It is relatively early on this Friday morning. I’ve been up for about an hour, so I am really just savouring the day at this point, enjoying the fact that it is Friday, and that today is a day off of the bike so I can relax and read my book a bit more.

I really don’t want to complicate my life. That is not to say that I don’t want to add to it, enhance it, even, but I want to keep it simple. To that end, I’ve had to make a few decisions about some things, and I may have to give out some unwelcome advice, but that’s the way it is.

I’ve been enjoying a Cape Breton musician lately, Carmel Mikol, who is really quite fantastic. Her vocal style, the way she phrases her songs, reminds me a lot of the Weakerthans, but I’ll let others be the judge of that. Here’s the title track, In My Bones, performed live at the Yellow Door in Montreal.

We’re young, then we’re old
Born with a fire that burns to coals
The path of hungry livin’
Is the one and only road
We’re pressed to make decisions
That divide and conquer souls
It’s a pity we’re forgiven
’cause it makes ours seem bold
Well in my bones I just know
this is nothing but a heart ache
but I’d rather have my heart break
than spend this night alone

Today’s walk to and from work was a real slog. February rain, freezing ice pellets, and lots of wind. But you know, it didn’t bother me. On days like this I am usually surprised by just how well music keeps me moving. With good headphones, I see traffic, I feel rain drops on my face and hood, but I don’t hear them. I am isolated. I had blogged about my rituals being reward-based in the past, but I think this is also a crucial part. And sometimes the music catches me off guard. In the middle of the walk home, Opeth’s “Black Rose Immortal” came on, an epic 20 minute long track that has so many amazing musical moments that some times I actually stop to listen for a bit. Like I did this time.

On the subject of music, I’ve been on a bit of a Rush kick lately. I suppose, in part, to recently finishing Dark Hollow by Brian Keene. The more I think about the book, the more I realize how much I enjoyed that novel. No doubt in part to his continual references to 80s metal. There is one passage where the main character is trying to describe a ritual involving Pan (as in Pan’s labyrinth), and the Temples of Syrinx, at which point the other characters in the book start singing “2112″ by Rush. Too funny.

Anyway, reading that book led down memory lane to a moment in the mid 80s — probably ’84, for obvious reasons — when Rush had released their “Grace Under Pressure” album. Some high school kids were listening to it on a ghetto blaster, and I was enthralled. I walked in when “The Body Electric” was on, and Geddy Lee was singing “one zero zero one, zero zero one, ess – oh – ess” and I needed to hear more. It’s not a heavy track, by any stretch, but it was my first foray into the world of Rush and I haven’t really looked back. I probably should have titled this post “Closer to the Heart”.

Today’s track is another tune from the “2112″ album. A Passage to Bangkok is another one of my all-time favourite Rush tunes. Enjoy.

More on the origins of the blog title in a bit, but lately, I do feel as if my world is in the margin of something bigger than it. My thoughts and actions sometimes feel like scribbles, written with a 2H pencil that’s rapidly being worn away over time. I press harder, hoping to make an impression that pushes through to other pages, and it works, on some days. On other days, all I end up doing is breaking my pencil. There is a lot of lead left, though. Mainly because there’s no room for an eraser on the pencil of time.

Today’s track is by In Flames. It’s a bit more screamy than some of their other stuff (although the Reroute To Remain album was pretty screamy), but I really dig it. It has some very catchy guitar riffs. If you’re listening along, here’s the first stanza.

Buds abloom in all directions
from which events occur
relations and virused meetings
catch fire and explode
In the margin of butterfly wings
entire cycles of evolution
outplayed and faded
sparked away back into
vacuum-filled nirvana

I was curious about what my top iTunes tracks were for 2009, so I had a look. The list is probably skewed a bit because of my play list for my morning ride, but Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” was the most played track, by quite a large margin. I’m not really sure why that is — maybe I had it on repeat. That track summons so many childhood memories for me. The whole Somewhere In Time album does, really. Many are good, like the ones I have of me and my brother playing pool on a rickety table we had in our parent’s basement (we had this old black ghetto blaster that we’d set on the floor and lean up against the wall), and some are sad. I had a friend and neighbour who died in a car accident years ago, and remember him when I hear certain songs off of the album, because we listened to it together. Other albums conjure up the same sorts of emotions. I really think that this is why folks gravitate toward specific eras of music. Countless radio stations play “classic” music in the hopes of capturing the attention of those listeners who are making attempts at snatching fleeting moments in their past.

At any rate, the top five tracks for 2009 were these:

1. Wasted Years, Iron Maiden
2. Demon of the Fall, Opeth
3. Forever, The Sins of Thy Beloved
4. Back in the Village, Iron Maiden
5. Daughter of the Moon, Insomnium

It’s no surprise that Maiden ranked two in the top five. Back in the Village is such a great track. When I was younger and listened to it (it’s off of the Powerslave album), there were phrases and lyrics in the song that I didn’t understand. This was, of course, because I had no idea that it was based off of the BBC TV series “The Prisoner”. Fact of life, growing up in rural New Brunswick.

Interesting, anyway. Time to reset the track counts.

Well, this is it. The end of 2009. New Years Eve — a blue moon, no less — the end of the “naughts”, the beginning of the teens. A start of a new decade.

I like that. The end of the naughts. I dread naughts. Negativity spreads through things, and it’s best if it is dealt with quickly, by heaping tons of positive energy on it. 2009 was an interesting year, with both highlights and low points. The low points for me were probably the house break in, and an unwished-for outcome in a trip backwards through time. Although, the beauty of time travel is that you can technically attempt it again, so long as you don’t pollute your historical light cone and remove your ability to time travel. Paradoxes are fun.

Highlights? A trip through Morocco, during Ramadan. Increased spirituality. Becoming more like my Dad. Finding strength within. My friends, and co-workers, who helped me find strength without. My brother, who begins a journey of his own, to Ottawa, and then to kitchens abroad (hopefully). Being vegan. Cooking a lot. Great books. An incredible visit to Ottawa. A letter, hand written on paper.

I was trying to think of a song to summarize this entry today, but had a hard time choosing something relevant. In the end, I decided to let fate choose for me, and picked whatever the last track was during my two hours on the mag trainer this morning was. In the end, it was probably something better than I could have chosen on my own. Pure Reason Revolution is a prog-rock/metal band from the UK, that come across as one type of music when you start listening and end up being something totally else, once the distortion and heavy psychedelic slide guitar kicks in. Oh, and any band with a female bass player that does backup vocals is badass in my opinion. Anyway, the track is Apprentice of the Universe. Given that it’s -20 outside now before the wind kicks in, and I am about to walk in it, a relevant lyric snip is worthwhile.

and give me something to dream about, I’m tiring
I’m cold and I want to go to sleep
she told me I had too much to dream last night
lime and limpid dream colonise

I am in awe with the “I had too much to dream last night” line. Wow. And I’m not sure what a “lime and limpid dream” is, but it sounds like something I’d like. In the end, aren’t we all just apprentices of the universe?

Okay. This is a bit of a mini rant, so forgive, or hit your back button and move on. I was out for a coffee this morning, and someone was selling cheap Christmas wreaths (not the good hand made ones, the plastic ones) at King’s Place. Or, at least I think that’s what they were doing. This lady was holding a wreath in her hands, and her lips were moving, but all I could hear was “Diary of a Madman” blaring from the iPod. It was at that cool point in the track, where there is a chorus and Ozzy does that really forlorn “oooh…” wail, that is both gut wrenching and sends shivers down my spine. It’s creepy. Anyway, it saved me from whatever this lady was pushing. I mean, really — besides it’s not even Remembrance Day. Show a little respect.

Voices in the darkness
Scream away my mental health
Can I ask a question
To help me save me from myself

On the subject of Ozzy, I have finally discovered the perfect walking tune. The drum beat from “The Ultimate Sin” hits my stride, bang-on. I don’t need to adjust it, slow it down, or speed it up. It’s perfect. Ozzy has commented that The Ultimate Sin album, in general, is his least favourite because it was done at that time in his career where he veered dangerously close to the land of the hair band, probably because of Jake E. Lee on lead guitar. I think he brought a lot of his “Ratt” influence with him.

Bury your anger and bury your dead
Or you’ll be left with nothing and no one
There’s no point in screaming ‘cos you won’t be heard
Now that the tables have been turned
it was the Ultimate Sin