Daylight Savings

So, last night was fun. The folksinging event was long, but I was with E (my newest and bestest ff) and she was cracking me up all night, so it did not feel that bad.

I have to say, though, that folksingers for the most part, tend to write lyrics in such similar genres. I hadn’t really noticed it too much before last night but after sitting through three hours of girls with guitars, it became evident. My newest joke is that I think that folk singers must have a book that has all of the topics that they are allowed to write about in it and that they MUST draw from those topics if they are to be folksingers.

I have to add in here that there was a very interesting group of responses from three different people that I told that joke to last night. Eli snorted and seemed to think that I was hilarious. Mike (the ex-boy whose house I swung by on the way home–he needed some boxes that were in my car) followed the joke as I told it and seemed to appreciate it s a series of comments that led up to a funny. Then he kind of entered my fictional world and embellished on the joke, although I do not remember how. I think he plays along because he is very much in his head, too. And then Em sort of said, “Well, isn’t that really all music, if you think about it?” She is very cerebral and practical. I think each of these works for me, it’s just interesting because each response perfectly fits the relationship that I have with each person. E: symbiotic and suddenly close and totally in friend-love with each other; Exboy: playful and willing to live in a fictional world; Em: very analytical and examined and thought-through.

The notable exception to this was Congress of Starlings. I have long appreciated Andrea Bunch and Aerin Tedesco’s willingness to break free from this mold and write lyrics that defy the stereotype. Cell membranes, earthworms, you name it–these girls are writing the mundane into the sublime. It’s pretty impressive and they are such nice women to boot. It is really sweet to see them, always.

Folksinger chick (who is about 26) is bubbly, adorable and talented. I did elicit a promise of a drink date this summer, when she’s back in town for a few months. (She keeps mentioning this to me–how she’s in town and she hopes to see me while she’s here.) She is very cute and she is very young. And goddamn, she moves well on stage. I have never seen someone with a guitar writhe so much. And she has made some unfortunate lyric choices in some of her songs.“we’re loving on daylight savings time” being one. What the hell does that mean? And there wasn’t even the obvious choice that goes with that–fall back and spring forward–within it.

I passed E a note during the show asking those questions about the lyric. I wrote that it was an unfortunate metaphor (it’s one of those things that just sounds cool, but when you break it down it doesn’t make much sense) but that would not stop me from wanting her in my bed. What a fucking dog. E wrote back in all caps: DO IT.

It’s interesting. Folkgirl is single (she practically announced this from the stage) and her wanting is so clear. It’s really heartwarming and also scary to see that openness right on someone’s sleeve. And I know that I also can exhibit these tendencies. It is attractive on one hand (the openness and the willingness to put oneself out there) but also very frightening (to see yourself reflected back as 10 years younger, to note the wanting and see that in yourself). It’s also scary to me to know that maybe because you are older and maybe a little bit wiser about the world than someone that you could probably manipulate that if you wanted.

Not that I’m going to do that, because I know what that is like from the other side. But it is interesting and frightening. At least there is a kindred soul out there in the romance-on-the-sleeve way. That’s good. I was beginning to feel like a big freak and like I was the only one.

So there will be a drink in a month or so, when Folkgirl is back in town.

Now I must get going if I am to get to the gym and write a little bit of stuff for HotHouse and meet Sweet Em for some punk-anarcho-world-politic-leftie-business talk at Loyola and then head to the roller derby. (This is why I like Em so much–brainy politics and punky sporty ass-whippin’. Yes. Perfect combination.)