Last night both sides of my pillow were covered in sweat (I'd flipped it over). K. is gone to Alabama for the week, so I was alone, with no sheets, and a fan trained on me. I was still sweating.
I hate summer, for the most part. Or rather I hate the heat, which is one of summer's more salient features. I like some of the attendant benefits (swimming, fireworks, scantily clad girls), but the heat. Sweet baby Jesus, the heat.
So last night I ordered pizza, played the new Legend of Zelda game (which is metric tons of fun) and eventually watched the Animatrix with Erik. The movie was, honestly, pretty shitty, but some of the shorts were very good, 'Beyond' and 'Detective Story' in particular. Unfortunately, we started at 2:30, and ended at 4, and I was drinking coke to stay awake. Which then prevented me from falling asleep immediately, never a good thing.
What does this have to do with 'King's Lead Hat' (an anagram for 'Talking Heads', incidentally), one of the skewed pop tracks from Brian Eno's Before And After Science LP? Well, after waking up at 11, tired, dehydrated and kind of cranky, I was for some reason in a Brian Eno sort of mood. Before And After Science, with it's balance of quirky pop and quiet ambience, just seemed to fit.
It was constructed, I'm told, in a rather unusual fashion; Eno and compatriots, including everyone from Robert Fripp to Phil Collins, built up tracks and tracks and tracks from basic ideas and then (and this is the key) subtracted away until they came up with something interesting, which was often quite different from the original.
'King's Lead Hat' might be my favorite song there, even if (as with most of the songs) the lyrics don't make much sense; I invariably sing along to the chorus, although my rendition sounds like "King's lead hat/something something something something/It will come, it will come, it will surely come". But it's catchy.
To have Before And After Science enter my memory as a summer album would be a bit odd, I admit, but I like the way the album slowly lapses into quiesence. Kind of like me on a summer day.
And don't even get me started on the almost literal infernal heat of the plant these days. It makes me want to weep, but I can't spare the moisture. Yesterday they gave us two extra breaks and passed out Freezies, and it was still sweltering. I'm going to start going in a t-shirt and shorts rather than my overalls, which while stylish, are also fucking hot.
But all day you can be sure I'll be humming "King's lead hat/something something something something/It will come, it will come, it will surely come" in between drinks of water.
For now, off to Wok's Taste with Erik for food.
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