The rocking chair on the third floor enclosed back porch of Etta’s apartment is one of my favorite places these days. I was rocking, reading, eating Mexican candy and nodding my head to classic rock on the clock radio in the kitchen. The deep voice of 97.1 The Drive came on and said that while many performers strive for perfection in the studio, a live performance is about what happens in the moment and the connection the artist finds with the audience. It was the introduction to that day’s Live @ 5, the Beach Boys… I simultaneously read these words of Krista Tippett: “I’ve been thinking, there is in the Jewish tradition the nephesh, the soul that is emergent, that is quite different from, say the Christian idea of the soul. There is a Jewish sensibility of the soul as being something that emerges in a relationship.”
When I got back from Chicago, I got busy. I am working almost every day until Etta comes here. When I’m not working, I go to the movies. I saw the midnight screening of Weird Science last night and laughed out loud. Tonight I saw Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary, The Tillman Story. It shook me up. The media’s hyped up account of Pat Tillman’s life and death is so far from the real story. Seeing the truth was wrenching. The film brings you right back to 2004, the Bush years, the complete lack of faith in our government, the anger at being lied to. It touched a raw nerve in me. After the end credits, with Neil Young in my ears, I exited the cinema behind two shaved head military guys. Not a word was said between them; they were completely quiet. I got to my car and broke down crying so hard I got a headache.
Snorkel snorks a lot through the Windy Streets, through to the core of it all.