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Friday, February 24, 2006
ALWAYS ON MY MIND
Pet Shop Boys
Discography: The Complete Singles Collection
Capitol : 1991
[Buy It]
(TAKE ME HOME) COUNTRY ROADS
Toots and the Maytals
Reggae Greats
Mango : 1989
[Buy It]
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Queen
The Game
Hollywood : 1980
[Buy It]
GOLD DUST WOMAN
Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
Warner : 1980
[Buy It]
BONUS TRACK
Cat Power
The Greatest
Matador : 2006
[Buy It]
I've been away again, from Moistworks, from New York, mostly just from MW. Quietly reading my fellow M-Workers as well as the Writers-Weekers. For part of my exile, I was in the northwest.
Seattle, which had I thought I hated, was actually quite fun this time, but I don't have much to say about it, aside from the fact I learned about a delicious new coffee drink called a breve (a latte but with half-and-half instead of milk), that people there get very, very angry with if you come close to hitting them with your rental car even if they're totally jaywalking, and that on the drive from Seattle down to Portland, I heard Fleetwood Mac ELEVEN TIMES. It's only about a three-hour drive. I'm the type who thinks the only worthwhile music played on the radio these days is classic rock, so I was in heaven. There were a couple of other nice moments, which I've posted here. (Remind me to tell you later about the time I saw the Pet Shop Boys in an East German airplane hangar: fists strking the air, shaved heads, the whole thing. Okay, that is in fact the whole thing, so nevermind the reminder.)
In Portland, the radio is terrible. Lots of Christian rock. And my iPod transmitter thing didn't work most of the time, perhaps due to the rain. So I had an idea. Cat Power! I didn't yet have the new record. Plus I was a bit bored, had spent about ten hours in Powell's, had finished with my work obligations, so going to record stores with a purpose seemed a fun errand. But no. The THREE stores I went to were all out of stock. "We can order it for you!" one shaggy cutie said with a wan smile. "I don't live here," I said. They're nice in Portland, so I added "But thanks!" But wow, how disappointing. I did buy the Big Star record from last year (who knew they put one out so recently? Well, Alex probably did, but he never mentioned it). The record store guy even took it out of the plastic for me, something that would never happen in New York. But things didn't go so well when I popped it, gleefully, into the stereo of my rental car. It is perhaps the worst album I have ever bought. Seriously, I would have thrown it out window, but I didn't want to litter in such a clean city. Then something amazing happened. The rain stopped, and the most incredible rainbow I've ever seen arched over Burnside. Strangers on the sidewalk nudged each other: Hey, look. I got completely caught up in the hippie vibe long enough to erase the bad-purchase feeling. They must see rainbows all the time, but still they're nudging and stopping. Not enough to do? Perhaps, but nice nonetheless.
And then there was Mary's later that night, to put another rainbow into my mood. A sort of punk-rock strip club, I think it might be famous; people in Williamsburg wear T-shirts from there. The girls have tattoos and body fat and some have small breasts, and those with fake ones looked like they had cheap/bad surgery, which is tragic but sexy in it's way. And they dance to music of their own choosing from the jukebox. At one point it got quiet. They weren't getting enough tips to play the songs. I brought a five-dollar bill to the stage, rested it at one of the girl's feet. She smiled down at me, "Thanks, sweetheart!"; I beamed. Ordered another glass of "shiraz." I'm solidly into wine these days no matter where I am, and you know what, it was delicious.Labels: ipod, joanna
posted by Joanna
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