Strange dreams and burning rubble.

It’s still raining today. Nothing special about it, no storms, no giant drops of rain, just pissing on and off. It’s not altogether unpleasant, but I’d rather get something enjoyable out of it, you know? I had these wild, vivid dreams last night, which for once I actually remembered. I dreamt an old friend I haven’t seen in more than 10 years was playing drums with the Minutemen. That D. Boon was still alive, and George Hurley had died in his place. I had a dream that Sonic Youth was playing my high school chemistry class, and that the Raconteurs were opening up for them for some reason, and Jack White didn’t look like Michael Jackson anymore. I had a dream about Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of Irene Adler. I dreamt… a lot of things. When I woke up this morning, my cell phone was dead. No indication of anything that was wrong with it last night, it’s relatively new and the battery was fine. But it’s dead now and I was convinced upon waking up that my dreams had something to do with it.

I’m in a really shitty mood, shittier than I can remember. Did you ever see that Simpsons (don’t laugh. My brain is half made up of old scripts) where the Flanders house gets hit by a tornado and they’re all living in a temporary shelter when Marge runs up to Ned excitedly claiming “Ned, come quick, you’ll never never believe what happened”. And poor Ned, exasperated and his life in ruins, his children in old Butthole Surfers t-shirts, looks up and says “what, did the rubble burn down?”

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I’m feeling right now. Ugh. So rather than continue to subject you to this crap I’m just gonna throw some blues on here and get back to my shithole day.

On a bizarre side note, I came across this interesting story about a book entitled Futility about the wreck of a giant ocean liner called the Titan, which was the largest ship ever created at the time and was widely considered to be “unsinkable” until it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and was in dire straits because it was drastically understocked with lifeboats. This book was published in 1898, a full 14 years before the Titanic sank. Pretty fucked up, no? Well screw you I thought it was. Learn more about it here and read the whole book here.

Charley Patton was one of the first blues artists to ever be recorded (along with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake), and widely considered the first off the well-known Delta Blues guitarists. He had the voice of a bullfrog, despite being slightly smaller in stature than I am. He drank too much, chased women, snorted coke, and was a notorious braggart. Like many other blues artists, he was often the subject of scorn from jealous husbands and scornful ex-lovers alike, even getting his throat slit sometime between 1933 and 1938. You can here the difference in his voice on “Mind Reader Blues”, which he recorded with his wife at the time, Bertha Lee Jones, a few years after the incident. He was a guiding force for Son House, who in turn influenced everyone, from Robert Johnson to the Chicago electric blues that appeared in the late 40s. He led the life, and now nobody is even sure how he spelled his name. Anyway, he’s pretty reflective of my mood today, so here’s some notable stuff from him. If this stuff has any appeal to you whatsoever, you should head over to Honey, Where You Been So Long and check out that site. I find something new and totally amazing every time I’m over there. You can also download a bunch of free shit here at the Library of Congress. You paid for it, you might as well enjoy it.

Moving on, Some Charley Patton. Because these songs aren't the highest quality, I'll throw down four:

High Water Everywhere, Part One - Charley Patton

High Water Everywhere, Part Two - Charley Patton

I Shall Not Be Moved - Charley Patton

Mind Reader Blues - Charley Patton & Bertha Lee.

I'm pretty sure his work is in the public domain at this point, but if it isn't, you can always buy some stuff here. I should point out though that Charley Patton, like all blues, is really easy to find for super cheap and you should check your local CD store because you can find 3 disc collections for about $17 more often than not. that's all I got today. I really, really am looking forward to this 4 day weekend coming up. It is needed.