Spitball Army

Tonight I am shuffling papers and listening to Sparklehorse, and remembering Mark Linkous – whose music I only slightly know.  In fact, I only know one Sparklehorse album well, and that album is 2006’s Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.  I find that I keep replaying the album’s last track.  Over and over and over.  All ten minutes and 35 seconds of it.  It is haunting, and soothing in a numbing sort of way – like those five to ten minutes between feeling the onset of sleep and passing out altogether.

In its review of the album, Stylus Magazine‘s Barry Schwartz wrote:

Dreamt for Light Years isn’t lacking an unabashed heart of darkness. The album culminates with its eleven minute title track, consisting of a simple grieving piano melody above minor tremolo chords and subtle breathing atmospherics. It may suggest a vegetative patient on life support or, if we are to take this title literally, a mountain dweller in the REM stage, but without a single uttered word it manages to evoke the depths of Linkous’ abyss. It’s depression, abuse, dependence, addiction, and right back to depression again. Why has it been five years since the last album? This is why.

Read Schwartz’ full review here…

…while you listen to the sublime instrumental below:
[audio:Sparklehorse___Dreamt_for_Light_Years_in_the_Belly_of_a_Mountain.mp3]
“Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain” (2006), by Sparklehorse

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Plt. 622, R.D.M.C.B., San Diego 41, Calif. Postmarked in San Diego, Calif., on 23 June 1944 at 11 AM.]

June 22, 1944

Hi Sweetheart,

     I love you.  Believe it or not.  I mean, believe it or not I’m going to try and answer some of your questions.  I’ll just pick up a letter and start answering questions.  Here we go.

     I am a squad leader, and I’m just a go-between for the instructor.  He gives orders and the squad leaders give them to everybody else in the plattoon.  We are treated no different from anyone else and we get nothing for it except experience.  We have more work to do than the others but we don’t have to do the dirty jobs.  We just tell someone else to do them.  Pretty nice, huh?  Next — no I haven’t gambled what-so-ever and, to my knowledge, I haven’t done anything that you asked me not to.  Next — yes, I’m proud of you.  I love you.  Next — I don’t think you should come in the plane or car.  I think you should stay home and wait for me.  Well, that takes care of 2 letters.  Now let’s see what questions you have in the next two.  #1 — Whether you can find a place to stay or not, I wish you would stay home and wait for me.  I doubt if you’ll understand what I feel.  I don’t know exactly what it is myself.  I want to spend those few days around the places I like to remember.  That’s about all I can say for it.  #2 — I don’t know anymore as to when Boot Camp is over than you do.  I imagine it will be around the first of August.  Unless I am made a D.I. (Drill Instructor) or one or two other things (I don’t know what they are), I will get my furlough just as soon as I get out of here.  I don’t think I’ll get any of those jobs because I’m not qualified for any of them.  #3 — I can’t find the time or the way to send my mail back, so I’m throwing it away as soon as I answer it.  I hope you don’t mind; I can’t keep it here.  It is the best thing I can do as I see it.  I hate to but because I would like to keep your letters.  There’s nothing I can do about it though.  #4 — O.K., I’ll pay you in kisses since I can’t be there to rub your sunburn.  You are getting gyped.  You know that don’t you?  #5 — That stuff for your gums is Hydrogen Peroxide.  You can get it at any drug Drug Store.  Mix it half and half with warm water and then hold it in your mouth.  #6 — I do want you, Sweetheart, for the rest of my life.  And I want to spend my furlough with you in Indiana.  I hope we can go on and make a success of our marriage.  Well, Sweetheart, that just about answers all your questions.  At least it answers all the questions in your last 6 letters.  I don’t have any before the 15th.

     I’ll have to be going now.  I love you, Sweetheart.  I know we will be happy.  Please wait in Indiana for me.

     Good-night Sweetheart
          I love you with all my heart.
               x x
                    ‘Nite
                         x x

     I love you.

“Got a schpoon?” he asks the waitress. She shoots him a girn. “A schpoon,” he insists. “Schure,” she tells him, “I got scheveral.”

– Written by @Ralphley.

Card is titled: “Cottages, Beach and Fishing Pier / Attractions at Tower Beach, Fort Walton, Fla.”

Scribbled on the front of postcard (in various places):

All the people scratched out are not here – planks in walk scratched are not here.

(Adjacent to arrow) Back behind this hill is out cabin.

Ma

Peg

Anne

(Next to pier railing) Rail not here.

Publishing information: “Genuine Curteich-Chicago “C.T. Art-Colortone” post card.”

Written on back of postcard:

Hey, remember me?  If you send me any mail, please send it to me Fort Walton, Fla – c/o General Delivery.  Do not write Tower Beach, Cottage 27 or such as it is dumped on the counter at a juke box joint & left there for every one to mill through so might be lost.  Spent yesterday at Naval Base in Pensacola with Hackers.  Fun! – Write more.

Today’s virtual playlist theme is non-existent.  Unless you count that very last track – today is Oscar Day.  Here’s to everyone I know winning their Oscar pool (excepting those betting in the same pool as me)!

Approximate playing time: 64 minutes.

1. The Cars  “Bye Bye Love”  (1978)
2. Explosions in the Sky  “The Birth and Death of the Day”  (2006)
3. Kim Richey  “Those Words We Said”  (1995)
4. The Ramones  “She’s a Sensation”  (1981)
5. Spike Jones  “It Had to Be You”
6. Aimee Mann  “The Great Beyond”  (2008)
7. Supergrass  “Sad Girl”  (2005)
8. Seatrain  “Flute Thing”  (1973)
9. Electric Light Orchestra  “Poker”  (1975)
10. Sloan  “Money City Maniacs”  (1998)
11. Patty Larkin  “River”  (2000)
12. Todd Rundgren  “Bag Lady”  (1978)
13. Robbie Robertson  “The Sound Is Fading”  (1998)
14. Tears for Fears  “Pale Shelter”  (1983)
15. Mark Ronson, featuring Amy Winehouse  “Valerie”  (2007)
16. Beck  “Movie Theme”  (2006)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_030710.mp3]
Fred FM playlist (7 March 2010)

See you next Sunday!

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Plt. 622, R.D.M.C.B., San Diego 41, Calif. Postmarked in San Diego, Calif., on 19 June 1944 at 11 AM.]

June 18, 1944

Hello Sweetheart,

     I suppose you have received my last letter by now.  I guess you hadn’t got received it when you wrote the letter I received to-day.  Anyhow, if I haven’t made it clear to you yet, I will try to now.  I feel sure I passed that radio test and means 10 months of school someplace (maybe Chicago).  As long as I am here, I can’t see you so I can’t see any reason for you spending the money to come out here.  Don’t you think it rather foolish to spend that much money and then we won’t be together?  You The way I see it, you might just as well be 2700 miles away as 7 miles if I couldn’t see you.  If you were here, it would make it much harder for me to stay in.  You know I love you Sweetheart and I’d like to see you.  But I think it would be best for both of us if you stayed put til I got out of here.

     Well, how do you like the new ink?  Now you know how much writting I’ve done.  I put the blue in before I left home.  It lasted quite a while didn’t it?

     Darned if I can think of anything to write.  Things just happen too fast around here.  I can hardly keep up with them myself.  For instance, I cleaned my rifle thoroughly this morning.  I took it apart about as much as was humanly possible, cleaned it and put it back together.  It only took me 2¾ hours.

     I’m just sitting here listening to all that goes on.  I just can’t think of anything to say so I guess I’d better just quit by telling you that I love my wife very much.

     Good-night Sweetheart
          I love you with all my heart.
               x x
                    Pleasant Dreams
                         ‘Nite
                              x x

– In the Company of Men  (1997)
I can’t believe I missed this one when it was new, over a decade ago. Such a disturbing conceit, such a truly disturbing film – that said, it was hard to turn away from the wreckage (humans) on the screen. Aaron Eckhart, usually an incredibly likable person on screen, was a walking horrorshow here…and, sadly, I think I’ve known a couple of guys like him. This would make a great triple bill with Office Space and Up in the Air, covering practically every aspect of American office culture between them.

“Have you got the balls for it?”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKAzm4u-4wg

–  The Verdict  (1982)
I hadn’t seen this Sidney Lumet film since about the time it came out in theaters, around 1982. The acting is naturalistic, the David Mamet script is typically thoughtful and spare, and the widescreen compositions – something I don’t think I would have noticed 28 years ago – are painterly and, at times, heavily symbolic. Could be the best Paul Newman performance.

Frank Galvin’s (Paul Newman) summation:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZFlBJftgg

Shopping secondhand stores for flatware, she shows me how to find good spoons: bend the neck. If it bends, she says, don’t buy it.

Leaving small mounds of bent spoons in our wake, we proceed empty-handed to the lead-infused dishware section.

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed: Richard, Plt. 622, R.D.M.C.B., San Diego 41, Calif. Postmarked in San Diego, Calif., on 16 June 1944 at 11 AM.]

June 16, 1944

Hi Sweetheart,

     Before I get started, there are a couple of things I must say.  (1.) I love you.  (2.) How about sending som me some Gem razor blades¹ (single or double) and a cake?  Don’t mix the two up.  You can put them both in the same package, but don’t put the razor blades in the cake.  O.K.??  After all, I’m doing my best to get these letters to you.  And I’m sending as many as I can.

     Well, we will be leaving here before long.  We leave the 25th for the Range².  That’s about 25 miles from here.  I don’t know exactly how long we will be there, but I think it will be 4 weeks.

     We had a big Parade today.  More fun.  It lasted an hour and a half.  There was about 1600 men in it.  I thought it was fun but it was “Greek” to most of the fellows including the instructors.  For me it was easy.  It was just about the same thing I went through every Sunday while I was in Tennessee.  One exception of course, it was on a much larger scale.

     I would have a lot more time to write to you; BUT, we are entertained in the evening.  They have a picture show every night and you have to go.  The entertainment makes me tireder than the training we go through.  We have been to the show 5 times in the past week.  Tonight we have to see “Lost Angel.”  And now I’ll have to go to the show.

     Good-Night Sweetheart
          I’ll be thinking about you to-night, wishing you were with me at the show.
               I love you with all my heart.
                    x x  Pleasant Dreams.
                              ‘Nite Sweetheart.
                                   x x

¹  Pictured below is a Gem razor blades advertisement circa 1944:

²  Rifle and training ranges for the U.S. Marine Corps are located at Camp Pendleton, just north of Oceanside and south of San Clemente on the California coast.