Days.
Ray Davies wrote a great pop song called "Days."
Charles Bukowski's famous line: "The Days run away like wild horses."
Bono used the line for a U2 song.
Sometimes the days are a blur, they kind of smear together over each other. One day you look up and a string of days have flown by. Some days totally stand out. Unfortunately, the really dark days tend to be vivid, easily recalled. They are the "pivot point" days, where something (usually traumatic) happened and everything is altered forever.
Sometimes the good days stand out too. Is it true that the dark days seem to have more gravity, and the bright days are more ephemeral? I don't know.
Yesterday, Memorial Day 2020 was pretty much a positively standout kind of day.
Leisurely morning, great coffee, wrote in my blog, worked on Moog tracks, went for a long, invigorating 40 min bike ride with my partner. We basked (socially-distant, masked and anonymous) in the sunshine, meditated in the shade, had a long, rambling conversation about life, love and yes, unfortunately the pandemic. We talked about all the silly people congregating close together and NOT wearing masks. Surprising. We returned home and filmed a music video of one our older tracks. We also recorded a demo of a new song. Then it was Pizza Party and watched a couple episodes of Mad Men season 3. It seemed like an incredibly long day. Fruitful, and fun. Memorable.
The a.m. soundtrack - The Smiths' "Strangeways Here We Come" (1987). The last record from The Smiths. It's great. Lush. Beautifully recorded. The band is at the top of their form. Amazing creative/musical collaboration. Morrissey & Marr were an incredibly gifted, unique, prodigiously creative song-writing team. Sophisticated pop/rock of the finest kind. Marr isn't just a fabulous guitarist, he is a composer of pop masterworks. Shimmering, layered. Of course, Morrissey is a great vocalist and an uncommonly brilliant lyricist. Funny, cutting, intelligent, graceful. This was the last time Morrissey and Marr worked together. Something happened. Whatever attracted them to each other, whatever worked so perfectly over 4 studio albums and a great collection of singles, seemed to evaporate. Why does what works so well, work, and then, NOT work? It's a mystery. The record is a true masterwork, makes me smile. It's is life-affirming to listen to work this perfectly composed and performed. Inspiring.