I just came back from a cruise, a wonderful cruise. I’ll try to sum up what I liked so much about it. I started every day with Eggs Benedict, just like they do in heaven, spent every day watching some member of Paul McCartney’s favorite band (click that link, ya haters), and ended every day reading The Bright Forever.
I finished the book and acknowledgments in the airport heading home. After the acknowledgments, the author, Lee Martin, includes “Liner Notes.” It’s all the songs he references in the text, plus songs that “evoke the characters and their story.”
I’d be cynical and tell you these cruises give you a false sense of intimacy with these bands, but I can’t be that cynical. Here’s an example: the guy in the front row of the KY Casino show who threw my green dress up on stage painted a bunch of ping pong balls with the names of songs BNL hadn’t played for a while. So at each show the band pulled a few ping pong balls out of the bucket and sang those songs. That guy sat behind me at the first show. Another impromptu moment happened when the band closed the last show with a dedication to a messageboard member who died.
And here you go, another two degrees of separation – Sally and Penny chatted with Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald from Kids In The Hall during the Superbowl. I found this out when I went to Trivia with Penny, and then later when Penny fell asleep in the front row of Kevin McDonald’s one man show. (And to quote Kevin, “WAAAAKKKKEEE UPPPP!” and then something like “I thought we were friends! We watched the Superbowl together!”)
That show (evidently his “Hammy and the Kids” one-man show) was a highlight of the cruise for me. Granted, the first hour I felt guilty laughing at his genuinely abusive drunken father, but then it became uplifting – not in a comical / funny way, but in the classic sense of comedy, in that the resolution of the conflict is positive. It was so raw and human. It reminded me of the enhanced humanity sensation I get after every cruise and every visit to the art museum, only this time it didn’t make me feel unpleasant. I just love it when people are unabashedly themselves. It was so honest I had dreams about lying for the next two nights.
It’s beginning to look like there might not be another cruise this next year, so where else can I go to get my community fix? Any good music festivals you guys know of? I wanna feel painfully human like the rest of you.
3 responses to “Liner Notes”
Years and years ago, the writer Joyce Maynard (Lolita to JD Salinger’s Humbert Humbert) was lambasted for selling a CD containing songs she’d listened to while writing a particular book. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. I’ve read lots of books that include lyrics to songs I’ve never heard.Anyway.
I’m holding out for a cruise next year. Maybe I’ll go on The Rock Boat if there isn’t a Ships and Dip. I find myself falling for the new acts more and more each year, anyway.My Kevin McDonald story: I saw the one man show, and at the end, I thought to myself, “My god, that man needs a hug”. Then my friends and I went to The Odds show on the pool deck. Kevin & Dave were there. I walked up to Kevin, told him I’d seen the show, said, “Dude, you *so* need this”, and hugged him. He kept saying “Thanks” and “Sorry” the whole time. He really did need that hug.
Becs – My guess is she got ripped for violating that privacy he was so intent on keeping. Mom was appalled by the whole thing.Tami – Yeah, I told him his show was uplifting and he said he was sorry if he brought anybody down. Good for you hugging him.