May I never loose the Wonder, Oh the Wonder of Your Mercy! May I sing Your Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen!
I still think of myself as punk, because the way I became empowered to play music is entirely due to punk bands.
John Berger once defined music by saying that it began as a howl, became a prayer, then a lament, and still contains the elements of all three. I think that's pretty wise. That's about the only way I know how to explain what music is.
In my mind I still qualify as punk, though I know four out of five punks would disagree.
In this frightening, anxious time to be alive it can be liberating to remember that nothing lasts forever. That can focus and invigorate our hopes.
I would only listen to certain things, like a lot of teenagers do. But the Tragically Hip is a ribbon that's been with me pretty much my entire musical life. Every mix tape I ever made had at least one Hip song on it. Right from the outset I feel like Gord Downie built so much room into his songs. There was so much space in them that he created. He made me think of songwriting as full of boundless possibilities in a way that - well, that a lot of songwriters do, but that was the first time I thought a song could really contain multitudes.
I always go into listening to a new record by Gord Downie solo or The Tragically Hip and think, "Well, I know what this is going to be, lyrically. " Every song starts and then I think, "Oh, I have no idea where that comes from. " He has this entirely original voice, both literal and metaphorical.
Heaven is where you'll be when you are okay right where you are.
You don't inherit cancer; you actually get it.
Certainly something had happened to me during the night. Or after months of tension I had arrived at the edge of some precipice and now I was falling, as in a dream slowly, even as I continued to hold the thermometer in my hand, een as I stood with the soles of my slippers on the floor, even as I felt myself solidly contained by the expectant looks of my children. It was the fault of the torture that my husband had inflicted. But enough, I had to tear the pain from memory, I had to sandpaper away the scratches that were damaging my brain.
In all countries, and in all ages, from the Druids down to brother Beecher, priests have aimed at universal power.