A-m-e-l-i-o-r-a-t-e
Now Playing: The Small Faces--"The Autumn Stone"
Somewhere in South Wales in the early fifth century, the young man who would become St. Patrick probably had no idea that, not only would he be canonized and have a holiday named after him, but that said holiday would enable people to start drinking in bars before eight in the morning (that was the impression I received, anyway, walking to work in the early hours). I'm not wholly exempt from blame--after a particularly wild night back in Akron at Karen and Patty's, I started on a six-pack of Bud Light around nine-thirty the next morning--but this involves large masses of people, which is a little unnerving. I remember reading some book on Irish literature and seeing a picture of Brendan Behan already a couple of sheets to the wind (looking like it, anyhow) at ten-thirty. That was weird. He looked like someone had put James "Scotty" Doohan in a vacuum cleaner and let rip. I wonder what I'll find on the streets tonight.

My Saint Patrick's Day was Wednesday, when Misty Lyn gave a tremendously soulful show at Arbor Brewing Company backed by an alarmingly talented array of musicians--Jim Roll, Matt Jones, Colette Alexander, Carol Gray, and Greg McIntosh, with Aaron Dresner of Dabenport handling the opening set with Matt. The show was organized by Michigan PeaceWorks, which put together a number of these shows to get the word out on various anti-war happenings around town. Wednesday night the subject of discussion was Guantanamo Bay and the morally and intellectually bankrupt foreign policy it represents. Functions like these help to keep me stoked about the possibilities of change. Personally I think its too late to arrest all sorts of national decline (economic and political) and the international decline of the global environment (as far as it's amenable to humans, anyway--the cockroaches don't seem to mind), but we might as well give it a whirl, right? With such thoughts in my mind, it was still fun hanging out and chatting (I don't remember a great deal of what I said--I can, but it hurts). Austin Powers lines, music trivia, a firsthand account of National Guard service back in the home state during Katrina, an appeal to people of goodwill to write their legislators... it was all good fun. There should be more nights like that.