Up the straw

Midweek, hump day, Mr. Maliable, Wednesday. The glass is half full and the glass is half empty, so pick your outlook as you please. I know this much for certain, though: the sun is up and glorious already this early morning, on its way to another toasty mid-eighties (29-ish C) day. Top rolled full back on the Fiat and the music down low so as not to cover up the morning birdsong. Birdsong is defined as, "The musical vocalizations of a bird or birds, typically uttered by a male songbird in characteristic bursts or phrases for territorial purposes." Such competative beauty, then, the pleasant sound of little (to us, perhaps) wars.

Bruce Cockburn popped up on the playlist today (not unheard of when you have almost all of his 35 albums in your collection) with Tibetan Side of Town.  Documenting a motorbike ride into a Tibetan town to go drinking with his hosts, it conjures up that place and time in beautiful detail. For example:

Big red Enfield Bullet lurches to a halt in the dust
Last blast of engine leaves a ringing in the ears
That fades into the rustle of bare feet and slapping sandals
And the baritone moan of long bronze trumpets
Muffled by monastery walls.

Prayer flags crack like whips in the breeze
Sending to the world - tonight the message blows east
Dark door opens to warm yellow room and there
Are these steaming jugs of hot millet beer
and I'm sucked into the scene like this liquor up 
This bamboo straw

That last bit is a poetic way to think about the inexorable flow of life and circumstance, to be "sucked into the scene," whatever that scene might be, like liquid up a straw.  Of course, we don't always get to control the scenes we pass through in life, but each consumes us, draws us in. Ready or not, here we come! 

I'm reminded of another lyric quote by Cockburn: If I loose my grip, will I take flight? Well then, let's see what destinations Wednesday has up its straw today.

Today's full playlist:

 - Dave Grusin: Pistolero (Milagro Beanfield War Soundtrack)

 - Matthew Perryman Jones: Beneath the Silver Moon

 - Brad Mehldau Trio: Dreamsville

 - John Denver/Placido Domingo: Perhapse Love

 - Bruce Cockburn: Tibetan Side of Town (Live)

 - P.T. Walkley: Audrey Macy