Failure, Tom Waits Style Part 1

“I’m not saying you should feel like a failure,” said Tom Waits, his voice booming out of my stereo, “But listen to this song.” It wasn’t his song so I didn’t understand why he was so excited about it and I said so. “Just listen, it’s all here, so few words, and still there’s so much here.”

The Darkest Doubts

What do you do with a day full of the darkest doubts? Breath it in, let it wash over you, feed the ducks in the park until they start to become a nuisance. Even this is a gift.

Keep your powder dry

“I will miss you all!” he said, and then stepped onto the spaceship. The long ramp started to fold up creakily, and then got stuck. We saw his hand reach through the opening with a hammer and pound the side of the ramp a few times. The ramp started to lower again and then stopped halfway. He gave us another quick wave and then the ramp started folding up again, this time managing to shudder its way closed, becoming flush with the skin of the spaceship.

Things I saw while traveling the SkyTrain

Things I saw while travelling on the SkyTrain to go buy a car: a dirty construction worker drinking beer and talking on his phone, his words husky and disorientating like the taste of cigarettes. His friend, also on the phone ends his call with “Yeah, swing by,” and then adds “I love you too,” before hanging up. Out on the other side of the platform a pretty girl in a skirt and leather jacket, black pumps with bows on her feet, coming home from her job at the mall.