2002-10-14 -

The South Side of the Life

It's odd how songs stick in your brain. I know I wrote an entry in response to a discussion topic about that a while back, but it's happening again. I'm listening to Yes' Fragile, and when they started playing "The South Side of the Sky", all I could think about was the state debate championships when I was in high school. I remember thinking, even as they announced that my team had won the novice division, that there was really no way I could take the moment in, tired as I was.

The moments seemed lost in all the noise
A snow storm a stimulating voice
Of warmth of the sky of warmth when you die
Were we ever warmer on that day a million miles away
We seemed from all eternity

Which reminds me- I really love the movie Almost Famous, but the moment when Lester throws Fragile on the floor just pisses me off. I, too, disrespect a lot of music that pretends to be rock and roll. I don't despise it for being arty or pretentious or just not being what I like, though. I despise it when and only when I feel like the asshole performing it is doing so in a fashion totally devoid of any real passion for the song. You can accuse Yes of being too stoned to show their passion when they played some of their lives shows, but I tell you what, they certainly felt it for real when they wrote it.

Speaking of people feeling it... watching the Raiders lose and the Dolphins win this weekend reminded me of what a subtle game football can be. Take a guy who's losing it, put him in a different situation, and all the sudden he's on top of the game again. The 49ers let Jerry Rice go because they thought he was losing it. Yesterday he racked up something like 130 receiving yards on his fortieth birthday. He's the oldest player ever to play the position, and clearly the best ever. His team lost, though, because Mr Marshall Faulk is also one of the best there is, and after losing five games he turned it on. Why did he turn it on against Oakland and not one of his five previous opponents? Nobody knows.

Move forward was my friend's only cry
In deeper to somewhere we could lie
And rest for the the day with cold in the way
Were we ever colder on that day a million miles away
It seemed from all eternity

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