coffeefog

sidewalk says

Look what fate and gravity collaborated on this time: a magnetic poem. Do you think the patterns of city foot traffic have had any significant impact on the arrangement of words here in this sidewalk crack? Is there any cosmic significance to this? Or is this of little interest at all, just a jumble of words no more meaningful than had you dumped the entire Magnetic Poetry box into a pile on your kitchen table?

This was on Oak street somewhere between Fillmore and Buchanan this afternoon:

Except actually the poem doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you read it left to right. It's all jumbled. So if you can make something sensical out of (most of) these words, you win. Bonus points if you incorporate the word "Parliament" from the cigarette. (link to bigger picture)

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Went to a great show tonight, but for some reason GAMH was full of talkers during all 4 bands. So far the noisepop crowds have turned out to be incredibly un-appreciative as far as "talking over the music" goes. But I had a great time at the show, despite my "blowgun poison darts at the talkers from above" fantasy, pictured to the right, and we saw great performances by the Decemberists and Rum Diary. All-in-all I spent 7 hours with my friend Nik, from the ethiopian dinner before the show to the end of the night where he dropped me off at a random street corner 3 miles from my house. I felt like a hooker, getting out of a car in the middle of a intersection, apparently destinationless. I walked the rest of the way home, over the 17th street hill, but only because I wanted to. Not because he kicked me out of the car or anything.

A high point of the show: The Decemberists dedicated their song The Soldiering Life (mp3) to the city of San Francisco for the 4,000 gay marriages it's performed in the past 3 weeks. The song is an account of WW I soldiers falling in love with one another on a belgian battlefield - great lyrics like " We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep, Our eyes align, swaddled in our civies, Cradled in our dungarees". On the first listen you might not even pick up the homosexual message - I only figured it out because I was in the car with Ian for 4 hours and all we had was this promo mix CD that he got out of a men's magazine, and I heard the song 4 times. Give it a listen, and then you'll probably have to buy their album. One thing I should note before you get too far into their music is that approximately half of their songs are about chimney sweeps, and how hard it is to be a chimney sweep. it's inexplicable.

it's 4am. my paper route starts in an hour. fuck...

Posted by Ethan at February 29, 2004 04:11 AM