing has warmed my fingers...