Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Unemployment Journal 2

Alex Chilton died while I was half-assed looking for a job. AC is a hero of mine, having discovered Big Star while still in High School and the soccer jocks were kicking their goals. They were September Girls, I thought as I delivered pizza or worked in Chinese restaurants, getting pimply and shit.

This past year has been been a strange one when I think about deaths of amazing singer/songwriters. Oddly enough, the other night I put on Be There to Love Me. That's a film about Townes Van Zant. Then, I read that Steve Earle had just written a a book about Townes. Then, I started thinking about my strong feelings about Townes and it revolved around TCW.

TCW and I used to get wild. He has a baby now, as does Lee, and we used to get wild, too. And you think, you pause, and you wonder why the radiator is bitching at you. You wonder what it would be like to just take it all in: a family, a job, a car, a __________

There is a man outside making music on a fence post, with a fork and something more metallic. It sounds great!

Death, though is a new beginning. Marriage is another new beginning, perhaps it is the death of of the individual. That is not a bad thing at all. Individualism has never truly existed as long as there are 5,000,000,000 other people in this world. Yet, you meet someone, and I mean, MEET someone and they meld into you. Aha, lucky!

So, back to AC. He met the guitar. He made music better than most of us ever will. He wrote songs that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

I am unemployed.