Flim-Flam...

I was "running down a dream" yesterday. I won't go into the details, the story is still developing, but I was presented with a new set of facts, a budding new interest in me and my work, and it was surprising, confounding and a little bit unsettling.

I don't know if it was all real, or a mirage. I'm not sure if I was being humored, hustled, or courted. It was weird, all my instincts and intuitions seemed off-kilter, off- target. Was I deluding myself, hearing what I wanted to hear, or was this a real-deal opportunity? Was I just running down another rabbit hole? Was I living in my Own Private Idaho?

I bounced some of what was happening off my long-time partner. She listened to me run-thru the details, she laughed and then she said, "It's the perfect thing for you... FLIM-FLAM!"

Funny... I guess, it's true, my life has been one long, rambling, journey filled with smoke, mirrors, false-fronts, pipe-dreams and FLIM-FLAM! Stay tuned...

The a.m. soundtrack - New Order's "Substance"  (1987). I don't know why, I think of New Order as a band of film-flammers. A most improbable & successful band. Birthed out of the wreckage of Joy Division. Ian Curtis committed suicide, and a couple days later, undaunted, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, were in their rehearsal studio conjuring up a new thing. I don't think anyone had any idea that New Order would become a massively successful outfit. Curtis was the driving force of Joy Division, the voice, the lyricist. This is a compilation album, singles & b-sides. Two discs. I am listening to disc two at the moment. You can hear the DNA of Joy Division in the tracks, but this band totally morphed into a dance/electronic powerhouse. Innovative. The sound of 80's dance culture. Computers, sequencers, the vocals buried in the mix, beats, fabulous melodic bass-lines, drums organic & electronic, Sumner providing unique, guitar sounds. Over time Sumner became quite the haunting, distinctive lyricist & vocalist. This band is about a total group sound. Amazing band. Amazing story.