Killing Me Softly With His Song...

So it's the new year. I am wallowing in it.

I told my friend Betty tonight that she is recklessly responsible. She took it as a compliment.

She has given me a new nickname. Wand of Power. Or "WOP".

I don't know what to say. She had me at hung.

The economy sucks. Except for, it seems--- in Spokane, which has among the best economies in the land these days.

I had to buy books for school the other day and landed at Barnes and Noble at North Town Mall.

The place was packed.

The lady behind the information booth advised that people in Spokane are so used to living in a recession that we don't know any different...we don't know that we are supposed to be panicked. We ain't. At least not yet.

Our retail sales grew by one percent in December. Which considering our snomaggeden weather-snowcane did damn good.

Home prices have yet to fall. They've stabilized, just down 1% from last years peak.

Foreclosures are minimal.

Olive Garden still has an hour wait.

As does the friggin do-it-yourself car wash.

I am deep into the quarter-So lucky you's---I have a couple of recommends if you're so inclined for fireplace reading. They would be:

Under the Banner of Heaven-which totally puts the Mormon ass kissing of prop 8 homophobes into hypocritical perspective. Their defense of "traditional" marriage seems so oh no you didn't. I still plan on writing about prop 8 and it will probably piss off just about everyone I know.

I may---no, make that I know, I'll probably end up having to rebuild my relationship with my folks, yet again. Let me just tease you with this ditty...a quote I provided Michael Angelo Signorile over ten years ago. "The minute you give the government the right to validate your relationship is the same moment you've given them the right to take away your relationship."

Makes you want to stay tuned don't it? Just to see if I've gone all Montana Survivalist on ya's.

So yeah, spend a weekend with Under the Banner of Heaven. It will make the shake down in Texas and Arizona/Utah and now California seem not so much about the Big Love.

I'd also recommend Bewildered Travel. I understand myself a bit better after this stunning journey into my head. For anyone addicted to perpetual motion, or "travel", this will trouble you and excite you and lead you to rethink everything.

Who knew a Peterbilt Addiction could be compared to a "rupture".

Valerie if your reading this...good stuff for your dissertation.

Anyway the point of this really wandering note was to be centered on music.

I have this long standing tradition among my friends. I call their answering machines up, or voice mail, and I sing. Usually late into my endless commute. It keeps the Moose and Elk off my front door.

I sing songs that are slightly familiar. I sing songs that I am fairly sure they will recognize. I sing songs, that are in the key of me (read: NOT in tune).

Yet, that are guaranteed to get stuck in their heads.

For a day.

A week.

Sometime a month.

In one case, a year. (That one required medication and hypnosis to solve.)

I think of it as a sign of love.

But now, well some people are not content to be passive listeners. Oh no. It's all about participation. Or better yet, retaliation.

Which is why I currently have a Barry Manilow song stuck in my head.

And why at least one person will be humming the Carpenters "I'm on the Top of the World" for days, if not weeks to come, starting tomorrow as he feeds cattle.

And another Trucker, somewhere in Oklahoma, is endless humming "I can see clearly now".

Kinda brings a whole new meaning to "Killing Me Softly with His Song." Don't ya think?