Someone was to have
called me at 7:00AM. OK. That’s the time I’m usually at the gym. I figured I could slow the stair master down
and talk while I walked, if necessary.
Everything about the routine was the same, except this time I propped my
phone up on to the lip of the stair station. Within a few minutes of Mahavishnu
Orchestra’s “Miles Beyond” from the 1973 album “Birds of Fire”, the bewitching
hour struck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_Fire I double-checked and the signal was
strong. Check the time again. OK.
Dude’s running late.
Then we were “Up the Wooden Hills to Bedfordshire” with the
Small Faces. Distracted, I kept look at
the phone’s black face at rest through to the final yell at the end of the song
that I somehow imagine was Steve Marriott.
Well then. “Lady Madonna” kicked
in. You can’t argue with those horn
line. Is that McCartney playing drums
the way it seems in the video they have of this? iTunes random function is on a role and its
staying with dreamy, mid-sixties British pop:
The Kinks “Johnny Thunders” comes on . . . and plays through.
Right. Well. Did I read the note wrong? It was seven, not seven-thirty, right? He’s calling from the U.S. It was Daylight Savings a few weeks
back. Maybe he’s still confused about
the time over here. An old one by Tommy
McCook, Lee Scratch Perry with “Roast Fish and Corn Bread” and then the
celestial harmonies of the Impressions with “The Girl I Find.” Enjoying that tune there is a backing vocal
that is a sort of frozen birdcall which someone other than Curtis Mayfield
makes. I’d always thought the same noise
made by the Wailers on “Duppy Conqueror” when Marley says “don’t try to cold me
up, on this bridge now,” was sui generis
but it was obviously it was lifted. I
suppose nearly every teenager on the Island of Jamaica in the sixties was a fan
of the Impressions.
Sit-ups with the phone poised up by my feet. The same intro as “Stone Free” but rather,
it’s the opening of “EXP” from Hendrix “Axis Bold As Love. Upper body weights with the phone down there
at my feet. By now I’m reasonably at
peace with the fact that this guy ain’t calling. Two more dub cuts and we’re back to The
Impressions with the somewhat oddly titled, and odder lyric-ed “Young Mods
Forgotten Story.” I’m not familiar with
that term being widely used in the U.S. from that time. The “Mods” were decidedly British from
1964. There was, of course, the “Mod Squad”
TV show, but I don’t recall much else.
Slip back on my jeans.
Throw on my coat. Back off on the
way home. The rather dreary Kinks tune
“Alcohol” is on as I pass back, through the gate. I double-check my phone to make sure that
some call didn’t come through while I blinked.
Nope. A black Honda Odyssey sails
along and slows to my left. Ahh. Indeed.
That’s my black Honda Odyssey, being driven by my wife. My daughter’s iPhone is all that remains of
her after the morning drop off. It is
blaring a song called “Shadow” by a Korean boy band whose name escapes me. I throw the seat back and complain about my
call that never came.
Up in the house the coffee is ready. Extra milk. It’s strong. Iggy and the Stooges invite me to join them
for calisthenics with the uplifting nightmare, “Pin Point Eyes.” I flip open the laptop. Yup.
There’s a note from the dude:
“Sorry, ran late. Can I still call
you later tonight or tomorrow?”
Hmm. “Sure. No problem.
Call anytime.” This rather than
saying: 过时不候[1]
Over to the news.
Malaysia is suggesting the plane dropped into the sea south west of
Australia. The president obliquely
referred to some new radar information they just had shared that determined
unequivocally that the plane was heading in that direction. That sounds like the U.S. finally shared some
classified information that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. The G8 is back to being a G7. An interesting article trying to explain why
Putin did what he did. China is asking
the U.S. to explain what it was that the NSA did to Huawei.
My dude has written back.
It looks like he isn’t calling this morning. What an odd waste of mental energy, preparing
for something that never transpired. I’m
glad I didn’t sit around waiting for the call, and forgo the gym. Finish these calisthenics then. Onward.
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