In The Wake Of Poseidon

Got up for the usual early morning 5km walk to discover the street outside was flooded. I then ran into a maintenance man who lives in the building, out walking his dog. He told me there was a water main break and the entire neighborhood was without water. They'd been trying to fix it since midnight.

I nodded and continued on my walk towards my local coffeehouse which is 1.6 km away, unsure of how I was going to shower for work, but deciding not to worry about it. Then as if by coincidence, it started raining. Unusual enough for L.A., but today it seemed downright ominous.

I suppose it would have made more sense to abandon the walk, but I figured, it's only rain. By the time I got home I was soaked but at least I had the sense to wear a hat.

I used up the Britta pitcher for another round of coffee, made breakfast and threw on King Crimson's "In The Wake Of Poseidon." It seemed like a good watery album and a change up from Ween's opus "The Mollusk."

Funny thing about Crimson-- they've been with me for a long time. I have vivid memories of hearing "In The Court..." as a troubled teenager in an intense relationship with a girl whose entire family was on prozac. I then got into the Belew-era Crimson and circled back for what I could call a heavier album like "Red." With some bands, I listen in order. Other bands, I hop around.

As much as I love their first two albums musically, from a writing perspective, many of the songs fall prey to 60's-era hippiedom. That's a totally subjective comment, mind you. Besides, art is always produced in some context or another. The strength of some particular works of art is precisely because it is firmly rooted in a specific time. So they are time capsules in a sense, and important ones, too. Whereas, other works are timeless and can be accessed with ease at any given moment in time, regardless of the context in which they were created.

And also just selfishly speaking, I just have to be in the mood for a song with lyrics like "Call her moonchild, dancing in the shallows of a river
Lovely moonchild, Dreaming in the shadows of a willow."

As a slight aside, Crimson's live version of Donovan's Get Thy Bearings, is amazing. No matter what iteration of that band, no one can argue the power in their music.
In fact, I've only witnessed one other band with as much power as Crimson on stage and that was [Hasidic New Wave]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63m28gLV2Y4), whom I suspect were influenced by Fripp & Co anyway.

Back to lyrics: If I have my druthers, I'd choose a song like Waiting Man. It's more universal, less obtuse somehow. Plus the 80's Crimson is so freaking angular, I feel each individual track pulsating in my veins and oxidizing my cells. .

Anyway.

The water's back on. A shower beckons.

Speaking of Adrian Belew, he was nice enough to accept (and compliment) the story "I'd rather be right here," from my collection A-Sides and B-Sides. It's available in digital form everywhere and now you can get it in paperback, too.
If I had Adrian's address, I'd send him one.