ben

 

dear chicago

rain. i think the way that i feel when it rains drastically varies depending on two things, one being season, and the other being music playing while it's raining. in the summer all rain tends to feel transformative in some way, maybe because it's warm and the earth turns up all sorts of shiny green things waiting to drink it up, to turn it in to something life giving and powerful. this time of year, on the other hand, rain just tends to feel depressing. it's cold, it's wet, it floods, it's overcast...it knocks the leaves off the trees before they get a chance to fully realize themselves as "fall leaves," leaving them nothing more than stains on the sidewalk. this is when a well chosen soundtrack can help make the rain seem a little more...can we say, enjoyably melancholy...rather then abjectly depressing. my choices today were the more down-tempo love songs of ryan adams, and i have to say that with a long distance relationship on my mind more often than not, a little rain and a little ryan adams can go a long way towards cultivating the kind of mood that one needs to brood over lonliness and the frustrations of life, rather than the kind of bitterness that quickly develops when you realize that your jeans are soaked up to your knees and it's only 10 am.


in other commentary, it is stupid to drive your car through water, no matter what, and year after year of watching people get fished out of thier suv's in the middle of the highway should teach even the most asinine driver that it's not worth your life.

also, last week i saw pinter's "the birthday party" for the first time, and i have to say i was very impressed with the acting for a college production, and also that even though i really liked the play, the whole time i was watching it all i could think of was my friend dan, who i am positive will go on to write something that good one day and probably doesn't think so.

and those are my unrelated and irrelavent thoughts for today.