30 years ago today, Jarred Up was released on K Records. A compilation of 22 singles and comp tracks, it includes “Strong White Male” and “Man Thinks Woman”. Jean designed the cover art, one of David’s favourites.
June 7, 2023
Ever open a storage locker that’s basically too full to deal with? I did that over at Dave’s yesterday. This was after we sat in the park for a while and played a few songs; something we haven’t done for a long time. Last time we played was right before the pandemic, rehearsing for the Bikini Kill shows that were cancelled.
Dave had his parlour-sized acoustic. I had a painting of his partner Wendy that I did for his 65th birthday last month. We’ve celebrated birthdays in the park for years, but not for a long time. It was both weird and as if no time had passed.
I suggested Are You Hungry, Joe? and as we got going I noticed a middle-aged Native guy coming our way, crossing the park after shopping on the Drive, most likely, but he seemed to be coming closer than necessary to us. We were possibly right in his usual path.
I felt self-conscious and weird enough singing outside with the way-too faint sound of Dave’s guitar, and, additionally, we were right at the part in the song where I sing. “Almost worse than the pain in my stomach is knowing that nobody loves me. I could live or die and nobody loves me.”
Beautiful spring day, blue sky, wind rustling the fresh green leaves of the tree above us, and what do we have here? A couple of old white people on the ground playing a song about how nobody loves them. The guy kept his eyes lowered as he passed 10 feet from us, which isn’t far in a gigantic, wide open space.
Next we did “Throw Silver” and then, after more conversation about practically everything, we did “Ferry to the Launch” which we both love, but have yet to record. When we play it in this way, without an audience, I tend to think of a show we did with Phil Elverum in NYC at that club that used to be the Village Vanguard. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but it was. Must be almost 10 years. Tae was there exuding such warmth and great energy, but David had forgotten his pants at the motel and he was not happy about performing in knee-length shorts (which were totally acceptable). I mentioned these things after we played the song, adding that it was really no big thing, but I knew he was bugged by it. Weirdly, it happened one other time and Phil was there too. It was Seattle, at Vera. On this occasion, he was equally as bugged and performed in black long johns. Also totally acceptable.
OK, I should stop. I have numbers to crunch. Coffee to drink. This isn’t the best chunk of writing to celebrate a guy’s 65th birthday, but there were strands of tradition and memories that I’d forgotten. I gave Dave a bar of soap, which has been a tradition since about 1988 or so, when we’d just arrived in London to play with Vi Subversive at Apples and Snakes, and I ran down the street to look for something to give Dave for his birthday. The chemist was the only thing down the street, but I have no excuse for the bar of soap. It was likely supposed to be funny.
There was a great moment when Dave showed me the entry he’d made in the year end report of June of 1993. Is that right? 1993? We were at a cabin on one of the gulf islands and managed to dig up a bunch of clams. I sat there on the ground, holding open the report that I didn’t know I was going to be handed and read the entry in photocopied typewriter that included “digging clams” and realized that our shared adventures are forever enhanced by each others nuanced recollections of events just beyond our individual periphery, knowing that the great veil of memory loss is ahead of us, encroaching.
I told Dave that I’d been wondering about how to deal with all the photos we have which are mostly at my place. I took them down off the shelf yesterday wondering if I could bundled up ones he took, specifically while he travelled around Europe after that tour that started with Apples and Snakes, but they’re all mixed together. While they’re still in the old fashioned photo pouches that one picked up from whatever kinds of places added photo developing to their services (didn’t the dry cleaner used to do photos?), the contents were not necessarily the same as the date written on the outside. Enmeshed.
Dave’s response to the photo conundrum was most excellent. The essence of it being, that while we’re still active, productive and moving along with LIFE, we shouldn’t let mementos (like photos) slow us down. It’s a truth worth considering at times when the weight of “things” becomes a downer. One could spend a lot of time chasing around after “stuff” when LIVING, ENJOYING, MAKING are the likely the BEST way to proceed.
Mecca Normal 