BULLET TO THE HEAD

Because I'm on a Walter Hill and Sylvester Stallone kick: 

HELL OR HIGH WATER

 Because I'm on a Jeff Bridges kick: 

WILD BILL

FERRY: THE SERIES

Hemorrhagic stroke reflections

 I have no idea how many posts this will be, but here goes: 

1. It takes a bloody long time

I watched a video of a kid learning to walk and thought, "Yes! That's it!"

Only it wasn't. By a long shot. 

Before the stroke I played guitar. I wasn't any good — a 7-year-old could do better — but I knew what I was doing. 

In last night's dream I was playing guitar — G, C, D, E, A, F (the "Campfire Chords") — and playing it very cleanly. I can do no such thing in reality. I was always bad. 

"Hey boss — de pain, de pain!"

Nobody tells a hemorrhagic stroke survivor about the pain — but it's there. It makes things very slow indeed. 

And because this was a song I was learning on guitar: 

URBANA '87

“You guys forgot to say how moving the mass communion at the end was.”

Well, maybe we didn’t forget. 

I’ll never forget the conversation I overheard at lunch. 

“I'd give it up to the Catholics. But I can’t get over the confessional,” said a girl. 

“The Bible says to confess your sins before men!” a Texan said. 

I also went out into the rain to get the new Daniel Amos record from a Christian bookstore I remembered that, boy oh boy. 

I also remembered the words to the conference themesong were set to the Vangelis tune from Chariots of Fire. “To live for my Faaaa-ther. To do His Good Will...”

I also got a spiffy new songbook out of the deal — I tried to remember that. 

But the mass communion — not so much. 

 “Daniel Amos is in this mess somewhere...”

THE RAT PACK

 

My history with this movie: we first saw it on a video cassette we rented from the local Video 99. Now it's here for you, Dear Reader. (The owner of the Video 99 really wanted us to go into the basement and rent some porn, but we said no thank you. What are you gonna do? The store was years away from the internet becoming popular and shutting it down.)