big words

stairwell/verse|big in japan|tom waits

this took a long time, a big long time, for several reasons...1., i'm a perfectionist. 2., penning/painting on a wall is challenging when you're a lefty (never realized how much i angle paper when i write.) there is also the drag of the hand across wet paint to consider, you've got to work backwards. if you are right handed, i'm sorry you have no idea what i'm talking about. i'm also sorry because it's cooler to be a south paw. 3., i obsessively stopped every 10m to check for mistakes (and i still made one, oops, redo...) 4., this is big, 3'x5.5' and it had to be measured and leveled and spaced (and measured and leveled and spaced.) 5., i insisted on wearing 4" heels while working (and refused to wear my glasses.) 6., mostly though work was interrupted by a self-curated 1970's, gritty new york, hoffman/pacino film fest on netflix. (the panic in needle park, marathon man, dog day afternoon, midnight cowboy.)

 ...almost two weeks (but it's done and i'm satisfied.)

obviously, i love tom waits.* a friend of mine commented the other day, when asked which tom waits' album should remain if his entire catalog but one should happen to disappear, that, 'most tom waits fans i've talked to talk about him like he has hundred dollar bills falling out of his a**h**e
and their tongues are his toilet paper.' i don't agree with the graphic imagery but i do agree with the sentiment. waits' fans are a hardcore bunch, no doubt, and he's been collecting them for almost forty years now. i saw him perform live for the orphans: brawlers, bawlers and bastards tour and i sobbed for the first 30m of the show. i don't know what was wrong with me, neither did my date, or the people sitting next to me...i just love him so much! i wouldn't use my tongue as his toilet paper but, i would give up toilet paper if i could consistently convey as much feeling/story/thought as he does in one turn of a phrase. there are other things you can wipe your a** with, but there is only one tom waits. 

*never heard this song before? click up there (the first asterisk, not the a**h**e asterisks) and give it a listen. not into that sound? check out some of his older stuff, the heart of saturday night, or my choice for which of his albums should remain if...closing time.