I'm on holiday somewhere very far away

[sebastienne]

In Edinburgh, where the water is soft and the 6am get-in is hard. Am staying just round the corner from where I was in 2007, south-of-centre, in the beautiful old tenement flats with the deadly stairs. I'm fairly sure I will fall down them drunk at some point. Ouch.

The coach up here could have been hellish - nine hours in a confined space with Light Entertainers! But crouchinglynx came to see me off, there was next-to-no singing, I slept off my migraine, finished reading Diamond Age, listened to the first half of a Sixth-and-Evelyn audio drama featuring Oscar Wilde, and grignoter played me some incredible music by Dar Williams which really summed up some conversations I've had with deathbyshinies and was

(ignore the words on that; it's just there for the audio.)

Lyrics:

I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my hand
I said I was a boy; I'm glad he didn't check.
I learned to fly, I learned to fight
I lived a whole life in one night
We saved each other's lives out on the pirate's deck.

And I remember that night
When I'm leaving a late night with some friends
And I hear somebody tell me it's not safe,
someone should help me
I need to find a nice man to walk me home.

When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom,
Climbed what I could climb upon
And I don't know how I survived,
I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew.

And you can walk me home, but I was a boy, too.

I was a kid that you would like, just a small boy on her bike
Riding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw.
My neighbor come outside to say, "Get your shirt,"
I said "No way, it's the last time I'm not breaking any law."

And now I'm in this clothing store, and the signs say less is more
More that's tight means more to see, more for them, not more for me
That can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat

When I was a boy, See that picture? That was me
Grass-stained shirt and dusty knees
And I know things have gotta change,
They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in,
they've got implants to remove

But I am not forgetting...that I was a boy too

And like the woods where I would creep, it's a secret I can keep
Except when I'm tired, 'cept when I'm being caught off guard
And I've had a lonesome awful day, the conversation finds its way
To catching fire-flies out in the backyard.

And so I tell the man I'm with about the other life I lived
And I say, "Now you're top gun, I have lost and you have won"
And he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see

When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talked
And I picked flowers everywhere that I walked.
And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom do
And I have lost some kindness
But I was a girl too.
And you were just like me, and I was just like you"

And my alarm's going to go off at 4.55am so, if you'll excuse me...

Comments

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, if I'd known you didn't know that song I'd have played it to you while we were living together! It just makes me wail.

Try You're Aging Well (http://www.sendspace.com/file/zgozud), too; I really recommend anything of hers, but that one is beautifully feminist, too.

[sir-rosealot.livejournal.com]

How long are you up there for? I'm probably going to Edinburgh later this week.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

I never got this notification!! Else I would totally have invited you to our parties. Sorry that I fail.

[stained_glass]

That song...

[chiasmata]

Awww, that's my favourite Dar Williams song! It blew me away completely the first time I heard it (I saw her live in London a few years ago). I have a whole load of her stuff if you want to snaffle it when you get home :)

[starstealingirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Dar Williams. I think "February" and "Iowa" are some of the best (if not the happiest) love songs ever.

[wildemoose.livejournal.com]

Dar Williams is my absolute favorite; I've seen her in concert two or three times. That song always makes me sob.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how affected I was when I first heard 'When I was a boy'. The first Dar song I heard - and her early ones are, I find, the best.

[perdrix.livejournal.com]

Trying not to cry in the kitchen [again]. Wonderful song.

[yond-cassius.livejournal.com]

That is so beautiful. Also, may I add you, for this and the Richard O'Brien thing and everything?

Inigo

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Are you Oxford-based? We appear to have several friends-in-common from this lovely city.

Your entries look very interesting - exactly the areas I'll be directing my thought after my Impending Doom Deadline of 25 September. Friend away! Come October, all sorts of exciting things should be happening in my corner of the internet.

[yond-cassius.livejournal.com]

No, but I was a classicist, and know Madeline Stanley from Greek camp, and more Oxford people through her and others. I'm Coventry based, but should be getting to Oxford a bit for poetry nights soon.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was at school with her! Is she on LJ then?

[yond-cassius.livejournal.com]

No, she thinks it's quite daft, but you were referenced a lot in sixth form after being cool at interviews (I was her very loud queer confused best friend. It was in a "but there are cool people" way) . Eleanor Brown is (secondterminal) and linked me, and I know Kit through Peter Olive.