is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Culpa the Writer. Admitting To Liking Music You Don't Think You Should Like.
Culpa the Writer. Admitting To Liking Music You Don't Think You Should Like.
I�m not one to quote Marge Piercy, but here�s something she wrote somewhere at some time, in something that I read approximately fifteen years ago: �The real writer is the one who writes. Work is its own reward. You have to like it better than being loved.� I am not so fond of Marge Piercy�s writing in general, but for some reason that has stuck with me, and on occasion I repeat it to myself when I have been avoiding writing.
I don�t think I have to like it better than being loved, except that maybe I have to like it better than having everyone love what I have to say. In my philosophical-writing �career,� that�s me-as-sisyphus, the person who writes about the philosopher who says what few people want to hear, and then translates his work into a statement about ethics and political responsibility that isn�t always very easy to hear, or think. And then does it again. But that�s not the only writer I am.
So now I have an online diary, and perhaps it will help the doctor heal herself. When I teach writing to college freshmen, I always tell them that there�s only so much a writing teacher can do. A person gets better at writing by reading more and, most important, by writing more. Writing every day, and even when you have nothing to say. So I make the students keep journals and write about things they think don�t matter as often as they write about things that do matter (and, really, often the things that do matter don�t have much to do with one�s college courses, no?).
Culpa means �fault� or �blame� in Latin. It�s the last name of the one of the pen-names that I admit to writing under, Felix Culpa. Felix means �happy,� which makes this a happy fault. Mea culpa, Felix culpa. I am responsible for things I never did, and that's OK. I think there�s no need to say more about that just now. Given the tendency of my thoughts and my philosophical obsessions, it will all become clear over time.
The other night I was trying to get Mr. Perrone to reveal to me music he likes that I wouldn�t expect him to like. He did. This is one of my favorite things, learning what is surprising or unknown about people. Learning all this slowly, over time, with people I like to be around. I remember one night a few years into my Very Special Relationship with Evany Thomas, she learned two things about me: 1) that I know all the words to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and 2) that I had a well-developed crush on Conan O�Brien. She felt like I had been cheating on her by keeping these things from her. But we all have so many odd things buried in us that we don�t think to say outloud unless the right context emerges. It�s exciting to think that mysteries like that never entirely end.
But for the last week or so I�ve been so seduced by something that I never thought could have any power over me. It�s that damned Iron & Wine album called �Our Endless Numbered Days.� Gayle gave it to me for my birthday. Gayle has a history of giving me music that I really really like even though I�m not sure I want to. I love her for this, and for many other reasons. And I suppose it�s good for me. But this Iron & Wine, it�s like a cross between Nick Drake and Simon & Garfunkel and the songs I sang those few summers I went to Christian camp despite my heathen upbringing. Can you imagine the progeny of such twisted parentage finding its way into my ears? Folk music!
But it�s beautiful, and poetic, and, well, like I said, seductive. Nonetheless, when I back up from the room I�m sitting in for a moment and try to get that impossible Archimedean view of the situation, I want to be listening to something else. So I�m going to try to break up with it soon. But for now we�re a happy couple. I listen to it over and over again, and its stays in my head and inflects (or infects) the rhythm of how I walk around in the street and go through my (endless, numbered) days. My favorite songs on the album are �Love and Some Verses� and �Passing Afternoon.�
Speaking of admitting to liking music you shouldn�t like, can you tell me what verse from the album links Iron & Wine to The Backstreet Boys? If you can and you�re the first to tell me, I�ll give you an h2so4 tshirt. Unless you already have one.
The last thing that I spent so much time listening to over and over again I am proud to ask you to go buy for yourself. Doug and Caroleen from Waycross have covered the entirety of Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. It rocks harder than the original while still being very true to it. They even put together an Enorchestra comprised of Waycross members, Seth from the Quails, and Steve from Dirty Power. Three guitars! Rocking the Eno! On Stage! Exciting! (Remember: rock music with three guitars--or more--is ALWAYS EXCITING.) It was all very good, both times. Buy the album. And then find some way to make them perform it again and again. http://www.saucefaucet.com/tiger.html or http://www.alt-rock-hub.com/Brian_Enos_Taking_Tiger_Mountain_By_Strategy_B0001XALS2.html
2:58 p.m. - July 17, 2004
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