Wow, I am tired. I was in Edinburgh this weekend (more on that later) and last night nothing could go our way as far as getting back to London as quickly and efficiently as possible. We had a 9:15 PM flight that was delayed to 10:15 PM. The flight was longer than expected too as we were taxiing in the sky for quite some time. We finally land and the tubes are closed and the only public transportation option was a two-hour bus ride. No thanks. So uber it was, but au contraire, we could not get an Uber for our lives. So we waited in line for a taxi and after a half-hour, we finally got a cab with a lovely older Spanish couple. We got home at around 2:30 AM. Terrible.
Anyway, Edinburgh was a fun time. It is the weirdest city I have ever been to in my life. The nature is beautiful; there are mountains and valleys and plains. The city is interesting. It is not what one would call boujee. It has an old charm, it is small and all the roads are cobblestone and it rests beneath high castles and extravagant churches. The people are interesting. Let me just say that. People wear bizarre costumes every day, and wacky things happen on the streets, and no one bats an eye. We saw a woman in a 19th-century colonial dress sprinting up a hill with two buckets and a fish. I wish I could properly convey how bizarre it was. It was fever-dreamlike. The nature though really was phenomenal. We did a hike all the way up the mountains to Arthur’s seat. I am very happy I went, but I do not know if I would rush back there.
Meanwhile, baseball season has started. I have not watched enough of the Mets so far as I want to because of the time difference and I am often busy. I should be able to watch more this week. I am dying with the blue and orange. It is way way early but this team has a slightly different feel. That is all I will say. Also, the bar is low. That is all I really have to report. Plus, I am tired. My brain needs a little while to come back. I think I left it in the underground caves that we toured.
Grateful Eight:
* DSPs. These are streaming services. Do you ever reflect that you have virtually every song in the world that you can search and play in about one second? It is wild and as a fan of music, I am grateful for them. People will tell you that it leads to formulaic music and attempts at hacking an algorithm to make money rather than producing art. I am usually people. Daniel Ek also cannot fathom art. He just does not get it when it comes to Spotify. But, I will take it. It is better than not having all that music at your disposal.
* I am grateful for the way eating a meal has the power to completely transform you as a person. You are irritable and tired and then you eat a meal and you are ready to go. Food was fuel in Edinburgh.
* Busy cities. Every place in Edinburgh shuts down by 1 AM and it is incredibly annoying. As far as late-night eats, we went to literally the only place in the city that was open. Honestly, I do not want to talk about it. It was vile.
* The Cinelli Brothers. This is a blues band I have seen play twice at this bar in London called Ain’t Nothing But The Blues Bar. They are fantastic. The guitar-playing brother is among the top five guitarists I have ever seen live in my life. He is that good. All of them are insanely good. They do old blues tunes and readapt classic rock songs like Love the One You’re With and Black Magic Woman. They even played some Jack White the other night. They’re pretty life-affirming.
* These next 9 minutes before my boring ass class starts.
* Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
* I do not have class on Friday morning this week which is a gift. That class is early in the morning, prevents us from traveling, absolutely useless with zero purpose whatsoever, and…you know actually, I will just stop there. What if my professors read this? They won’t. Maybe they will. Nah they won’t. Whatever.
* My classes are easy. I rant about school, but my classes are not too bad.
This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: Brown Leather Ball
We are almost in NFL Draft season, so I thought I would share a little country song about football. This song goes way back. This was a song that I wrote for my first album, Dissociate which I released in 2019. We are probably going back four years potentially. I liked the song, but I did not think it fit for that album. I considered the song for my second album Need a Vacation also, and I ultimately decided that it did not fit on there either. Who knows? Maybe it will find itself on the album I am in the process of writing. It is a fun song about high school football. The football field on a Friday night is essentially a town hall meeting in towns like mine. Football is a vehicle for people to demonstrate pride in our town. Sports provide a sense of community in general. I also love football. I have made lasting memories freezing my ass off in “The Valley” on a Friday chanting “Slaw! Slaw! Slaw” or rooting on Alex to hold together the offensive line. Meanwhile, there is one lyric in this recording (which is from April 2020)…..wait a minute. I am not sure if this song was written a long time ago and I just recorded it in April or I am full of s**t and I wrote this song for Need a Vacation. Do you see what I was saying in the first entry? Sometimes, I have no concept of when or where I wrote a song. Anyway, the lyric I hate. At the beginning of the song, I created the setting as the football field on Friday NIGHT. NIGHT. But in the second verse, I contradict that by saying the actor, the housewife, and the mob boss are in pure daylight. It is not pure daylight at all. It really bugs me. I have since changed it (because I think I did play it recently at Funk N Waffles, which again, I could be full of s**t) to “the autumn night.” That one makes a lot more sense. I also say “kissing kids” which does sound weird but you have to understand in middle school, people would plan to kiss each other at these games. It’s part of growing up okay? With that being said—
Brown Leather Ball
On a Friday night everyone gathers
With wine in their pockets and a bouquet of flowers
Under bright lights that tower the field
The week is done, the valley is lit
At the center of a great big pit
Big as the one in the stomach of the team
Uniting us all is a brown leather ball
From the kissing kids to the callous working man
You can hear the angry yells and obnoxious cowbells
The sound of innocent pride in the sky
There’s a washed-up actor and a housewife
A mob boss in pure daylight
With their asses on the icy steel bleachers
There’s a stampede of passionate kids
Cheering hard as the game hits the skids
Shouting their heads off at the teachers.
Uniting us all is a brown leather ball
From the kissing kids to the callous working man
You can hear the angry yells and obnoxious cowbells
The sound of innocent pride in the sky
Uniting us all is a brown leather ball
From the kissing kids to the callous working man
You can hear the angry yells and obnoxious cowbells
The sound of innocent pride in the sky
The sound of innocent pride in the sky
