From the relatively recently released Tin Machine: Live at La Cigale, Paris, 25th June 1989. I never felt like Tin Machine's studio album captured their sound. Not that I ever saw them live, but I distinctly remember their 1991 appearance on SNL, where they performed Bowie's "Baby Universal" and what a little research now shows me was Roxy Music's "If There Is Something" (neither of which I was familiar with at the time, and there's no youtube clip of that second performance online).
It was that performance, to a 15-year-old stoner who had only the most fledgling radio understanding of David Bowie, that imprinted something on me that would be called upon later in life when I became a full-fledged fan. In fact, Tin Machine was all over Chicago's Loop 97.9 FM rock radio at the time (not sure what song), and I have a tiny memory of the disconnect between the kind of lackluster energy the track had compared to what I'd seen on SNL.
Years later, I picked up the group's 1989 eponymous record, and again, felt like something was missing. It's a serviceable record but just does not present the band the way I remembered them from that performance. Then, in 2019, this live album surfaced, and it's perfect.
Perfect.
Watch:
Here's a trailer for the new film from Christopher Smith:
Reminds me - I still need to watch The Banishing, and Black Death has been on my unrequited radar forever; I love Triangle.
Playlist:
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise
David Bowie - The Next Day
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
Godflesh - PURE Live
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
My recent forays into emotional stability (via re-engagement with yogic discipline) will bolster a partnership and push me further away from the dogmatic thinking that can set in when a routine develops.
Routines are good and bad. I have definitely established one since moving across the country; however, recently I've become aware that the routine is too entrenched and would benefit greatly from a pattern interrupt. Based on this, earlier in the week I began practicing yoga again. This is something I've flit in and out of over the last twenty years. I use it until I don't need it anymore, move on and eventually come back. However long I stick this time, in just four days, the practice has worked wonders for my body and mind. I can feel things clearing up and my everyday life, absolutely a partnership with K, has become a lot lighter.
One of the things I initially told K concerned me about our plan to buy a house out in the country (relatively we're not on green acres or anything) was not letting it inadvertently become a prison. We left a lot of friends in L.A. The good news is my Chicago people are only 6.5 hours away, but that still leaves the day-to-day spent primarily in the house, where we both also work from home. So you see how quickly our retreat could become an agoraphobic processing center.
Maybe this is paranoid, but I'm always on the look out for what I call "Life Traps." People maneuver themselves into situations that look good when juxtaposed with their current circumstance, the good in which they've probably grown blind to due to repetition and routine, and they take steps without considering the long run. In our veritable frenzy to get out of LaLaLand, I became hyper aware of the possibility we might be jumping into just such a trap. The good news is, just being aware of this stuff usually helps to mitigate it.
But diligence is required.
Thus, I'm looking at shaking up the small routines in favor of creating a bigger picture. To quote Special Agent Dale Cooper:
"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And I've started to focus out beyond the edge of the board. On a bigger game."
Today's Pull definitely makes me feel as though I am moving in the right direction.
