Uncertainties & Probabilities...

The Fickle Finger of Fate.

Luck. Good luck. Bad luck. Biology. Randomness. Accidents.

It's hard to get your head around the idea that so much of our lives are arbitrary, subject to the whims of the Universe. The scientists spin a yarn about how the Universe started with a Big Bang and the whole thing became a long unfolding.

Subtract Gods and Demons, and you have a place of uncertainties & probabilities. Welcome to the Funhouse.

The a.m. soundtrack - Joy Division's "Closer." (1980). Hermetic. Recorded at Pink Floyd's Britannia Row studios in the middle of the night. Sounds like it was recorded in a void. Maybe we are all really just inside a hushed, sealed chamber in Martin Hannett's head?  Hannett is just as much the artist here as is the young, totally unique and distinctive band. There is a hollow, ghostly clarity to the music. Such a great, incredibly focused band. Peter Hook is one of our greatest bass players, many of his riffs became the signature instrument in many of the songs. He plays bass unlike anyone else. And of course, Stephen Morris is a fantastic drummer. Hannett worked hard on a very dry, totally pristine and mannered drum-sound. It is an "Uneasy Listening" record. A perfect soundtrack for those of us in the middle of a plague. The second and last Joy Division album, it was released two months after lead singer Ian Curtiss committed suicide. Curtiss sounds like a man in great distress. Totally on fire. Aflame. The record is an austere masterpiece. Knowing what we know, a bit morbid.  Ian Curtiss was such a young, sensitive soul. A super-intense artist. Everything seemed to weigh him down like a ton of bricks. Guilt. Shame. Anger. Clear vision. Clairvoyance. Not easy to listen to, hard to forget. A great record.