You never really know when or where that little piece of wisdom for the day is going to be imparted on you. It's a deceptive sort of runaround and some days you realize that what you got out of the day wasn't too goddamned much, but you have to attribute something to the 24 hours that went by. Toronto band, The Darcys, gave us one of those parts with its interpretation of Steely Dan's "AJA," which we listened to for the first time tonight. It alone was something special, a lush and joyous escape from all of the non-Steely Dan shit that was happening today. There was no feeling high, no changing the game like a gangster, just getting chewed up a little and getting spit out. There was a lot of working on the couch, getting overheated by the laptop resting on the thighs, expelling its microprocessor exhaust as if it were doing laps around the track, burning everything up.
It wasn't much, but then we came across a section in a story about Curt Schilling in the New York Times. The former Boston Red Sox pitcher - whose prowess is apparently wildly appreciated in the state of Rhode Island (go figure!) - created a video game company that somehow secured a $75 million dollar loan from the state to create video games and in-turn bring jobs to the state with the second-highest unemployment rate in the U.S. It turns out that he and his company are bouncing checks and the people of Rhode Island are ticked the fuck off. The best piece of the article was a quote from the former head of the state's economic development agency, explaining his resignation.
He classily quoted William Faulkner, saying, "All of us fail to match our dreams of perfection." Damn if that isn't a way to go out. Not only does it make you sound incredibly well-read - unless he's strictly reading Bartlett's - but it also makes everyone check themselves for their own flaws and all of their sure-to-be shortcomings that will allow others to point fingers at them too. That Faulkner quote about the feeling of knowing failure is due ALL of us for going after the ideal somehow feels like a theme that The Darcys enjoy contemplating. So, we listened some more and heard it again. We continued listening until it was WAY too late, again.