January 21, 2006

Snow... and a hippie song.

It snowed last night:

Snow.

Silvio wants to drive out into the country:

Snow.

Playing on the stereo, "Triad" (sung by David Crosby, not Grace Slick):
I want to know how it will be
Me and her or you and me
You both stand there with your long hair flowing
Your eyes alive, your minds are still growing
Saying to me what can we do now that we
Both love you -- I love you too
I don't really see, why can't we go on as three
You are afraid, embarrased too, no one has ever
Said such a thing to you
Your mother's ghost stands at you shoulder
A face like ice a little bit colder
Saying to you
You can not do that it breaks all the rules
You learned in school
I don't really see, why can't we go on as three
We love each other it's plain to see
There's just one answer comes to me
Sister lovers -- water brothers
And in time maybe others
So you see what we can do
If we try something new - if you're crazy too
I don't really see, why can't we go on as three
Remember that? I love the way he's overflowing with love yet still manages to say "face like ice a little bit colder." The whole world is transforming, except the part where men hate their mother-in-law. Anyway, great classic song expressing the deluded idea, which seemed true at the time, that if we just stopped listening to the uptight squares -- with their rules, man -- we could find infinite pleasure.

17 comments:

Meade said...

Now if only I could remember where I left my semen.

(sorry. old joke.)

Pat Patterson said...

I'll offer one defense of the hippie-ethos bands of the 60's, they weren't Lawrence Welk. Which I'm sure all our parents watched on a weekly basis. Though I've noticed that some of the Lennon Sisters(on the local 3rd rate public station) were actually kind of hot. Oops, kill me now.

Ron said...

I dunno...you listened to the song, then and now...you seem happy...are you square? or square-ish? But you don't seem deluded....maybe you were right back then!

amba said...

Whit -

classic comment.

Jen Bradford said...

This may be a tired observation, but I only heard it this week - that Boomers took drugs to think outside the box, and now give kids drugs like ritalin to keep them inside it.

I was born in 1966. I read Didion's "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" in the 7th or 8th grade and let go of my romantic ideas about the 60's pretty quickly after that. I've always been glad my parents were smart but irremediably square.

Eli Blake said...

'Sno joke--

The world is transforming.

Here in Arizona, we are now in year 6 of what is being called an extended drought. Our snowpack is 20% of what it is supposed to be at this time of year.

Of course the reason for this is clear enough. As global warming has occurred, there is more warm air and less cold air, so the warm air/cold air boundary (which drives the jet stream) has moved northward. Since storms travel in the jet stream, they are taking a generally more northerly track. Since you live in a northern state, it is likely that over the long term you will have more snow (although the boundary is less set as you move farther east over land, it is a much more clearly defined problem here in the west.)

Policy makers are beginning to figure out though that we are not just in an 'extended drought' but a climate change, hence the recent change allowing Arizona Snow Bowl near Flagstaff to start making artificial snow since they will clearly not get enough real snow anymore to remain viable in the future.

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Anonymous said...

Anyway, great classic song expressing the deluded idea, which seemed true at the time, that if we just stopped listening to the uptight squares -- with their rules, man -- we could find infinite pleasure.

Less insightful: man were we stupid then.

More insightful: what ideas seem true to you now that are likely to be deluded?

True then, true today: Think for yourself, and question authority Ann. Speak truth to power.

Anonymous said...

threesome,never works.

Thers said...
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Simon Kenton said...

(Eli -

What's happening is that we're in a La Nina phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation; see http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bro/pdo.htm for a brief overview. The last time we ran the data the human effects ('global warming') were noise in the signal, ie, even the greatest measurements and the [greater] predictions of human effects were a fractional part of the normal annual thermal swings. The engine of all this is the cycles of the sun, and the effect of many million car engines and powerplants isn't very significant. Take a deep breathe, and breathe out the guilt.)

We return to your normally scheduled blogtopic. Once I was sparking a sophisticated beauty in her 30s, and made the mistake of humming an Eagle's song, "Take it easy." She said, "Is that true?"

"What true?" I asked (sinking feeling).

"The seven women on your mind?"

Caught! "Well, uh, yes."

Moue of distaste. "Kind of takes away my interest in becoming number eight."

She married the philospher. We none of us say what she saw in him.

Ann Althouse said...

I'd say there are at least 7 reasons to reject a guy who starts humming "Take It Easy" on a date!

Simon Kenton said...

Well, Ms Althouse, this is harsh. Harsh, but just. Imagine if I had been singing "Yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy." There are some things that being immersed in one's times cannot exculpate.

Ann Althouse said...

Simon: I happen to love the great classic bubble gum songs! I'd give a lot of credit for Yummy.

Ann Althouse said...

Kirk: I love them for their awesomeness. If you don't think "Sugar, Sugar" is a great recording... well, you're no fun at all, are you? I maintain the "Mmmbop" is the greatest recording of the last quarter century.

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose, you can plant any one of those!

Hazy Dave said...

Randy Newman made droll use of that Glenn Frey / Jackson Browne line in a tune from his excellent, overlooked Born Again album...

The Girls In My Life (Part 1)

Was a little girl
Maybe five-foot-two
Had the cutest little feet
Made my heart go tweet-tweet
Quite a pleasant disposition

Then came a pretty young French girl, mmm
Whom I met in Las Vegas
When I was there with my parents
Oh my
Had a real nice conversation

Met a girl at the bakery
She wanted to borrow my car from me
I said, "Take it, baby"
She took it down
To Mexico
Ran over a man named Juan

Then I went to college
Met a college girl
She lived in the sorority house
Across from the school
Got a real fine education
Had seven women on my mind

Now I'm married
Have a very lovely wife
Three cute little boys
It's so nice
And that's just half the story
Of the girls in my life


I always liked David's 4-Way Street version of "Triad" better than Grace's. Is that cuz I'm a guy? But the unreleased Byrds version turned out to sound pretty good, too. Imagine if the Byrds and Hollies hadn't objected to the material Crosby and Nash were writing... Well, at least we can enjoy the music without buying into the hippie utopianism, to say nothing of the half baked conspiracy theorizing.