Spitball Army

It’s a thin line between love and hate…

It’s five o’clock in the morning
And I’m just getting in.
I knock on the door,
A voice sweet and low says, “Who is it?”
She opens up the door and lets me in.
Never does she once say, “Sir, where have you been?”
No, she says, “Are you hungry?
Did you eat yet?
Let me hang up your coat,”
And the woman tells me, “Pass me your hat.”
All the time she’s smiling, never once raises her voice.
It’s 5 o’clock in the morning
And I don’t give it a second thought.

It’s a thin line between love and hate…

The sweetest woman in the world
Could be the meanest woman in the world
If you make her that way.
You keep hurting her,
She keeps being quiet:
She might be holding something inside
That’ll really, really hurt you one day.

Here I am laying in the hospital
Bandaged from feet to head,
In a state of shock,
Just that much from being dead.
I didn’t think my woman would do something like this to me,
Didn’t think my girl had the nerve.
Here I am:
I guess actions speak louder than words.

It’s a thin line between love and hate…
It’s a thin line…

– Jackie Members, Richard Poindexter & Robert Poindexter

— ¤ —

1. Al Jolson  “You Made Me Love You”
2. Patsy Cline  “I Love You So Much It Hurts”  (1961)
3. Denise James  “Love Has Got Me Crying Again”  (2003)
4. The Marvelettes  “Don’t Make Hurting Me a Habit”  (1968)
5. Ken Boothe  “Crying Over You”  (1974)
6. The Marvellos  “Why Do You Want to Hurt the One That Loves You”  (1966)
7. Lou Rawls  “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing”  (1966)
8. Kevin Tihista’s Red Terror  “Love Plays a Dirty Game”  (2002)
9. Defunkt  “Strangling Me with Your Love”  (1980)
10. Spike Jones  “You Always Hurt the One You Love”
11. Nazareth  “Love Hurts”  (1975)
12. Dave Berry  “The Crying Game”  (1964)
13. The Persuaders  “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”  (1971)
14. Lizzie Miles  “I Hate a Man Like You”  (1929)
15. Patricia Morison  “I Hate Men”  (1949)
16. The Avett Brothers  “The Ballad of Love and Hate”  (2007)
17. Ted Hawkins  “There Stands the Glass”  (1994)
18. Ry Cooder  “Drive Like I Never Been Hurt”  (2008)
19. Graham Parker  “Turn It Into Hate”  (1996)
20. The Libertines  “Campaign of Hate”  (2004)
21. The Posies  “I May Hate You Sometimes”  (1988)
22. The Ramones  “Love Kills”  (1986)
23. Morrissey  “You Have Killed Me”  (2006)
24. Journey  “Who’s Crying Now”  (1981)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_042411.mp3]
Approximate playing time: 78 minutes.

[Postcard picturing Lynn Canal and Skagway. Approximate mailing date: 12 August 1941. Addressed to Miss Crystal K, Berwyn, Illinois, U.S.A.]

Hi, Kiddle,

                Left Juneau at 12:00 midnight after tour and interesting museum and a few beers in a Lounge.  Arrived here at 8:00 in the morning.  Will take a train over White Pass to a boat on Lake Taku out of Carcross, which will be our most No. point.

Thinking of you,
Dick

The blurb on the back of the postcard reads:

Lynn Canal provides 80 miles of most wonderful scenery.  It varies in width from one to five miles and both sides are walled with snow-capped mountains, glaciers and gushing waterfalls.  Skagway, at the head of Lynn Canal, sprang to life during the early Klondike gold days.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

A reflection of modernism in the windows of the old Massey Building on Richard Arrington Blvd., Birmingham, Alabama, as seen on 6 April 2011.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

A burned (and cracked) CD supposedly containing music by the Wu-Tang Clan, discarded and nestled in the crotch of the sidewalk on the Richard Arrington Blvd. bridge, Birmingham, Alabama, as seen on 6 April 2011.

[Postcard picturing ‘Evening in Juneau, on the Gastenau Chennel, Inside Passage, Alaska.’  Postmarked on 12 August 1941 at 11 a.m. at Juneau, Alaska.  Addressed to Miss Crystal K, Berwyn, Ilinois, U.S.A.]

Hi Kiddle,

                I hope you received my letter and hope you can get one to me in time.

                We arrived in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, at 8:00.  It rained and was cold and foggy all day.  First rain we had.  It is by far the best port of call we have had.  Took a sightseeing bus around the town.  Very interesting.

Thinking of you,
Dick

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

The “Temporary Sidewalk Repair” sign has been up for a pretty long time, but not nearly as long as the sidewalk beneath it has been covered “temporarily” with asphalt.  I first noticed the supposedly-interim walkway at least two years ago, and I’m not always quick to notice these kinds of things.

Seen off Richard Arrington Blvd., in Birmingham, Alabama, on 6 April 2011.

Card is titled: “1057 / Wee Kirk of the Heather, Glendale, Calif. / from Kodachrome.”

Printed on back of postcard:

In this replica of the wee Kirk of Glencairn Scotland, may be seen authentic documents and mementos of bonnie Annie Laurie’s life.  Many modern brides choose this famous “Wee Kirk o’ the Heather” for their weddings.  The Tower of Legends (87 ft.) is the highest landmark north of Los Angeles, the sculpture depicts the allegorical Cycle of Life of the Norse Gods, and is illuminated at night.

Publishing information: “Manufactured by Longshaw Card Co., Los Angeles, Calif.”

It Is Time to Go

When even the clearest, widest sky fails to inspire me to abandon my obligations for the afternoon;

When I begin to appraise the sturdiness of my possessions according to their packability—as a butcher must see beneath every haunch the marble and grain;

When all the street signs point away, and the morning birds have downshifted from early spring’s triumph to summer’s routine;

When the cop in the intersection is directing me to another city, another state, and my engine whines to turn back;

When maps pile up among the junk mail on tables and chairs as possible as weather;

When every door becomes an exit;

When I no longer wait to hear the sound of your footsteps on the porch louder than a jackhammer, louder than my own blood in my ears.

– Chelsea Biondolillo

— ¤ —

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_041711.mp3]
Approximate playing time: 80 minutes.

1. Jonathan Richman  “Let’s Take a Trip”  (1986)
2. Pentangle  “People on the Highway”  (1972)
3. Jefferson Airplane  “Embryonic Journey”  (1967)
4. The Doobie Brothers  “Rockin’ Down the Highway”  (1972)
5. Aretha Franklin  “Freeway of Love”  (1985)
6. Air  “Universal Traveler”  (2004)
7. The Police  “Secret Journey”  (1981)
8. Neil Young  “Journey Through the Past”  (1971)
9. Joan Armatrading  “Travel So Far”  (1975)
10. The Beach Boys  “Let’s Go Trippin'”  (1963)
11. London Funk Allstars  “Junkies Bad Trip”  (1996)
12. The Coronados  “Trip to Loveland”  (1967)
13. Kate & Anna McGarrigle  “Travellin’ On for Jesus”  (1975)
14. Bob Dylan  “Down the Highway”  (1963)
15. Bill Morrissey  “Traveling by Cab”  (2001)
16. John Hartford  “Your Long Journey”  (1984)
17. Ryan Bingham  “The Other Side”  (2007)
18. The Handsome Family  “Your Great Journey”  (2006)
19. Doris Day  “Sentimental Journey”  (1945)
20. Loggins & Messina  “Travellin’ Blues”  (1973)
21. Tom Waits  “Little Trip to Heaven (on the Wings of Your Love)”  (1973)
22. The Smithereens  “Amazing Journey / Sparks”  (2009)

Some notes on today’s playlist:

This playlist was inspired by a Twitter suggestion from @kmwalsh for a playlist that focused on

“any kind of travel or journeying.”

I tried to make the song selections just vague enough to allow for future playlists in a similar vein.  Some prelimary sketches for those include specific modes of traveling, touring routes with place names, and The Inward Journey (cue Music from the Hearts of Space).  Frankly, the possibilities seem pretty endless.

After forming the song list, I sent out two solicitations via Twitter:

1) Do any of my writer friends have a desire to write a short piece to accompany this Sunday’s playlist over at spitballarmy.com?

and

2) Looking for flash, poetry, whatever-form-you-like…to be inspired by the theme of the playlist. DM me for more details.

It was just a snap idea, the result of me thinking how cool it would be to post something collaboratively with music and writing, and involve some of my friends (like @kmwalsh) who I have met in the close-knit internet writing community where I enjoy playing.

I immediately received a response from Chelsea Biondolillo.

“I would totally be down for that!”

she wrote. So I sent her a link to allow her to hear the playlist in its entirety, without the benefit of artists’ names and song titles, hoping that the music, lyrics and tone alone would inspire a complementary gush of words.

The piece that opens this post is the result of that inspiration.

[Postcard picturing a scene of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada.  Postmarked on 9 August 1941 at 1 p.m. at Ketchikan, Alaska.  Addressed to Miss Crystal K, Berwyn, Ilinois, U.S.A.]

Hi Kiddle,

                This is a picture of the town we found so interesting that we missed the boat by 1-2 minutes.  Yes, the boat had to come back for us.  Boy, was that a thrill getting to the Pier and seeing the boat pull away.

Thinking of you.
Dick

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

A hand-painted relief on the wall of a building along Richard Arrington Blvd., Birmingham, Alabama, as seen on 6 April 2011.