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Entry date: 10-15-2024 – The Edges are Rough – Letters to My Friends

phnart

Dear Friends,

 

After two weeks of not seeing my students, I didn’t really feel much joy yesterday. This could partially be because I am still kind of on east coast time and got about 4 hours of sleep on Sunday night/Monday morning. My brain just wouldn’t really shut down when we arrived.

 

I felt kind of bad about being a bit of a grouch yesterday, but they didn’t seem to notice very much. I will get my groove back and we will get things going in the right direction again. Bad Nancy was being a bit of a chatty little shit during the morning, but she settled down.

 

No one seemed to be so happy about getting things going again.

 

One of the admin team made kind of a snarky comment to me first thing in the morning and it kind of ruined my day. “Nice of you to show up,” she said with a laugh. She’s not a bitch so I’m not taking it any way other than friendly, but it was a poor choice of words. It’s not like I was on a cruise or something.

 

I think, though, that I need to check myself and not see every negative thing about Phoenix as sour grapes right now. It would be easy to start bagging on life here since I have the option of moving to Maine at my fingertips, but I’m not going to fall for that “grass is greener” trap.

 

Moving might be in the cards in a year or two, who knows. It also might not. I have a great thing here and I know it. Right now, I just want to be where my wife is at and that is Maine. We need each other.

 

***** 

 

On the flight home, I did get to watch the whole Suns pre-season game against the Nuggets where only the bench guys played. They beat the Nuggets starters, too. It was fun. I know it is pre-season and I’m not getting any hopes up, but it was cool to be able to just sit and watch it and it made the plane ride go by pretty quickly.

 

I’m not sure how many of their games I will watch this year, but it would be cool to get to see a few here and there. I think they will be better. They kind of have to be better.

 

***** 

 

Apparently, the Cardinals still suck. At least they don’t suck as bad as the Cowboys. That’s something to be thankful for, but it’s still not much. The universe is not a friend of the local sports teams right now.   

 

***** 

 

Here’s to good night sleeps.

 

***** 

 

A lot of the music I love came out around the time I transitioned from middle school to high school. Some of it I didn’t know existed at the time, but I was well aware of The Fixx in those days. Reach the Beach came out in May of 1983 and like many of my favorites, “One Thing Leads to Another” was all over the radio (which I listened to daily) and MTV (which I saw when we visited family with cable).

 

I was a big Fixx fan in the first couple of years of high school. They were one of those bands that was on the radio but just out there enough to make me feel like I was doing something kind of cool by listening to them, too. They weren’t the Rolling Stones, you know?

 

Reach the Beach was a record I had on cassette. I may have even spent graduation money on it. I wore that sucker out and ended up buying a second copy from Zia a few years later. Now, of course, I have it on vinyl because you can get it super cheap and in good condition at any decent record store.

 

The Fixx are not one of those bands that a lot of people seem to put up there on some sort of 80s pedestal, but their output in those days was certainly fantastic. Most people know their big hits, but I go back to Reach the Beach every once in a while, and I’m not disappointed by it. There is some gold on there beyond “One Thing Leads to Another” and “Saved By Zero.”

 

Yes, those are the best two songs on the record. There is no doubt about it. They are both super catchy and if you were alive in those days, you know them even if you don’t know the band who did it. Each of the songs are great and the band was definitely not fucking around on this record.

 

Beyond those two, though I happen to think that “Opinions’ is a killer song. Like most of the other tracks that have not been mentioned yet, it’s got kind of a dark, post-punk vibe to it. Tempo-wise, this is not the record you are going to do a lot of dancing to at the bar. It’s pretty introspective, in my opinion.

 

“Opinions” has some cool lyrics, too. I’m guessing the band was directing it at people who had doubted them over time. That’s just a hunch, but I’ll stick with it. Over the years, though, “Opinions” has been the one non-radio hit track that I have consistently come back to again and again.

 

Reach the Beach is a bit of an enigma, I suppose. As mentioned, it is kind of dark and a little melancholy across the board. In addition to “Opinions,” I like the middle tracks on side two. “Liner,” “Changing,” and “Privilege” are all pretty cool. I think I got them in the wrong order, but I don’t think it matters. Seems like “Changing” probably comes before “Liner” if I am remembering correctly. For some weird reason, the record is not on Spotify in its entirety. I’m guessing there is some argument over who owns it.

 

The Fixx have continued to tour over the years but I have never seen them. I’d like to check them out at some point because they were one of my favorite bands when I was 13 and 14. I get a very pleasant feeling of nostalgia when I hear them, even if it is just one of the hits on some 80s mix I’m listening to that day.

 

***** 

 

See you tomorrow.



Reach the Beach. AI kindergarten.


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