sovay | You and me and these shadows keep on changing

So this afternoon I went back to the Boston Passport Agency and picked up my new passport. It looks more like a book of tourist's postcards than an official document: red and blue-tinted woodcut-style images of Mount Rushmore and steamboats and transcontinental railways, with quotations from George Washington and other American dignitaries—I appreciate the inclusion of Anna Julia Cooper and Martin Luther King, Jr., but who let in Teddy Roosevelt and LBJ?—at the top of every page. It feels very defensive. I find myself wondering whether the requisite exit/entry stamps will even be visible among all the patriotic assertion. And I'm stuck with it for the next ten years, unless I suddenly change citizenships before then. At least it'll get me out of the country.

Because it is November and the sun is sinking fast: a mix of the distant, the lost, and the not quite safely gone.

PJ Harvey & John Parish, "Black Hearted Love"

I think I saw you in the shadows
I move in closer beneath your windows
Who would suspect me of this rapture?

The Verlaines, "Heavy 33"

I'm striving to coax or wrench you, I can't even reach you
You're starving for something—I got nothing to feed you

O Positive, "With You"

I could love you
It's a suicide to choose

Laura Veirs, "Wide-Eyed, Legless"

Will we evermore kiss on the boardwalks' fading rail
In the light of the waves and the comet's waning tail?
I don't think so

Priscilla Herdman, "Island Clay"

Old voices echo from this house now dark and grey
And cold as island clay

Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers, "Devils in Boston"

Mama always said Devil'll meet you at the railroad tracks
I ain't seen nothing but the subway here in Boston

Ben Knox Miller & Justin Vernon, "Wait for Me"

Ain't no compass, brother, there ain't no map
Just a telephone wire and the railroad track
Keep on walking and you don't look back
Till you get to the bottomland

Bill Laswell & Coil, "Kála"

And your bones will burn like tinder
Your hair will burn like hay

The Secret History, "Our Lady of Stalingrad"

Sitting on a milk crate, waiting for someone to smother
I thought of Magdalene and I thought of my mother
When he comes, I'll think of you

Sam Phillips, "Edge of the World"

I don't remember last night, but they took my picture
There was a car in the ocean off of Suicide Bridge
The heart collector had his hands on me

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, "Episode 2: Dance of the Dead"

I've had this headache six days straight
And I know it's you knocking around in there

Bellowhead, "Cold Blows the Wind"

What makes you sit by my grave and weep?
I can't take my repose

My Favorite, "You Belong With Us"

Everything we do tonight is wrong, wrong, wrong
And you belong with us
You belong with us
Where are you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aah, O Positive. That song has been a favorite since High School. Which is scary, as that was a very long time ago.

That song has been a favorite since High School. Which is scary, as that was a very long time ago.

It's still quite a good song . . .

Indeed. It still randomly goes through my head, at odd times.

I was so glad when they gave me my old passport back, canceled. That one felt real: it had all my stamps in it, and their memories. Heathrow at dawn, and the Indian families, dressed as for dancing school. Prague at dawn, and

negothick's bag dripping horseradish gore...

Nine

I was so glad when they gave me my old passport back, canceled.

They returned mine as well; I hadn't been sure.

I was so glad when they gave me my old passport back, canceled.

I can relate to that, a great deal. I photographed every page before I sent it away, just in case--I wanted to have something to remember the stamps by, just as I have them as a reminder of the airport in Stockholm with the immaculately dressed airline personnel getting about by scooter (did that really happen, or is it an interpolation from some Sixties film or photograph?) and running ahead through Oslo airport to get our VAT paybacks processed before the horde of classic Boobus Americanus tourists go to the counter, lest we risk missing out flight waiting whilst they argued with the clerks.

Nitpick: Priscilla Herdman sings "Island Clay," but writing credit goes to Lennie Gallant.

Hm. Don't know most of the others here; will have to check them out. Thank you!

Nitpick: Priscilla Herdman sings "Island Clay," but writing credit goes to Lennie Gallant.

Gallant should be listed as composer in the file itself; I don't own his version, or I'd probably post it. Songs in all of these mixes are by performer unless otherwise noted—Bellowhead, for example, didn't write Child 78. "Wait for Me" is from Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown.

Don't know most of the others here; will have to check them out. Thank you!

Welcome! Enjoy!

I thought the very same when my new passport arrived. Patriotic much? Thankfully after next year I'll only have to use it when I visit the US. It's just awful.

Glad you got yours! I'll be in touch soon. Not dead yet! Just recovering from holiday. :)

I thought the very same when my new passport arrived. Patriotic much?

I wish I'd been warned. I think the clerk at the counter thought they'd misspelled my name, I kept staring at the pages . . .

Not dead yet! Just recovering from holiday.

No fear. In something of the same state myself.

Thank you, thank you for posting these songs. I needed something new to listen to, and there is much much here!!!

I don't like the sound/look of this passport thing at all. I'm beginning to feel hopeless about this country ;(

Thank you, thank you for posting these songs. I needed something new to listen to, and there is much much here!!!

You're very welcome. Enjoy!

I don't like the sound/look of this passport thing at all.

It was a level of advertisement I didn't think had any place in official documentation. Money, you can put whatever you like on; I still keep in my wallet, for example, the now-obsolete French five-franc bill with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and le Petit Prince. But the sole point of a passport is to certify the bearer's identity and their responsibility in crossing international borders: that they're a safe kind of person to let in. With all its retro-myths and flag-shaking, this new passport design, I think, does not exactly inspire that confidence.

I share your sense of ickiness about the new passports (I've had mine since 2008 and it doesn't have nearly enough stamps in it yet to start to counterbalance the patriotic dreck).

I share your sense of ickiness about the new passports (I've had mine since 2008 and it doesn't have nearly enough stamps in it yet to start to counterbalance the patriotic dreck).

Can you even see the stamps? I found that a legitimate concern!

My English stamps seem to be generally visible ...

I agree that the new passports are strange-looking. I can't help but wonder if this type of thing is a trend, although I doubt it--it's probably just another example of Dubya-era jingoism. I've not seen a recent passport from anywhere else to compare it with, alas.

Bhuel, as long as they work, I suppose.

I've not seen a recent passport from anywhere else to compare it with, alas.

I can't ask the person I'm going to visit; he's an American citizen. And somehow it feels impolite to buttonhole random strangers in the security line.

And somehow it feels impolite to buttonhole random strangers in the security line.

Indeed.

Bhuel, one of these days I'll have to make an inquisitive post on LJ.

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Beautiful -- I love your mixes.

I'm very glad. Enjoy.

You and me and these shadows keep on changing

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