Coupe le tour.
Its been a hell of a ride, and I’m feeling too much of the tension between nostalgia and relief to really offer any kind of retrospective.
I love New York. I’m not moving, but I spent more time there this last calendar year than anywhere else, and it was nothing but aggressively, relentlessly good to me. It no longer intimidates me, but it still scares me – in how it restructures your brain, in how nobody notices the sound sculpture in Times Square (the perfect metaphor). It’s a relief to be back in the desert, where there is space, and breeze.
What’s to say about Purchase? Same old city with a different name… They laughed at some things, they didn’t at others. There were establishments for food and for liquor, there was landscape, there were buildings, we got on and off the bus, in and out of a hotel room?
We said goodbyes, we drove in to the city, we said goodbyes again… It was all surreal. I don’t know. Six intimate months together, and then poof – what do you say? There is both too much and nothing left. Similarly, I don’t have any way of wrapping up my writings on the subject.
As with everything, it just ends:
learn every room long enough to make it to the door -
then you hear it click shut behind you.
(Never) Going Home
Side One
1. Tour – Henry Rollins (excerpt)
2. I Wanna Be Sedated – Social D
3. This Is My Life – Firewater
4. Tiny Idyll – Jolie Holland
5. Truth Is – Brother Ali
6. You – Atmosphere
7. Fuck and Run – Liz Phair
8. Whole Wide World – Wreckless Eric
9. Get It While You Can – Janis Joplin
10. Dilate – Ani D
11. I Wanna Die – Jolie Holland
12. No Future (Road Song) – Wingnut Dishwashers Union
13. A Brief Yet Triumphant Intermission – Against Me!
Side Two
14. Three Legged Dog – Firewater
15. Going To Georgia – Atom and his Package
16. Burn Your Life Down – Tegan and Sara
17. Falling Without Knowing – Tilly and the Wall
18. Trading in Your Friends – Liar’s Handshake
19. Ramblin’ Man – Hank Williams
20. The Last Harmonica Blues – The Seatbelts
21. Wayfaring Stranger – Johnny Cash
22. Tired of Being Alone – Al Green
23. Sax Rohmer #1 – The Mountain Goats
24. Weird to Be Back – Firewater
25. Keep the Car Running – Arcade Fire
