Boobie Tassels For Buddha

I love The Who.

If I was forced at gunpoint to put my favorite bands of all time into some sort of numerical list they would be in the top 10. Possibly top 5.

Some of their songs hit me in such a personal way it's difficult to talk about it. I discovered them when everyone should discover them...while I was in high school. Their songs are timeless and will appeal to disillusioned and disenfranchised youth forever. Even as they got into their 30's and 40's and were still writing songs, they were writing them to the same lost teenagers that they always wrote...speaking to them...speaking to the ones that no one really listens to. Kindred.

The Real Me is a song I just want to scream at the top of my lungs whenever I hear it. Behind Blue Eyes speaks to the darkness and loneliness inside me. See Me, feel me, touch me, heal me.

I love them and their music.

I saw them perform at the Super Bowl last night.

It made me kind of sad.

Not the performance. Despite their age they can still perform and sounded alright. Yeah, Daltry's voice isn't as powerful and Townshend can't quite hit those high notes and occasionally misses that windmill strum, but the music was as powerful as always.

No, the kid drumming was no Keith Moon, he simply played the songs how he had heard them a thousand times before. There was no manic energy bursting from the drum kit, and none of the improv Moon would bring with drum fills that would almost echo the vocals.

No, the guy playing bass is not John Entwistle. He doesn't have fingers of steel. He didn't fill in all the holes when Townshend went off on a tangent. He didn't create that huge booming backbone that held such an offbeat band together.

Still, the songs were the songs. I was sad though. I think it's just the sense that they've lost who they've always been speaking to. The kids they speak to weren't watching that. They weren't hearing the words we sometimes all desperately need to hear. To know that someone is actually listening and feels the same way we do. All I could see was sponsors and schilling for CBS who uses all their songs for their stupid CSI shows. Yes, stupid CSI shows...forensics officers are not gun toting cowboys with cool shades and bad lines.

It felt like they disenfranchised themselves from the disenfranchised. Even if it was for one night, it kinda hurt.

Who are you? I really wanna know. Did you lose sight of the teenage wasteland? Did you really hope to die before you get old?

Too late.

Fortunately the screams of yesterday still echo today, and the shadows behind you can carry the weight of every g-g-generation.

I really enjoy the days when I'm on a specific assignment at work and I don't have to share a desk with people on other shifts. The desk I'm working at is in a separate part of the office, so I'm pretty much alone for the entire day unless I go on walkabout. No one else uses the desk on other shifts, because there are plenty of desks in the main part of the office and fewer people working. The supervisors also don't want people "hiding" at the back desk and slacking off. Slacking off at work is a privilege, not a right. And I have seniority.

I don't just enjoy it because of the solitude. I enjoy interacting with my co-workers...whether they enjoy it or not varies. Telling my one co-worker she's wasting her time taking the civil service exam and that she most likely won't even pass it would be one of those not enjoying my interaction times. People don't react to blunt honesty very well. It's her own fault...she told me to stop lying to her. That killed most of my daily fun. The last thing I was able to do was convince her that cyber sex was something robots did in Karaoke bars in Japan. It's not my fault she believes everything I say.

I'm wandering off point here. Where was I? Oh yeah, my desk.

It is nice knowing the solitude is there if I need it, and it makes writing blogs and wasting time on the internet a much less clandestine operation. Why I really enjoy it though is that I've discovered I am a rather anal neat freak. And my co-workers are filthy animals and need to be put down.

I like having things organized. It makes my brain happy and allows me to work more efficiently. I also like things clean. I'm not a germaphobe, far from it, but most people have their limits. I'll stick my tongue right in a girls asshole, but some unidentifiable yellowish grunge on my desk and I have to clean everything.

The funny thing is I KNOW most of my fellow employees keep a clean house or apartment. They are not unregenerate slobs. Yet they treat their desk at work the way a 2 year old would treat...well...most surfaces in your home. Something about being at work and any sense of manners or cleanliness just leaves their brains.

We have a lunch table, but most just eat at their desks. This is not so bad if you can eat like a human being, wipe your desk off and MAYBE wash your hands before working again. Instead you have crumbs everywhere and giant coffee stain circles staring at you. You have greasy fingerprints on the keyboard and (oh this is my favorite) on the monitor, because even though you have a pointer ON THE SCREEN it's easier for people to see what you are pointing at by actually placing your sausage fingers right on it.

I don't think I'm asking for much for people to treat their workspace the way they would if it was a space in their home. I shouldn't have to clean up after adults, should I?

Or maybe I'm the one that's a little too anal. I like things in order, I can't help it. I want to know where things are in case I need them. I feel comfort when things are alphabatized and numbered and put in their proper place. I like things clean and smelling fresh and not leaving excess residue on my person. It's not something that dominates my personality. I don't freak out and rage when things are a little messy. I just feel much better when they aren't.

Someone's eating potato chips. I can hear it.

*sigh*

I hope I can stay back here for at least a couple of months.