Comin' Around

Things would be a whole lot better if I could get "Comin' Around" out of my head. But it is a Steve Earle song and I'm going to see him tonight at the Barrymore so the chances of it going away are pretty small. At least it's not "Goodbye". That song came into my head too last night as The Dulcinea and I were parting ways. At least we did it on friendly terms and I didn't inform her via an email as I did for our first break-up last year. (Let us hope that this will not become an annual event.) Aside from being sad, I do feel a bit of relief. I can go off and be as dumb as I want without regard to a significant other. As she pointed out last night with examples of my failings in our relationship, I was not a particularly good boyfriend. There were definitely some wonderful things between us but not enough to sustain a committed relationship. I shall definitely miss doing stuff with her. (Beyond sex.) I've never maintained a friendship with an ex-girlfriend before beyond a couple months. I'd like to remain friends with her. In a way, our relationship was more like a friendship with benefits than a dating scenario. And now we have these knots to untie. Speaking of which, she's got my copy of Knots - d'oh! We had planned to go to a chocolate tasting at A Woman's Touch together but now that has to be dealt with. I told her that she should find someone else to go with and I'd replace my name on the list with his/hers. Ah well, it'll all come out in the wash.

So while she officially becomes a divorcee and prepares to return to school next week, I'll be off flying solo. But the adventure begins tonight. I have this weird feeling that the Steve Earle gig is going to be eerily remeniscent of the Dick Thompson show at the Barrymore back in 1996 which I went to not too long after having broken up with another girlfriend. We'll see. This weekend I am off to Chicago. Tomorrow night I'll be having a nice bowl of Ozric Tentacles for a late-night snack.



Plus I'll hang out with my brother and Andrew. But, before that, I''m going to have lunch with my mom and then head over to Ambala to fetch some sweets. I'll spend Sunday afternoon with family as they're getting together for Easter dinner at my aunt's place. Next week brings the Wisconsin Film Festival. Plus there's trivia in Stevens Point to look forward to as well as the Tempest show in Stoughton. It'll be odd seeing the Ozrics and Tempest sans The Dulcinea since we had planned to see them together. Oddly enough, when I first saw Tempest in 1996, I went with the aforementioned ex-girlfriend. Funny how things repeat themselves.

I got the new issue of The Progressive last night. In it was a letter from a reader which said that we progressives ought to rescue Jesus and his message from conservatives. The writer went on to say something like, "As long as we're at it, let's rescue Mohammed, Moses, and Buddha." Holy fuck it did that piss me off! Bubba, the last thing we need is to get into a pissing match over religious dogma. And rescue Moses? Mohammed? Yes, we should align ourselves with Joey Midianite Killer.

Moses:
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."

Yes, this is exactly the kind of asshole whom we should make our ally. Mohommed? Joey Let's-Kill-All-the-Infidels is right up there on my list of people with whom we can have a great working relationship, lemme tell ya. The last fucking thing we need is to align ourselves with mythical figures and nutcases from the past who claim to have heard a voice telling them things which are usually about killing people who are somehow different. We lock those kinds of people up today so why in the name of fuck would we want to "rescue" them?

Sidestepping religion again, I see that Porcupine Tree will be stopping in Milwaukee come May. I must get me a ticket for that! Still now news on Son Volt passing by here. Though I do see here that their retrospective CD, which will be released in May, will feature a version of Woody Guthrie's "I've Got to Know". I've never heard that before. Hopefully it will also include “Ain't No More Cane” (With Kelly Willis), “Old Dutch” (Vocal Dave Boquist), and “Seven To A Room” (Vocal Jim Boquist). We'll see if they include any tunes from their various radio performances like the old Stanley Brothers' ditty "She's More to Be Pitied".

OK - I'm off to buy a PT ticket!