Mix Annotations - Not This Way Down
Hi Friends,
The only thing I can think about sharing in this edition is how I had to convince Lis that I did indeed have surgery when I was 11 years old.
The scar on my pelvis is very faint, but it is there, and she still thought I made it up just because I don't really ever talk about it. But since then it's been on my mind a bunch, so here are some memories that I have from that summer:
I ended up having Ureter Re-implantation Surgery. The ureter is the thing that connects your kidney to your bladder. My left one was too small, and so my kidney was filtering fluids faster than the fluid could drain into my bladder, causing my left ureter to balloon and push on my other organs. They usually catch this when people are babies.
This caused a lot of different symptoms, including constipation and kidney stones. I remember the pain from kidney stones being so bad that I almost drowned during a swimming lesson. They thought is was maybe appendicitis.
Because of the pain, I spent a lot of time in the hospital on morphine. My mom said I was very mean when I was on morphine. One time I talked to my dad on the phone, but as soon as I hung up I had forgotten the whole thing. At some point I learned (maybe from a Punisher comic) that morphine and opium were practically the same thing.
The morphine, and being bedridden, contributed to my constipation. Because of the constipation, doctors were putting fingers in my butt and my mom was having to give me enemas at home. I sometimes do wonder how this whole thing affected my relationship with my body...
While I was laid up in the hospital I watched all the James Bond movies. We only had one Bond movie at home (For Your Eyes Only), and we maybe borrowed others from family friends or the library. My mom says that the nurses really liked me (even though I was mean on morphine), so they would bring in any of the Bond movies they had at home. I can't say I remember all of them.
At one point they did what I think is called Cystography, where they inserted a catheter into my urethra to inject dye into my bladder. Then they took some special x-rays to see how my urinary system was working, and then took a fluoroscopy film of me while I peed it all out. I was unable to pee in a room full of lab techs, so they all left except one and I peed into a bucket. I still have a hard time peeing at urinals with other people in the bathroom.
After my surgery I shared a room with a really nice kid at SickKids in Hamilton. I don't remember his name, but he did have a feeding tube that went into his nose, and at least once he did a big throw up. It's wild that I'll never know what happened to him.
The copy of For Your Eyes Only was something I'd won at a silent auction. It was a community fundraiser, and my mom had given us a limit to how much money we were allowed to bid on stuff (because we didn't have much money at the time), and I went way over the limit because I wanted the VHS so bad. I'd maybe seen the Pierce Brosnan movies, and I have a vague memory of seeing the VHS of Diamonds Are Forever at a family member's house. My mom must've been furious.
For 2 weeks after the surgery I pretty much lived on our living room couch. I couldn't move much, since I had a suprapubic catheter, which is a tube inserted into the bladder through a cut just a few inches below the bellybutton. This tube would then drain urine into two bags I had strapped to my legs, which would have to be emptied once they were full. I'm pretty sure I could still poop like normal if I wanted to. This is why my mom's friends called me "piss bags." It's also when they told me "chicks dig scars" (if they believe you about them). I played a lot of Star Fox. I did beat it.
I had a follow-up appointment a few years later, and it was in the waiting room that I read a magazine where I first heard about Hot Hot Heat, as well as Steve Martin's book, The Pleasure of My Company. This was very formative for me. For much of high school I walked around with a copy of Shopgirl in my back pocket.
For Your Eyes Only is not considered a great Bond movie, but it was a "return to a grittier Bond," and I have a soft spot for it. Opium is a big plot element, which was very relevant to me at the time. Roger Moore was 54 when it came out, and he still had two more Bonds to go. Daniel Craig is currently 53 for his final Bond movie. When I say it out loud that sounds too old for Bond, but then again I also would feel weird about a Bond who was my age or younger. This must be what my dad feels like.
I still have the stuffed tiger toy that I brought into the operating room with me. But now my cat will sometimes get mad and fight it because she thinks it's a real cat.
I am looking forward to No Time to Die, though I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going to see it in a theatre or not.
All that said, Craig is probably my favourite Bond.
Anyways, here’s the link to the latest mix: https://soundcloud.com/draiser2021/not-this-way-down
ANNOTATIONS
I'll be honest. I did a really bad job this time keeping track of where I heard about stuff from. Mostly I'm just going to share thoughts I have about or around the tracks. Sorry for all the sleuths out there.
Daughter of Horror (1955) This is what's on the screen during the movie theatre sequence in the 1958 version of The Blob. I didn't find The Blob scary (not enough blob) and I don't imagine I'll find Daughter of Horror scary (won't ever watch it).
Patsy Ann Noble - Good Looking Boy I don't remember where I heard this one. I have a feeling it was talked about in a podcast? Sorry. Very catchy, though.
SICKOTOY x INNI x TAG - VKTM Yeah, I also don't remember where this one is from either. My best guess is a TV show from the past year, but beyond that I can't even imagine how I heard it. Sorry. Very catchy, though.
Al-Dos Band - Some Things Don't Mean a Thing This one I just saw on a download site and it seemed neat.
Bunny Girls 바니걸즈 - 부메랑 I had a couple of days looking at disco and dance music channels on YouTube, and found myself on ultradiskopanorama. I think it's all old disco/dance music from around the world. Not much (if any) in English or Spanish, but lots of everywhere else. I really like the chorus on this song, especially the bass line.
Motion - You Can Dance Similarly, I ended up on Diana Chan McNally's channel, which has lots of great "Italo, Synthpop, New Wave, New Beat, electronic disco, electro, and Hi-NRG" tracks. This track is on the Canadian Content playlist.
Cadence Weapon - Mini T.V.'s I think I saw him perform this at U of G during one of the lunch hour concerts. This was before I knew it was a Chad VanGaalen cover. I remember buying Breaking Kayfabe off of Cadence Weapon afterward the show and saying something like, "Wow, glad I have a non-pirated copy now," and like, most artists don't like you telling them to their faces that you stole their stuff...
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow This one I first learned about from a Christmas temp at HMV. I think his name was Kyle Rose or something, and I remember him showing off how he knew all the words. We played it one day in the store, and Ian was like "Wow, this sample is from The Point!" which is true. Kyle also really liked The Beta Band, which was the first time I heard of them (before I'd watched High Fidelity or Six Feet Under).
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead Between my disco/dance wormhole and listening to the audiobook for Meet Me In the Bathroom (almost 20 hours long!), I ended up on Spotify's Indie Dance 2000s playlist, which had this little gem on it. I didn't listen to much Passion Pit back then, so it was new to me.
Marker Starling - Good in Everyone This is track 2 off the Big Bonky Tones compilation. Lots of fun Canadian covers on this. Though we all know this is of course not my favourite Sloan song. That obviously would be "The Other Man".
A Touch of Cloth S01E01 I am of course way too into murder mystery shows, especially UK detective shows. A Touch of Cloth is a parody of those shows, which is very funny, but it's also 90 minutes like those shows, which is a long time to balance gags with the simmering atmosphere of a good crime noir. Still, funny stuff.
Grandaddy - The Town Where I'm Living Now This one I'm not sure about. Grandaddy were part of the indie rock wave right before things kicked off again in the 00s, so they've always been a band that seemed just outside of what I'd gravitate to for this kind of music. If I had an older brother, maybe he would've listened to Grandaddy. In a similar context, there's this Pitchfork post from like 2010 I think of a lot about The Wrens working on their new (still unreleased) album with the line, "For context, the last time the Wrens dropped an album, nobody knew who Arcade Fire were." Still, nice song.
joni void - imaginary friend Close personal friend. I've had a hard time catching on to a lot of joni void's stuff, but this track come from a compilation of early stuff (reasonably titled Retrospective) when joni was still using the johnny\_ripper name.
Yoko Ono - Nobody Sees Me Like You Do Close personal friend. The track here was either going to be this (which it is) or "The Universal" by Blur, which closed out the most recent episode of Ted Lasso. (Which I'm really enjoying, for what it's worth. Happy to talk about it.)
Broadcast - You And Me In Time Close personal friend.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer - A Way Out This is off the soundtrack for The White Lotus, which overall is a fantastic score. I enjoyed White Lotus, but I think that was mostly for the acting and some of the plot stuff. A lot of it didn't click with me, at least to the level of hype. I'm going to rewatch Enlightened, because I remember that being really moving, but I wonder how much has to do with just who I was at the time. TBD.
Wallander S02E03 As mentioned above, I love UK detective shows, even when they're pretending it's Sweden. The audio clip is fine, but I absolutely can't get enough of Kenneth Branagh's face when he says "Inner Life" for the first time. Even just saying the words is like the nastiest taste in his mouth.
Keep Me In Your Heart - Wesley Schultz I got turned onto the Warren Zevon original at some point, though I don't know how. I like the melody and the lyrics plenty, but there's something about Warren's version where the timing just seems a little off from where I internally want it. So I just looked like "Keep Me In Your Heart Cover" and this one came up. Oddly it's the dude from The Lumineers that has the same inner metronome as me. This track reminds me a lot of "Kids on the Run" from Tallest Man on Earth.
While space allows, I’m stashing my recent mixes and annotations in a Google Drive folder, which you can visit here: The Archive
DRAISER 2021
This year's fundraising goal is $5000. My own personal goal is to get 5 friends to help me with this very low-effort, passive campaign. So far the people who have stepped up are:
Dalbert
Jade
Shayna
I did see that Winnie included a link in one of their great newsletters, so thanks for that!
It would mean a lot to me if you considered joining us. I’m happy to talk about the many low-impact ways you can do this! Let me know if you’d like to help, or otherwise you can donate here: tinyurl.com/Draiser2021. Even if you’ve already donated, please consider sharing it with your friends and family.
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