by kristin on June 28, 2010
I had a seizure one night, when I was a teenager, on the front step of Store 24 on Thayer Street in Providence. I was talking to my friend Mark and drinking a Coke, watching cars drive by, and then I was looking up at Mark’s face in the glaring fluorescent light and Thayer Street was sideways. “What happened?” he asked me. I didn’t say anything, ’cause I didn’t know exactly and ’cause I was busy feeling the sticky fluid on my face and in my hair. I hoped that I’d cracked my head on the cement step and that the sticky fluid was nice, dramatic blood, but my Coke can was empty and Mark wasn’t looking at me as if I was covered in blood, so I figured I’d not only embarrassed myself by having a seizure in public but also poured an entire can of soda on my own face. Swell.
“Lazy Eye” thinks this is a pertinent moment. It then goes on to describe ways in which our brains spend time in other places and the embarrassing frustrations that can cause us. Another eye in another place, out of this world, can set off our balance and poke little holes in the beautiful masks we wear in public. We make these masks out of psychological glitter and glue, ’cause we think we can fool people, or maybe we got our feelings hurt one too many times, and a thoughtfully constructed persona starts to seem important. They’ll think I’m so cool! But friends, lovers and well-wishers whose hearts are not made of stone always seem to be around when our weirdnesses shine through the eye holes like so much bright light.
Love,
Kristin
Find this song and all my recent work, in multiple formats – including lossless, free for download on my CASH Music pages. Information on how you can support my work by becoming a subscriber is here.
by kristin on May 26, 2010
Swollen is Marilyn Munster; the last “normal” Throwing Muses song. This is, of course, just a demo, but you can tell she wears trim blouses and pumps, smiles politely and probably only eats animals that don’t have two heads. It appears, though, that when Swollen left the building, she left the door open. Her sweet shuffle and actual chorus (of all things) was followed immediately by songs made of fractured instrumentals, unattached bridges and free-floating verses who tap dance for a minute then run away, only to reappear in a different outfit, a different song, later on in the program.
It is not un-beautiful to be in pieces, as long as those pieces are fully realized, so I’m happy to let these strangenesses be as they are. But after living in this fractured world lately, hearing Swollen again was like a gentle lady sitting down next to me on a park bench, Frisbees whipping by. I like Throwing Muses Frisbees, but the gentle ladies are comforting, especially after taking a bunch of Frisbees to the face.
I want to thank you Strange Angels again for allowing both the ladies and the Frisbees a chance to come to fruition in the studio. The NPR-ish model we emulate is a valuable one. Sure, forty bucks is a lot to pay for a coffee mug, but if you want no corporate involvement in your radio, then you pay the forty bucks and take or leave the mug. I’m thrilled to be sending you the new CD that we made together, I love it when you visit me in the studio or take me up on my offer of free admission to shows, but I find that, for the most part, you all are interested only in having the music continue. I will always write new songs, but without the ability to fund recording sessions, you probably wouldn’t hear them. Thank you for wanting to hear them.
Love,
Kristin
Find this song and all my recent work, in multiple formats – including lossless, free for download on my CASH Music pages. Information on how you can support my work by becoming a subscriber is here.
