November social theory, metaphor, and music

Phil Graham (pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au)
Mon, 15 Nov 1999 00:01:41 +1100

Meanwhile, smashed by metaphor, ham-fistedly swinging away at fresh air,
identity, time, internalisation, etc, Joni Mitchell sings for me :

"Every picture has its shadow
And it has some source of light
Blindness, blindness and sight
The perils of benefactors
The blessings of parasites
Blindness, blindness and sight"
(Shadows & Light)

"And people thirty stories down
Look like colored currents in the street
A helicopter lands on the Pan Am building
Like a dragonfly on a tomb
And business men in button downs
Press in to conference rooms
Battalions of paper-minded males
Talking commodities and sales
While at home their paper wives
And paper kids
Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid"
(Harry's House - Centrepiece)

"You read those books where luxury
Comes as a guest to take a slave
Books where noble artists in noble poverty
Go like virgins to the grave ...

Like a priest with a pornographic watch
Looking and longing on the sly
Sure its stricken from your uniform
But you can't get it out of your eye

Nothing is capsulized in me
On either side of town
These streets were never really mine
Not mine these glamour gowns"
(Boho dance)

Breath, texture, balance, and poetry for some sanity.
Now back to the dance.
Phil
(all from "The hissing of summer lawns")

Phil Graham
p.graham who-is-at qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html