Ladies and Gentleman we are Floating in Space

So shit was heavy and i heard some comments that people don't come to the lounge to be bummed out and really i thought it lightened up a bit but there's really nothing to do but try, or don't try which is really more my style, which brings me round to J. Spaceman aka Jason Pierce and the beautiful music of Spiritualized, it's music for us gentle souls, gentle souls who ultimately try to avoid the inevitability of human drama as best they can, we try to avoid it but it's quite hard to do with the rest of humanity running all willy-nilly and making a soap opera out of their lives, it seems gentle souls like J. and i would much prefer to read books and stare out the window at the passing traffic, maybe listen to birds chirping as we skin up, shoot up, snort up, drink, smoke, in our quest to avoid the inevitability of human drama, we're just trying to avoid causing any problems for people so we keep to ourselves and if we do any damage we try to keep it limited to our own persons, it's really a lovely way to live, i don't understand why more people don't try it...

see i was blasting Let it Come Down today at work, thinking about all the lyrics, "Trouble with the straight and the narrow is that i keep falling off to the side" or "the only time i'm drink and drug free when i get my drugs and drink for free" or "some say i should add some years to my life, i say i should add some life to my years", Spaceman reminds me a bit of the Dude, apparently i reminded the Limey and his wife of the Dude, the Dude being Jeffrey Lebowski, the point being it is much better to sit in the bathtub getting stoned and listening to tunes then being a captain of industry, then consuming and earning and worrying, some people aren't born to be lawyers, analysts, marketers, some are born to just be...

see there was a day long ago when the Dude stood in his living room late one saturday night chopping lines of uptown and downtown at the same time, his roommates out of town and a couple of maniacs on the couch all wide eyed in anticipation, one was a paranoid gun fanatic with a predilection for Crowley, the other was his Art Star girlfriend who went be a nickname she had given herself, we took turns hopping the trains for parts unknown in the good ole wasteland of our minds, unfortunately the paranoid gun fanatic began to ramble on about guvment conspiracies and how he thought he was being watched by evil men and his better half rambled on about how unfair the world was because she hadn't achieved Art Star status outside of her own apt. even though she had a degree, the Dude on the other hand really just wanted to sit on the couch and listen to the air move around him, tingling on his cloud full of warm water, to avoid the inevitability of human drama, yet he didn't kick them out, he just patiently listened until they left, why worry really, just listen to the air flow in and out of the lungs and the blood rush through the ears, soon he was left alone in the soft lamplight to watch the smoke from his cigarette and the sky lighten... simple.

I saw Spiritualized a good five/six years ago now and it rates as one of the Greatest shows i've ever seen, J. sat in a chair the whole time and it sounded like gospel music for the twenty-first century, all guitars and horns and keyboards and drums and words, it was an all-ages show and when the genius who owned the place figured out no one under 21 was there they opened up the place for drinking and the bar area emptied out as the kids all rushed towards the stage and i ended up with my belly on the bar and room to move, directly in the center of the stage, a bartender at my beck and call, the spot where the music sounds best because when you see a band it really is about the sound isn't it? yes you can get up close and singalong and try to be part of it but in my case i just want hear it and enjoy it, so i stood and ate pills and drank and was happy like Dean Moriarty was happy, grooving along to the gospel of J. Spaceman, tingling as the blood rushed through my ears and the air flowed in and out of my lungs, and when it was over i stood and smiled as the cigarette smoke floated through the blue light and my mind began to lighten... simple.

Recommended listening: Cop Shoot Cop- Spiritualized