07 January, 2005
stars fell on alabama

on a whim, some years ago, i fell in with a bunch of mates on an adventure to Alabama. i call
it "adventure", because there are those times when the experience may not be so good while living it, but provides interesting material for future pondering.
trip taken on a gutted school bus, retrofitted with a dinette table with facing seating, a row or two of the original foam&steel spinecrushers, a recliner in the back. for over seven hundred miles, one-way. to a stock car race in Talladega. creepy natives played an egregiously racist song when we landed, thinking we'd somehow find it amusing. my glasses broke, leaving me with shades for three days and nights. mass quantities of beer consumed. witnessing stolen police cars upended in soggy drainage ditches. shirtless goons climbing the roofs of mom&pop motorhomes. hot. mosquito-y.
not delightful first impressions.
of course, somewhere in the mix was a Hooters� girl that came on to me, 'til the chaperone showed up. almost a HallmarkMoment, so, not a total loss. i just wasn't left with rosy remembrances overall.
waking to a grey that never diminished or brightened (after a night of yet more perplexing dreams), i forced myself to DO THINGS. the idea, the doing would deflect the abyssal atmosphere.
remembering a cd that i'd promised to burn for a fellow dj, i unearthed a bin of ancient 45RPMs (from a late cousin's collection). sitting on a dusty floor, surrounded by labels and paper sleeves and artwork from another era, i attempted to ferret out some vintage twang... only to also find stacks of rare soul. forgotten 60s country. Hi-King-Starday-Hit-Capitol-Chess-Sun-KamaSutra-Fraternity-Bat-Decca sleeves like a musical rosetta stone.
and, among the stars and never-were's, EllaFitzgerald&LouisArmstrong doing the title track to this recollection.
perfection.
her crystalline tones and most strikingly enunciated blues, underpinned by the gravelly one and his tearful brass... almost made me fall in love with Alabama.
too bad the feeling doesn't always mirror the reality.

for some unknown reason, this tale reminds me of a episode on the long road, monday. on a most mundane stretch of highway, bordered by bare trees and brown, dry weeds, out flew a large bird from the undergrowth. too large to be a dove, too small to be an insomniac owl. raptor-like.
pure white. a thing of wonder and beauty set in forgettable surroundings.

in fact, remarkably similar to the theme i started with.

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