Apple Bed - Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life - 2001

So, it's been a good long while since I've had a proper rant at the MTA. Figure it's about time. Sure, sure I could go on and on about how their bad management means that we are going to have to deal with even more price increases and somehow LESS services next year...but enough has been said about the economy, that I can only be so mad at the MTA for being a part of it.

No, I'm going to bitch about how long it took me to get to and from Astoria this weekend. Now for those of you who don't know...this is a relatively lengthy trip from Brooklyn to Queens even during the best of times. Since the majority of trains are designed to route people from the outer borroughs to and from Manhattan, getting from one outer borrough to the other usually requires some work. The trip should probably take slightly less than an hour.

But this weekend the MTA decided to do a ton of construction (on the weekend before Thanksgiving?!?!) So the trip actually involved taking 4 trains and nearly an hour and 45 minutes. Q to Union Square, N to TImes square (Yes, I know I could have stayed on the Q...but I didn't know the N was terminating in Times Square)...the fucking ancient 7 train to another section of the N that was running just between Queensboro plaza and Astoria. On top of this, it was also the first bitterly cold weekend of this late fall...which meant standing on the above ground platforms in Queens (right next to the east river) was both painful and tedious.

Seriously...are the MTA just bound and determined to make our lives miserable?

Anyway, this is Sparklehorse from the album where all the songs are about post modern cowboys. I like this album when it's upbeat and like it less when it's in it's sort of vicodan coma that Mark Linkous loves so much. This is a slower song, but it's one of the ones I like better. That's about it.

All Night Home - Sparklehorse - Good Morning, Spider -1998

Wow, so after an ill advised bender with my co-workers, I was dragging my ass into work this morning (worst part about an office drink up, if you call in sick the next day, everyone will know why) on the subway. At my second stop, an entire class of 4th grade girls got on the subway car. Now, needless to say this did not do my head any good...I realize that this makes me a terrible old crumudgeon, but I desperately wanted to tell all of these kids to "shut the fuck up". I mean seriously, couldn't they have waited until after peoples morning commutes to take whatever assinine field trip they were going on? In the mornings, most of us working slobs want as close to a quiet peaceful trip on the train, and the last thing we want is 30 chatty cathy's ruining my perfectly good hangover.

So this is Sparklehorse doing their usual "old-timey sounding song, fucked with in the studio" trick. Not bad, but they have better.