Those Numbered Days

1.  Woops.  A day slipped by without so much as a derogatory peep.  I really should have at least popped in long enough to say that no matter what impression you got from Wednesday's rant against Ed's post about the Tour of Books, he and I remain friends and at least from this corner there are no hard feelings.  Ed has been and will remain one of my favorite bloggers, lit- or otherwise, and he's had a huge influence on this site, not to mention the fact that he was one of the first people to throw Syntax of Things a link oh-so-many years ago.  Full disclosure: Ed's haikus of endearment and his peace offering of a half-dozen nude photos of Rosie O'Donnell helped win me back.

2.  Speaking of the book tour, make sure you swing by After the MFA and my old pal Dallas Hudgen's Drive Like Hell for the third and fourth installments of the Q&As with Brendan Halpin. Damn, if I knew that Dallas still had some blogging left in him, I would have started my own virtual book tour. By the way, I hear Dallas has a new book of his own coming out soon.

3.  So Oprah's going to have Cormac McCarthy on her show?  Damn, Oprah, you go girl!  I long ago said that The Road was not only my favorite book of 2006 but might very well be the best book I've ever read.  Have I backed this up with a reasoned, well thought out post/review?  Not yet.  Maybe I'll follow along with the Oprah crowd, wearing my pink bathrobe and tattered slippers, and do just that.  And I'd like to add that I still completely support J. Franzen's refusal to be part of the Oprah dynasty.  Man had his principles and like them or not, he stuck to them.  Look at the money he let go based on that decision, though just having the decision to make probably helped him pocket some nice coin. 

4.  If you stop by this weekend and notice that (Syntax of) things look a little off, well, I'm getting out the sandpaper and Bondo and doing a little body work on the old jalopy.  I've had this design for so long the rust is showing.  Now I know absolutely zilch about Web design, CSS, all that B.S., so I could very well break the Thing and then you'll see nothing but a white page or a long column of words or a picture of my middle finger waving goodbye, but if Typepad owes me anything from giving them a little free pub the other day, I'm hoping it's going to be in the ease of use under the hood.  Stay tuned if you can.

5.  If you've made it this far, then treat yourself to a Tom Waits song as a parting gift, my kiss goodbye after a long, hellish, mostly sleepless week that included an unsedated trip to an oral surgeon (consultation on how much his brand of torture will cost).  I'm in the process of trying to choose my favorite Tom Waits song and the one that I keep coming back to is "Burma Shave."  Specifically this version of it from his appearance on Austin City Limits.  This is one of those defining songs with Waits at his storytelling best.  I'm going to throw the lyrics beneath the cut so that you can read for yourself just how good his stories can be.  But the truth is in the listen and the listen is right here:

Tom Waits--"Burma Shave"

6.  You can also watch him performing the song on the Old Grey Whistle Test.  This version is not as good as the ACL one, but still worth watching.

Burma Shave

licorice tattoo turned a gun metal blue scrawled across the shoulders
of a dying town the one eyed jacks across the railroad tracks
and the scar on its belly pulled a stranger passing through
he was a juvenile delinquent never learned how to behave
but the cops would never think to look in
burma shave

and the road was like a ribbon and the moon was like a bone
he didn't seem to be like any guy she'd ever known
he kinda looked like farley granger with his hair slicked back
she says i'm a sucker for a fella in a cowboy hat
how far are you going he said depends on what you mean
he says i'm going thataway just as long as it's paved
i guess you'd say i'm on my way to
burma shave

and her knees up on the glove compartment
took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
and she popped her gum and arched her back
hell marysville ain't nothing but a wide spot in the road
some night my heart pounds just like thunder
i don't know why it don't explode
cause everyone in this stinking town has got one foot in the grave
and i'd rather take my chances out in
burma shave

presley's what i go by why don't you change the station
count the grain elevators in the rearview mirror
mister anywhere you point this thing
has got to beat the hell out of the sting
of going to bed with every dream that dies here every mornin
and so drill me a hole with a barber pole
i'm jumping my parole just like a fugitive tonight
why don't you have another swig
and pass that car if you're so brave
i wanna get there before the sun comes up in
burma shave

and the spider web crack and the mustang screamed
smoke from the tires and the twisted machine
just a nickel's worth of dreams and every wishbone that they saved
lie swindled from them on the way to
burma shave

and the sun hit the derrick and cast a bat wing shadow
up against the car door on the shot gun side
and when they pulled her from the wreck you know she
still had on her shades
they say that dreams are growing wild just this side of
burma shave

Comments

[joschmoe]

I, too, was pretty bummed out about Oprah choosing the new Cormac book (trivializing good literature,in my opinion). I agree Jeff...Kudos to Franzen. I seriously doubt Cormac is in it for the money. At least we will get a chance to see him on her show in April. I realized that if all Oprah's readers out there will actually read the book cover to cover and recognize it for what it is (I see a Pulitzer in Cormac's future) then all could celebrate an amazing piece of literature. Everyone out there in SoT land MUST read this book (better hurry if you want a first edition...they were dwindling even before Oprah's announcement).