steel drivin' man

a week or two ago, we went to happy hour at People's Pub, and were surprised to hear John Henry playing. the vocalist seemed familiar, but we couldn't quite place it. C tracked it down: Bruce Springsteen recorded an album of Pete Seeger tunes.

i never liked Springsteen much (overexposure to Born in the USA as a sprout) but most of these songs are ones my father sang to me or part of my early schooling. i loved the John Henry story as a child, and today i found a tear in my eye as i listened to the ballad.

i wonder what will become folk songs in fifty years, or if our reliance on recordings will have entirely erased this part of American culture.

fight club

i've never understood the fistfights with your friends thing. i remember watching A River Runs Through It and being thoroughly perplexed by the brothers breaking shit with each other's faces and then being the best of friends afterwards. i had no interest in Fight Club because of it. (i quite like the movie now that i've seen it. but i like it in spite of the fighting ritual.)

i do periodically play fighting games with C, and we both love it. we've also sparred a bit. (it's strangely sexy.) but it's never about working out our problems, it's just play. it could as easily be a racing game (except that i don't like them) or dancing.

where does that alchemy happen where shedding blood makes us bond? or is that a fabrication of entertainment? i think that it probably is not, since there tends to be some shade of truth whenever stories deal with human relationships.

( some BSG spoilers )

someone actually tried to ask me the question from Fight Club once. "if you could fight anyone, alive or dead, who would you fight?" the answer on the tip of my tongue was "you." i never did answer. but i wonder sometimes what it would have been like to take a swing. i expect i would have been the first person to run into a neighboring business to ice their broken nose and then get them to the hospital. it's who i am. i don't know how i feel about that.