I left the Marathon thing unfinished and now, I'm trying to figure out how to put it back together. I'll explain. My old blog I did with a couple other kids, by the end of it, the other kids stopped and I was left to my own devices. One of the devices I came up with was the Marathon series of blogs. It's a series dedicated to applying the songs from Marathon's self-titled record to my own life.
Since the death (or at least deep hibernation) of that old project Eleven Names, the songs themselves aren't available to me on the internet, so I have to go back to the iPod for them, which doesn't sound too bad except that I crave, in this case, the synchronicity of having my music on the same screen as my everything else. There's less to manage, and with the history of my Marathon pieces, getting started is the hardest part.
I know if I write long enough, or cruise on the internet, I'll find something to pin the song to and it will get done. But now, if it's going to come out, it's going to have to be here. Eleven Names isn't under my direct control, and one of the other parts of the triumvirate (Zach, Tom and I) is unreliable (Zach) and impossible to get a hold of for any period of time where I can... Hell. All this is backstory. I did Subsidized Sincerity so I can get away from it, but the past ain't through with me. Or, the two projects are similar enough that James writing flows from one thing to the other. Ultimately, I'm going to have to bring it here if I want to keep it alive.
And I thought all that, when I went out, on Sunday night, to chew on the details of Marathon number 7, Names Have Been Changed To Protect the Guilty. I threw on the Strike Anywhere hoodie (heaven sent, truly) and went out to get gelato to figure out how I was gonna apply the 45ish second song to my own life. I didn't want to get gelato from the place in the campus, I needed the air. I eventually settled on the topic of Eleven Names founder Zach. He's a year or two older than me and I wanted to impress him back in the day. I wonder if I still do now. But, like I said, we don't talk anymore and I miss him. So, I get to the first gelato place (it has a orange awning), and it's closed. Alright. It's a little further down the hill to a nicer one that's probably more expensive.
I walk a little further, wave back to a group of fellow students in a restaurant that miraculously is still open and keep walking. Only a block now. Down the street from the second gelato place, I don't see any lights on in the windows and I lose hope. It turns out the nicer one is closed too. (I left the compound at 1o p.m. I never said I was real bright.)
Up until this point, I was listening to an acoustic version of Gaga's Alejandro, and eventually, got off that song while walking back up to campus. I listened to a little Latterman, a gruff, silly punk band outta Long Island with songs like My Bedroom Is Like For Artists Pt. 2, For Someone So Easygoing, You Sure Wear Pants A Lot and If Batman Was Real, He Would Have Beat the Shit Out Of My Friends. After that, I finally decided I should listen again to Names Have Been Changed, to see what I can gleam from it, from the perspective of the distance between Zach and I.
It is as this point that I feel an unfortunate smoothness at my next step and see that I've stepped in dog feces. For the record: It is hard to be pensive and angsty when you're wiping dog shit off the underside of your shoe.
Dog turd scraped off, I scroll down to the song, and I see something I didn't realize: I didn't leave off at Names, I left off at the song before it, Where We Hide. Where We Hide has lyrics like "we just scrape at something real to let out how we feel" and talks about basically being posers because they haven't really faced oppression and hide themselves in the songs and every so often peek out and see if anyone is catching on.
Well, shit, that sounds perfect. I've been leading double lives for years and truth is always something I've meted out like I'm a propagandist. It is almost impossibly well themed for the feature's crossover to Subsidized Sincerity.
Hopefully, it's moments like this that validate my "write long enough with a fuck all deadline over your head and the answer will be found" thesis. This is obviously only something that will show up, or not, in retrospect. But from right here? I'm not real bright, but this is my broken clock moment. It might only be twice a day, but right now is that moment and it feels pretty good.
Yeah, today's song is the acoustic version of Lady Gaga's Alejandro. If all the acoustic versions are as good as this one, I'd actually be more interested in Gaga stripped down than I am in the regular songs.
Since the death (or at least deep hibernation) of that old project Eleven Names, the songs themselves aren't available to me on the internet, so I have to go back to the iPod for them, which doesn't sound too bad except that I crave, in this case, the synchronicity of having my music on the same screen as my everything else. There's less to manage, and with the history of my Marathon pieces, getting started is the hardest part.
I know if I write long enough, or cruise on the internet, I'll find something to pin the song to and it will get done. But now, if it's going to come out, it's going to have to be here. Eleven Names isn't under my direct control, and one of the other parts of the triumvirate (Zach, Tom and I) is unreliable (Zach) and impossible to get a hold of for any period of time where I can... Hell. All this is backstory. I did Subsidized Sincerity so I can get away from it, but the past ain't through with me. Or, the two projects are similar enough that James writing flows from one thing to the other. Ultimately, I'm going to have to bring it here if I want to keep it alive.
And I thought all that, when I went out, on Sunday night, to chew on the details of Marathon number 7, Names Have Been Changed To Protect the Guilty. I threw on the Strike Anywhere hoodie (heaven sent, truly) and went out to get gelato to figure out how I was gonna apply the 45ish second song to my own life. I didn't want to get gelato from the place in the campus, I needed the air. I eventually settled on the topic of Eleven Names founder Zach. He's a year or two older than me and I wanted to impress him back in the day. I wonder if I still do now. But, like I said, we don't talk anymore and I miss him. So, I get to the first gelato place (it has a orange awning), and it's closed. Alright. It's a little further down the hill to a nicer one that's probably more expensive.
I walk a little further, wave back to a group of fellow students in a restaurant that miraculously is still open and keep walking. Only a block now. Down the street from the second gelato place, I don't see any lights on in the windows and I lose hope. It turns out the nicer one is closed too. (I left the compound at 1o p.m. I never said I was real bright.)
Up until this point, I was listening to an acoustic version of Gaga's Alejandro, and eventually, got off that song while walking back up to campus. I listened to a little Latterman, a gruff, silly punk band outta Long Island with songs like My Bedroom Is Like For Artists Pt. 2, For Someone So Easygoing, You Sure Wear Pants A Lot and If Batman Was Real, He Would Have Beat the Shit Out Of My Friends. After that, I finally decided I should listen again to Names Have Been Changed, to see what I can gleam from it, from the perspective of the distance between Zach and I.
It is as this point that I feel an unfortunate smoothness at my next step and see that I've stepped in dog feces. For the record: It is hard to be pensive and angsty when you're wiping dog shit off the underside of your shoe.
Dog turd scraped off, I scroll down to the song, and I see something I didn't realize: I didn't leave off at Names, I left off at the song before it, Where We Hide. Where We Hide has lyrics like "we just scrape at something real to let out how we feel" and talks about basically being posers because they haven't really faced oppression and hide themselves in the songs and every so often peek out and see if anyone is catching on.
Well, shit, that sounds perfect. I've been leading double lives for years and truth is always something I've meted out like I'm a propagandist. It is almost impossibly well themed for the feature's crossover to Subsidized Sincerity.
Hopefully, it's moments like this that validate my "write long enough with a fuck all deadline over your head and the answer will be found" thesis. This is obviously only something that will show up, or not, in retrospect. But from right here? I'm not real bright, but this is my broken clock moment. It might only be twice a day, but right now is that moment and it feels pretty good.
Yeah, today's song is the acoustic version of Lady Gaga's Alejandro. If all the acoustic versions are as good as this one, I'd actually be more interested in Gaga stripped down than I am in the regular songs.
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