these times

“I’m glad I’m still alive (class ’67) cause I live for this.” – This is a comment I left two weeks ago on the YouTube recording of “Heaven Must Have Sent You” by the musical group The Elgins (1966). I like that comment. I came across it today while I was listening to that amazing music again, and copied and pasted it here. It brings to mind life in my home town – that life, this comment.

This is Saturday afternoon and I feel wild with creative energy. I’m wearing brown cargo shorts and a maroon sweatshirt, because this apartment – outside the front room – stays chilly. Wait, I tell myself, ’til February, Cool Breeze. I did a long walk late morning to score a bag of fresh coffee from Von’s, and to pick up a book on hold at the library. “Let It Blurt” written by Jim DeRogatis, a biography of the rock/music critic Lester Bangs. When I returned I began a final read-through/edit of my new book, “Joy in the Journey,” and have been reading the Bangs book since.

A couple of weeks back I included a Lester Bangs quote in my ‘uncool tidbits’ post here in the Blog, the post title obviously under the influence – “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

The other day I told my pal Gavin that I was feeling “unemployable.” I said it again to Ann the next day. This followed but also proceeded my Zoom interview Friday morning. I can’t seem to edit my enthusiasm for the “human” in human services, or tone down the sweet, goofy way I can spread that around like a cheerleader on steroids. I do not have much confidence hearing back from the Friday morning outfit, and there’s a couple more online offers to speak up for myself again today, 10am and 3:30 pm.

All of which brings to mind my favorite song on the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” album, Brian Wilson’s “I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” Back in the 70’s I liked driving to interviews, and sitting with real people. Once I locked my keys in the car and had to go back in and ask the interviewers if I could borrow a coat hanger, which I would mangle, to pop the lock. They offered me that job a week later, and I took it.