Big thanks to everyone who wrote in about the notion that Tom Waits clears the musical palate .
Here’s the stuff that you use to reconnect:
Music
: Sibelius, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt (many times), early Frank Zappa, weeks of Steely Dan, a Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers/Little Feat marathon,
Kind of Blue
(which allows you to feel “pensive and relaxed while engaged and pensive”), and ACDC. (“How many songs can one band write about girls, getting girls, or being awesome around girls while only using A, E, and D chords? It doesn’t matter.”)
Movies
: Most common were various favorites from one’s early moviegoing days, followed by
Godfather I and II
. No argument there.
Books
: Even more variation here, with Tolkien and Murakami as the only consensus gatherers. What I’d forgotten about is poetry—sorry, poetry—which many of you turn to when the mind needs a new meadow. One nice discovery (for me) was David Berman’s ”
Self-Portrait at 28
.”
