Perfect From Now On

(10:30PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

you don’t tell me anything

that’s not a dream

that’s not a big lie

you’re not going anywhere

you don’t care

you think that’s fine

you don’t owe me anything

you’re offering

it’s already mine

your best friend is everywhere

they don’t care

they think you’re slime

you don’t even know

what it means to take your own advice

and then

expect me to look surprised

after awhile you know their style and that’s enough to know they suck

and when you know they’ll stop the show because they know you know

I know it’s sad but don’t feel bad they knew they had it coming

after awhile it hurts to smile and if you laugh it’s just a typical miracle

~Built to Spill, “Stop the Show”

Last Friday, I skipped watching the debate between Obama and McCain to see Built to Spill perform their seminal album “Perfect From Now On” in its entirety at Terminal 5 in Manhattan.  I could hardly have made a better choice.

There is something surreal and disturbing about the news, lately.  Whether it be abominable snowwoman foisted by the Republicans for Vice President, the trillion-dollar bailout which might be, the nauseating specter of McCain refusing to glance at Obama, or just the simple noise of the election, it has all gained the edge of a bad LSD experience in my eyes.  The Baron Harkonnen said that the way to control a mentat was to give it bad information.  I feel of late as if my mind is being deliberately poisoned.

In my last Quote for Discussion piece, NL said that she wondered what the design and purpose of the series was.  Sadly, there isn’t anything which would truly qualify as a plan behind them; they are things I see which grab me and I want to share.  But there is still a purpose.

I love knowledge; I love it for the sheer joy of knowing things, and because when I was young I was infected with the idea that knowledge can help people.  There are angels in the data, which can lift people up and save them if we seek their aid.  But the data is everywhere; it is in songs, and in legends, in porn magazines and housing project shooting galleries.  There is something I’m looking for which exists in crowds of 80,000 screaming fans at a Mizzou Tigers game and in the glitz of Indonesian waria streetwalkers.  I chase that something with the passion of a junkie.

And right now, I feel the high I’m chasing simply can’t be found in the news of the day.  There is no more truth to be mined in the events that are being reported.  Everyone is just squabbling about the lies and demagoguery.  I’m going to take a bit of time to keep mainlining truths from pretty songs.

it’s alright now I’m getting over getting mine

it’s alright now I’m getting over getting mine

he seemed so unashamed of how he operated

corresponds to the facts that you want

despite his expectations

he turned out mediocre

his master plan was so so

we’re special in other ways

ways our mothers appreciate

that net does not make me feel safe

all those holes make me nervous

~Built to Spill, “Kicked It In The Sun”

12 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Here’s Built to Spill performing the first track from Perfect From Now On, “Randy Describes Eternity”.

    • kj on October 1, 2008 at 02:24

    at a four-way stop, the guy to my left got stopped a half-second before me.  without thinking, i turned my head and slightly nodded and he accelerated and went on.

    and i thought, why did that interaction please me so much? it was nearly unconscious on both our parts. there was no eye-contact, just a half-absorbed fraction of an off-hand communication.

    but what it was was… flow.  just that simple drift, a wave caught on a tree root. nothing at all.

    but it felt good.  and right now, flow is going on all around me, whether i tune in, or not, whether i’m conscious, or not and i like knowing that.

  2. but I love the sentiment of what you’re saying.

    Just the other day, I noticed the sig line in my brother’s email.

    Thoughts become things. …. Choose the good ones.

    He and I share (perhaps genetics?) a preponderance to questions and cynicism, so this is no superficial call on his part. I love it!!!

    Oh, and I wish I had been the one to question the design and purpose of these essays. Good question. But it wasn’t me. Perhaps undercovercalico?????

  3. …Muzak shrieking around us at the moment, and we political junkies are trapped in elevators of our own making.

    Nice piece, as usual, Jay.

  4. …but I think my favorite BTS song these days is “Goin’ Against Yer Mind.” Works elegantly no matter what mood I’m in.

Comments have been disabled.