New Years Revolution! Resolution... or something

Life...its bigger. Bigger than you and you are not me. Which is a break for you. So I never blog anymore. I am too busy. FEEL SAD FOR ME! My life is too full with work and family and work and friends and work and church and work and traveling and work and reading and work and work. But it is a good time to have work. A good time to have a vocation. Occasionally I post in my Facebook Status Update my favorite work song ever...EVER which is by the great Tom Waits. I am sure I have posted it before in this space:

“You gotta get behind the mule,
In the morning and plow”

It just has some classic lines that just resonate...every time:

“Well the rampaging sons of the widow James
Jack the cutter and the pock marked kid
Had to stand naked at the bottom
Of the cross
And tell the good lord what they did
Tell the good lord what they did.”

Because sooner or later, since we self identify as the most Christian nation on earth, most of us should anticipate having to do just that. What am I going to say? I scrambled for a buck? I... provided for my family? I educated my kids? I drove an excellent car? I lived in a bitching house? I really don’t believe judgment day will be like that. I really don’t believe that I will be judged because that is not what I have been taught. I have been taught that I need to believe, and try and live my life like I believe. Right now in 2012 that means living my life in some kind of grateful way for the fact that someone died for my sins. But living your life like that, might not look any different to anyone watching. Weird.

So what does it feel like to go to work every day. Are you filled with purpose? I know I am more like Tom Waits:

“I'm diggin all the way to China
With a silver spoon
While the hangman fumbles with the noose, boys
The hangman fumbles with the noose.”

Well that might be a little dark. It seems pretty clear to me that what I am expected to do to make a living really stopped working for me a few years ago. So I keep trying to change it. And I keep failing but life has gotten a little more interesting. If your lucky (and even though I bitch like there is no tomorrow I am the luckiest guy in the world) and you keep your eyes open there are some chances that are laid out there (I like to think that God lays em out) to do a couple of good things. Of course I am still a lawyer. I am paid to be a prick but even with that....Waits leaves us with a little hope at the end.

“Pin your ear to the wisdom post
Pin your eye to the line
Never let the weeds get higher
Than the garden
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind.”

I think Jesus said something like that. I don’t think Paul did. He could be kind of a judgy guy. Hold it... I take it back. Paul did have a sapphire and diamond in your mind type line. A little thing we call Phillippians 4-8: 8

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Seems like good advice and hard to remember when you are yelling at someone on the phone are arguing at court. A greater sense of gratefulness for 2012. I know I will not do it all the time but lets make it a goal for me for 2012.

Record Review 2 Tom Waits "Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards"

Tom Waits
Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
2006
Anti, Inc
What do you do about Tom Waits? Obviously he is the band leader for the St. Louis Diner Review but his “body of work” can most kindly be described as odd and somewhat inconsistent. The problem is that on almost every Album or CD he throws something that is just brilliant. In the last few years he gave us “Alice” and “Blood Money”, both released at the same time and although they had their moments could be described as less then compelling. The you have to reach back to 1999 to find a great CD in “The Mule Variations.” Now he gives us a 3 disc set. Double CD’s and even worse 3 CD compilations tend to be...self indulgent. CD’s are cheap and easy enough to produce and contain over an hours worth of recording time on each. If you have something to say write an essay or a short story. In this case Waits gives us all the brevity of a Russian Author with the equivalent of a 900 page tome. That having been said...I do what I always do which is to listen to a CD three times.
I started out with “Brawlers” which is disc one. Wow. This is some of the best stuff he has done in .Brawlers contains raucous stomps and up tempo jams. This is my favorite time Waits...romping along bellowing angrily at everything. It opens with the song “Lie To Me” where he admits to the woman in question, I”I don’t want to be told the truth.” And all God’s children say Amen. This disc does not have a weak cut. If you don’t know Tom Waits this disc is worth the price of all three all by itself. The CD is tight, bouncy and evocative. Mark Ribot’s guitar just shows why he is everyone’s favorite session guitarist.

The second disc, BAWLERS, is full of lyrical balladry. “You Can Never Hold Back Spring,” followed by “Long Way Home” just kind of break your heart. Something about that ugly...growling voice singing beautiful songs...yin and yang...blah, blah, blah. It is just really..compelling. Some really beautiful playing too. Understated, emphasizing his voice...you almost never notice how great the music is. The band could be playing for Sinatra or Torme on “It’s Over” and songs like “Down by the Train” and “Good night Irene” are just...classic.

The third, BASTARDS, is a hodge-podge of experimental tunes and covers. Many of the songs are outtakes from studio albums, while others are the results of outside projects or one-off oddities. Waits's unique sensibility is in full flower throughout the set: his gruff croon, barks, and howls. There is a lot of spoken word crap and narration and although interesting and as I said, "unique", it is not something you would put on in the background. It is too odd and disjointed yet, still Tom Waits. And when Tom Waits tells you that the little boy found the moon was made of wood and the earth was an overturned piss pot, as part of a bed time story... you believe it.

This is the guy who said in an old Rolling Stone interview I read...well, a long time ago...that he “has always been fascinated by the sounds coming from down the hall.” The insistent clanking of strange percussion which reminds you sometimes of those old radiators in our classrooms (do they still have radiators in old classrooms?) That would clank and moan as the steam filled them making moving metallic noises where you knew even a s a ten year old there was nothing metal moving...just the noise. and his evocative, detail-rich lyrics are all on ample display.

From the spooky rave-up of "Lie to Me" through the heartrending beauty of "Shiny Things" and the familiar strains of "Goodnight Irene," to his off-kilter cover of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong," ORPHANS is packed with spectacular surprises. This is good shit. 8 out of 10 Slingers! Which is unbelievable for a three disc set.

Personnel: Tom Waits (vocals, guitar, keyboard, percussion); Dave Alvin, Joe Gore, Larry LaLonde, Marc Ribot, Ron Hacker, Brett Gurewitz (guitar); Anges Amar (whistle); John Hammond , Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica); Ralph Carney (saxophone); Seth Ford-Young, Larry Taylor, Les Claypool (bass instrument); Casey Waits (drums); Bobby Baloo (cowbells); Gino Robair, Jeff Sloan, Stephen Hodges, Steve Foreman, Andrew Borger, Brain (percussion)