Miscellaneous Thoughts & This Week's Statistics

Hello again, my friends! I decided to write a different story today. It will be my story - sort of. There will definitely be songs, some of my favorite and especially those that shaped me intellectually and emotionally. Since there will be no featured artist, I will adorn this story with a photo of one of my favorite paintings. The painting is by Greece's most famous painter, Yannis Tsarouchis, who dared be openly gay even during the forbidding 1960s. I am greatly honored to be able to say that he was my friend.

I make no money from my blog, which gives me a strange kind of freedom: I can keep ugliness away. I delete the comments by homophobes or negativity trolls without hesitation. I only argue with those I respect - and I only fight with those I love, otherwise, it's just a waste of time and energy. So, to quote Paul McCartney from the Beatles' Fixing A Hole:

"See the people standing there who disagree and never win
And wonder why they don't get in my door"

I am wary of people. Two reasons: a. People lie and b. People are unnecessarily cruel. Even if the former can sometimes be excused (not as often as it is though) the latter is inexcusable. It is what separates the men from the beasts: the beasts are cruel only when they have to. Sometimes, just to survive, you have to play a part, to "set it up", as Losing My Religion explains:

Don't let me get started on the hypocrites, the holier-than-thou crowd. Bob Dylan said it best in Positively 4th Street:

"You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin'
You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winnin'

You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it
When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once and scream it"

I am not ambitious - wait! let me rephrase that: I am wildly ambitious but not seriously. It's a game to me, setting a goal, achieving it - and then not bothering to follow through on the boring details, you know, the ones that bring fame and fortune. This line from Leonard Cohen's The Stranger Song is absolutely me: "It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender." I'm that guy - and this is the song:

I love songs that tell stories. Sometimes these stories would make a great movie. A fantasy of mine; David Lynch making a movie out of The Band's mysterious love story, Caledonia Mission.

"She reads the leaves and she leads the life
That she learned so well from the old wives
It's so strange to arrange it, you know I wouldn't change it
But hear me if you're near me, can I just rearrange it

The watchman covers me
With his remedy
I can't see and it's hard to feel
I think his magic might be real

I can't get to you from your garden gate
You know it's always locked by the magistrate
Now, he don't care why you cry, he thinks it's just a lie
To get out, I don't doubt that you'd make a try

If the good times get you through
I know the dogs won't bother you
We'll be gone in moonshine time
I've got a place they'll never find

You know I do believe in your hexagram
But can you tell me how they all knew the plan
Did you trip or slip on their gifts you know we're just a con
You knew it, why'd you do it? I've been hiding in the dark

Now I must be on my way
I guess you really have to stay
Inside the mission walls
Down in Modock, Arkansas"

Bruce Springsteen's Meeting Across The River, the story of two losers planning a robbery, is a Film Noir waiting to happen. My favorite line is "Here stuff this in your pocket - It'll look like you're carrying a friend":

Listening to Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the details of the ill-fated journey of the unlucky ship never fail to fill me with dread:

... While listening to Marianne Faithfull's heartbreaking version of The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan fills me with sadness. The line "At the age of thirty-seven she realized she'd never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair," brings tears to my eyes.

Sometimes poetry is involved: Serge Reggiani's anti-war song Le Deserteur uses Arthur Rimbaud's Le Dormeur du Val as an introduction, a poem that makes the death of a young man in the war sound, oh, so sensual:

"C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D'argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière
Luit c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu
Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue
Pâle sur son lit vert où la lumière pleut

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme
Nature, berce-le chaudement il a froid

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au coté droit"

... Sometimes the poem is the song. Case in point: Loreena McKennitt's inspired transformation into song of The Lady of Shalott, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's classic poem from 1832.

"Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
'The curse has come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott."

There are times when a song is not based on - but brings to mind a work of literature. Whenever I listen to Don McLean's The Orphans Of Wealth I think of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes Of Wrath".

Sometimes the song allows you to become one of its characters. I can totally become this 15-year-old uncouth lovelorn barbarian when I listen to Jet Boy, Jet Girl by Elton Motello:

... Or I can become a defeated older lady like the one in David McWilliams' Days Of Pearly Spencer:

... Or I can become the young man who was used by Mr. James in exchange for a ticket out of jail and a touch of luxury in Scott Walker's sublime Thanks For Chicago Mr. James:

The final verse of Genesis' The Musical Box often feels like it's speaking about me:

"I've been waiting here for so long
And all this time that passed me by
It doesn't seem to matter now
You stand there with your fixed expression
Casting doubt on all I have to say
Why don't you touch me, touch me
Why don't you touch me, touch me
Touch me now, now, now, now, now
Now, now, now, now, now
Now, now, now, now, now
Now, now, now, now
Now, now, now, now"

Stories can be as straightforward as the one in Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight - just a woman's thoughts during a night flight, of the lover she left behind:

... Or they can be complicated and twisted, like the doomed romance of Heathcliff and Cathy in Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

Sometimes the story is simple but told in an endearing way, like Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat:

Sometimes the song's joyous feeling carries you along, like Steve Forbert's Romeo's Tune:

Speaking of Steve Forbert, he utters one of my favorite lines in the song, January 23-30, 1978: "It's often said that life is strange, oh yes, but compared to what?"

Sometimes the feeling is sad, Tracy Chapman's Fast Car:

"I got no plans I ain't going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving"

There are times when the story is told in amazing detail, like Lou Reed's Street Hassle. By the way, if you think there's someone in the song who sounds like Bruce Springsteen, it's because it is Bruce.

At other times I marvel at the economy of the lyrics - like Sly & the Family Stone's Family Affair:

"One child grows up to be
Somebody that just loves to learn
And another child grows up to be
Somebody you'd just love to burn
Mom loves the both of them
You see it's in the blood
Both kids are good to Mom
'Blood's thicker than mud'
It's a family affair"

Even more so on Prince's Sign o' the Times. I mean, the line "In September, my cousin tried reefer for the very first time. Now he's doing horse, it's June." is fantastic, come on!

There are stories tackling controversial subjects, like PJ Harvey's Down By The Water, in which she expresses her regret over drowning her daughter:

There are stories that are purposefully oblique, like Kristin Hersh's Your Ghost. Michael Stipe is helping out with the vocals:

"You were in my dream, you were driving circles around me"

There are stories where certain images stand out: in Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, every time I listen to the lyrics "there were peasants singing and drummers drumming and the archer split the tree" I can visualize the course of the arrow through the air.

Then, there are stories, like Sufjan Stevens' John Wayne Gacy Jr whose horrid subject matter (the portrait of one of the worst serial killers of all-time) creatively contrasts the sweet melody of the song:

By coming out when being gay was socially unacceptable, if not illegal in much of the world, society unwittingly gave me a gift: since they were wrong about something so fundamentally right, the expression of love between two people, then they could be wrong about everything. The fact that at a young age I was able to question everything society was throwing at me was a huge learning experience, as well as a serious boost to my inner strength. I could survive on my own moral code and would let no religion, social structure, or political ideology constrain me. That does not mean that I am morally rudderless: in fact, my personal moral code is often stricter than those that "happen" to exist around me. I never forget that I am lucky to have lived in a place and time in which being gay was difficult but not impossible - and I realize that there are many brothers and sisters around the world that are not so lucky - even now. To them, I dedicate Glad To Be Gay by The Tom Robinson Band, a song that has helped me through many difficult moments.

However, being gay isn't all doom and gloom. It can be pretty fabulous too. As David Bowie said in Moonage Daydream, while he was exploring his gay side, "The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be."

Finally, four words for those who may find this self-indulgent or moot or confused or naive or insignificant or whatever: this is my narrative. If one person communicates with what I'm trying to say, that's enough for me. it only takes one person to change the world. So, I bid my musical adieu with Johnny Cash's version of U2's One:

Now, let's continue with our statistics; there was a 5% drop in visits compared to last week but it was still 16% higher than the week before that, so, we're on the right track? Probably not.

As far as stories are concerned, the Motown countdown is still not doing very well. People were mostly reading older stories - the top 3 of the week being Peter Straker, George Maharis, and Dave Clark (all three from 2016 and 2017).

As far as countries are concerned, the United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Ukraine increased their overall percentages, France, Italy, Cyprus, and mostly Greece suffered losses, while the United Kingdom and Germany kept their percentages steady.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. Russia

3. the United Kingdom

4. Canada

5. Germany

6. Brazil

7. Australia

8. France

9. Ukraine

10. Italy

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Angola, Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, French Polynesia, Georgia, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guernsey, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zambia. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 32.3%

2. France = 17.9%

3. the United Kingdom = 11.5%

4. Greece = 8.3%

5. Russia = 2.4%

6. Canada = 1.9%

7. Germany = 1.8%

8. Italy = 0.96%

9. Cyprus = 0.89%

10. Australia = 0.77%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!