I got into an early 80s tune pitching contest with one of my buddies earlier this week. This would be her prime time for rawk at the memory motel as it seems nowadays; it was my 2nd go-round because I had some time on my hands during those years; I was 'between personal engagements' is how that circumstance in life is blithely defined by some.

The result of the little contest we were having was that I stuck a youtube of 'Love My Way' by the Furs up on my email as a sig with an Aphra Behn quotation "love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret."

According to yon wiki listing Behn lived from 1640-1689. There was a time when I would have that info at my fingertips. Coincidentally it was very much around the time when I picked up the Furs for another go 'round, having plugged in when they first broke big many years earlier. The quotation and many Furs songs are kind of neat, kind of oblique and open-ended the way I like things. Christ as a woman with "pathetic tits?" in 'Imitation of Christ,' what is that? Heh heh, I have my ideas, do you?

Me living out on the marbles all the time with regards to 'life, the universe and everything' used to make my stepson Davey question my sanity I think. Davey and his sisters came into my life soon after most of the events I am describing. Perhaps Davey had a point. I have my own ideas about that issue too as anyone who has read this blog from from its beginnings earlier this year will know.

[Insert signpost paragraph/s here:]
How did I get to living out on the marbles and more importantly understanding that this is what I was doing? What? Yes, Virginia I am using a metaphor.
Basically I was re-wired to live, love, and grok the world, and me in it, by a crew of bleeding edge, hardcore, 2nd wave feminists and post-moderns at Guelph in the early- to mid-90s when I returned to university to take a degree in English. Would that I had known at that time how deeply this move would impact my life years later on so many levels.

[Back to the story line here:]
I loved the Furs during the self-imposed 5-year hiatus ('between personal engagements' remember?). I grew to like a lot of the new wave because I listened to CFNY 102.1 which was still a pretty cool Toronto FM station at that point. The Clash, Elvis, Pretenders, OMD, Joy Division and New Order, UB40, a lot of reggae, especially Marley of course. Tons of new exciting sounds were around then, maybe the last time it was like that, I dunno.

I learned about British reggae bands because of UB40's success I suppose, Aswad, Third World, stuff like that. They were also getting airplay on 102.1. I saw Third World. Never sat down for two hours, What a great show that was. I listened to a lot of that stuff.

This tune, 'Love My Way,' came up in the tune pitching contest Sue and I were having so I put up the link for a while.

More importantly in the context of this wee story, I glommed onto 'Imitation of Christ' pretty seriously during my first or second set of finals at Guelph over ten years later when exams were a new and fearsome threat to my sanity and well being.

Examinations were not meant for 40-somethings who did not handle stress particularly well. That song became my lifeline for a week or two during every set of finals through first and second year. I am snickering as I write this but I was not snickering back then I'll you.

Spousal unit 2 (of 3 to date) announced that she wanted a divorce a few days before I started writing those first finals so I would imagine the song was a also reflection of my fragile personal emotions at that moment in time. I still love it, love Butler's open, ambiguous lyrics in that one.

Nice eh? #2 couldn't even wait till I got through finals. Gave me the news a 1/2 mile out from her parents place on her birthday weekend when we were going down to celebrate with them. I almost put the car in the ditch. I was soooo pre-occupied with school by then that I didn't even notice she was sleeping around. Now that was a fun weekend.

This item also seems a little humourous now, she was quite the little drama queen; it did not seem any funnier than writing a final exam when the event itself occurred.

My ongoing fascination with Christendom and iconography as occasionally reflected in my current visual art work didn't just kick in when I picked up my camera again 4 years ago. At one point in 2nd year I seriously considered swapping my major to some form of comparative religious studies.

I was quite prepared to move to another school if I had to. The someone introduced me to the woman who would become my 3rd wife and her three children, two of whom I raised for twelve years with #3 (Davey and Julia, the other daughter left to live with her bio-dad). I fell totally and completely in love with those children and their mother. I swapped the pipedream about comparative religion for another. On anon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSyJkqmd5xI

Another christ is on the cross
The nails are words, the nails are lies
To make it crawl, and make it scream
And make it real, and make it bleed
And make it bleed
And make it bleed
And make it dream
Imitation of christ
Imitation of christ

This you who lie and scream
You fall to dust, you fall to dust
In walls of words, your words are blind
You speak and you are dumb and blind
The word that is your god is you
Who fall so low and fall so far
Imitation of christ
Imitation of christ

Fly to the moon dear sew it on a stool
Tie on the carpet all the cowboys fall
See the cowboys fat and reeling
Dancing underneath the ceiling
Leave the bar the theatre's closing
Make a wall of your religion
Imitation of christ
Imitation of christ

Mary mary, mother mother
You and me and god the father
Jesus is a woman too
He looks like all of me and you
Your money talks and all your friends
Will laugh at her pathetic tits
Imitation of christ
Imitation of christ
Imitation of christ
Imitation