Monday, September 06, 2010

endless summer

ain't it real fucked up to be a grown-up and forget the pleasures of summer? we all do, grow up i mean, and those lazy, endless days of summer recede within our memories as wisps of smoke. if that, even. still, summer is cool, bad-ass even, and should we recall our glorious, misspent youths of hot days gone by, let's not forget that we are still alive and sensuous individuals. adult responsibilities need not stop the love of life and if summer is anything at all then it is that love of life personified.

perhaps i should speak for myself. i'm not a man of summer. i much prefer autumn and winter. halloween is my time and nothing gets me hotter than the color schemes of orange and black and a few jack o'lanterns. even still, summer is good and it is brief. even when i was a kid summers felt like forever but that forever was tempered by its brevity. a contradiction in terms? sure but what is living a life but not a series of contradictions?

to sum up, it's been a wonderful summer. we logged more hrs at the public pools than we have in the past two years combined. i didn't get to the drive-in theaters as much as i wanted, and the drive-in is the quintessential summer thing for me, but we spent a few weeks in sweden and enjoyed the swedish weather, that by the by, reminded me of my favorite time of year, fall. we had cook-outs, runs in the parks, sweated a shitload even if this had been the mildest summer of years record.

summer, those dog days of sweat, recall to us -- me -- that life is best savored at a slower pace. does it matter that work is fucking busy and the bills are due? yes, of course, life demands its own. however, summer is still that waiting for the ice cream truck and when we hear the old jingle 'turkey in the straw' our blood gets pumping no matter our age. let us all remember the kid inside us. summer kicks ass, even if that ass is attached to us. i'm saddened to see its passing, again. but there is always next summer, right. and to get the blood pumping nothing screams summer more than some damn good surf music. below is the ventures performing 'wipe out'.

viva la summers!

5 Comments:

At 5:41 PM, Blogger Jim K. said...

Reminds me of 6 hrs I did on a
boogie board once. Perfect waves.
I coulda got more beach. Hot though.
Fall is definitely my high-energy
time. So sharp and cool.
Winter would be more fun, but
snow-clearing gets a bit more
ghastly every year.

 
At 12:27 PM, Blogger Jim McCrary said...

I will die happy if I can live one year of my life without winter. Thank you very much. And of course all one has to do is move south from Kansas....very south. It is a goal...more than publishing more than dollars more than beating dementia. To stay warm. Ahhh. Perhaps this all comes from being born in northern illinois...could be.

 
At 9:25 PM, Blogger richard lopez said...

i live and grew up 80 miles or so from the nearest coast, which really isn't a long way at all, but too far to become a surfer. rather me and my buds all developed mean skating habits. a few went pro. i always sucked on the board. gots no coordination, but i still have a great affection for skating.

as for winter, i mean a california winter! not those hard on the body and bad for the soul harsh winters of the midwest and back east! i hate snow. but winter in sac is at times very lovely with the tule fog enshrouding city and streets and with just enough bite in the air to see your breath. that is winter, for me.

 
At 11:25 AM, Blogger Closely Observed Train Stations said...

You got me thinking about autumn songs. Maybe it's too early but here's a shortlist - a virtual mix tape - in no particular order.
"Don't Smoke in Bed" Nina Simone
"Unguarded Moment" The Church
"Perfect Circle" REM
"Hazey Jane II" Nick Drake
"The Morning Paper" Smog"
"Just Like Honey" JaMC
"Secrets" The Cure (Actually pretty much the whole of Seventeen Seconds is autumnal)
"My Girl" The Tempatations

 
At 9:13 PM, Blogger richard lopez said...

a wonderful mixed-tape, ryan. i grew up on old soul and r&b and the temptations was on contant rotation when i was growing up. i'd have to think of autumn songs to come up with my own mixed-tape. let me think. . .

 

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