CK, here’s the tattoo

 

From sketch to transfer to tattoo

So this is 60

 I returned last Saturday from 16 days in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.  I met up with my longest childhood friend and we celebrated our 60th birthdays together.  We’re one month and two days apart.  Then we met up with a friend I first met via this blog, and have visited with multiple times over the years.  We hiked.  We ate.  We laughed, and I was so happy I got to be around still to enjoy these moments.

I have been going out west every ten years for the last thirty years.  To celebrate and reaffirm life.  They have also come east for me.  

I’m very much a loner, but I am reminded when I visit with these amazing people, how important human relationships are, and how lucky I have been to have two such beautiful souls in my life all these years.

  

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I just finished reading this 10th anniversary edition of American Gods by  Neil Gaiman.  The book has actually been out for 22 years.  I enjoyed the tv show “Good Omens” by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and have been meaning to read something by either or both of them for almost five years.  I finally did and this was one weird but wonderful book.  It was very interesting, layered storylines, good characters, and just a lot to take in at over 500 pages.  

The book had layered storylines for what was going on in reality and what was going on “backstage.”  This paralleled the characters.  You had who the were introduced as and then who they really were as gods, leprechauns, dwarves, witches, etc.  You had the main storyline of the old gods vs the new gods, but also the story of the main character,, Shadow, who he was, what his back story was, and his growth as a character.  Toward the last quarter of the book there is the discovery of another of Shadow’s identities and his discovery of a serial killer.  I know my description probably sounds jumbled, but all these elements really work well together in this story.  Once I get my sci-fi book club book read for this month, I plan to seek out another Gaiman book or maybe one by Pritchett.  Recommend.

I'm always looking for new music and sometimes, just like with books, it also means looking at the classics.  This is the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."  I've never listened to it before, for a lot of reasons:

(1) I wasn't a teenager when it came out.  

(2) I didn't have a normal college dorm experience so I was never exposed to it.  

(3) I've never experimented with pot, drugs, or this genre of music.  

I had heard a couple of the songs, "Money" and "The Wall" on the radio throughout my life but I never knew which album they were on.  So I'm now listening to it, stone cold sober, at almost 60 years of age.  

The opening song felt like I was in a crazy person's brain, confused, hearing voices, not really here, there, or anywhere definable.  Some of the following songs felt like I was on heavy cold medicine with part of my brain focused on the music up front while another part of my brain took note of the voices going on in the back of the room.  

Its lyrics also feel very philosophical like I did when I was in my teens: "what is life," "why am I here," "who am I," etc.  Surprisingly, it's also a very familiar place to be as you're approaching the end chapters of your book of life.  

I can't say I loved the album, but I also didn't hate it.  I think it would be an interesting album to listen to in the background the next time I'm sick.  It has a mentally spacey yet relaxing vibe to it.  And being deliriously sick and strung out on cold meds is likely the closest I will ever get to experiencing the album as a lot of devotees have.  I think it's important to read, listen to, look at, and experience "the classics" in our culture.  There are reasons why they have stood the test of time, whether for their artistry or commentary on our society.