"Something Happened."

Last night, in the deep quiet of the evening, another long day of laying low in the shadow of the pandemic, my partner looked deeply into my eyes and asked me:

"What happened?"

It hung over us like an unanswerable, existential question. No ready answer came to mind. No words could convey the state of the world, or our lives in it, our time time together, the decades that have come and gone, the many turns of the planet.

I thought of Joseph Heller's great, cryptic, epic novel...

The words popped out: "Something Happened."

We exchanged glances. No expression. No smiles. No disappointment. Just a meaningful exchange.

That will have to do. Yes. Something happened.

The a.m. soundtrack - David Johansen and The Harry Smiths - "Shaker." (2002). David Johansen is standing in a cemetery on the cover. He brings long-dead voices back to life with this project. Voices from the grave: Son House, Furry Lewis, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Geeshie Wiley and a few more. Recorded live in a church over two days. Brilliant, classic, acoustic blues. Perfectly rendered. The human story in 3 min songs. Everything is there in the tracks. The hurt, the blues, the wisdom, the death, the glory, the mystery.  You wonder: "What happened?!"