these things happen…

A year ago, I was living in a shoddy East Austin apartment stilted above a garage with two exceptional people. From October 2010 till I shipped out earlier this year in May, we had a good stretch. Shit jobs, late nights, frozen pipes, putting bets on the house and drinks on the arm… pretty much doing everything we possibly could to distract ourselves from what loomed ahead.

During this time my roommates, Jon and Dylan, found time to record the album Trout. To open this magnificent record, Jon asked me to read some lines from Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” (three lines were kept).

Since the album is a collection of folks purposely focused on goofing around, Jon thought it’d be humorous to give the opening some tongue-in-cheek weight. Poetry was decided the best way to go about it.

[audio:http://www.rickstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/01-Brown-Trout-1.mp3|titles=01 Brown Trout (1)]
Here’s Tom Waits providing us with his complete (and much better) reading:

httpvh://youtu.be/DhM-Dm2PHHo

“That’s a beauty you know?”

Sometimes an album/artist will have a similar tone or feel as a novel/author. For instance, years ago while reading Hubert Selby Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn,  Requiem for a Dream)  and listening to as much Lou Reed as I could, the two became partnered. Velvet Underground will always be my soundtrack to Selby’s literature.

And there are times when Waits’s sound feels like the musical brother of Bukowski’s print.

So you can imagine what kind of topsy-turvy world I awoke to the morning this ad began running on Hulu.

httpvh://youtu.be/KT16DcHcjRA

These things are foreseeable but disappointing nonetheless. Bukowski probably didn’t wear denim a single day of his adult life.

Also, oddly featured in the ad was a  table boat.

2 Responses to “these things happen…”

  1. Jake Says:

    she’s a drinkin woman
    gettin’ drunk again
    forget about diamonds
    bottle’s her best friend

  2. Nick Says:

    What was the link for the table boat about?

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