Google: these days lyrics rem

It's the first day I've had off in weeks and I've decided to do nothing but some leisurely retouching of images more than an embarrassingly sell-by date old.

The first thing I discover after weeks of neglect is that my computer is a mess. Files everywhere, digital shots everywhere, duplicate files everywhere - shit, how did this happen?

So I spend some time straightening out what surely must have been The Baby Kitty in here mucking around while I was working for my "beauty and fashion" clients.

Almost finished with Maxine's photos from Los Angeles, so I attack the black & white negative scans. I shot Maxine back in June when she was in town for Fetish Week and since I am going to LA next week, I figure it would be decent to give her the long overdue shots. Upon inspecting the scans, I see that hers were the first I scanned with my new scanner and that they are kinda all over the place in quality. Was this before D. Brian (see link at right) helped me out with some very sound scanning advice? Apparently, as the first ten or so just plain suck ass. Ahhh, number eleven looks better (thanks D. Brian!) - so I rescan the first ten. Damn, I didn't really want to do that today...

I just picked up REM's "Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-87" mostly for the bonus disc of band-picked rarities as I am a complete sucker for that shit. A word on REM: I have maintained publicly my entire adult life that I do not like them. Close friends and various significant others know better - I love them, well, at least the I.R.S. records and hell, even some of "Green" and "Monster" and, well, I do give them the benefit of the doubt with every release.

Part of the reason I "hate" them is that I was "there." REM played their first live show in Chapel Hill and it seemed like they came through town every ten minutes and everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, loved them. Well, not me - that wouldn't be very punk rock, now would it? Jangle jangle whine whine bleat bleat. That's all it was to me, as far as anyone knew...

I even saw them three or four times "out of spite" - the Fables tour, the Pageant tour, the Document tour...

This afternoon while listening to Disc 1, the "greatest hits," I found myself becoming very melancholy and even a little overwhelmed. By the time Disc 2 was in and "These Days" hit, the tears were flowing freely.

What the fuck? I'm crying over an REM song?

Nahhh, I’m crying over the loss of youth, the realization that everything is always fucked up. I'm crying over a part of my past - mind, spirit and body, that I wish I had back. People, places and things - gone. Feelings, emotions, and philosophies - so naïve and beautiful.

Photo is of Maxine - one of the good scans.
She is young despite the years. She is concern. She is hope despite the times...