If I Could Be Anyone

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today I would be Terry Gross during the final interview she did with Maurice Sendak. It's a truly moving, soul-baring conversation with a man nearing the end of his life and facing the reality of death and the inevitable loss of all the beauty life has to to offer. It's a real conversation between two people who obviously like and respect each other. Then, at the 3:50 mark, Sendak says: "Almost certainly I'll go before you go, and then I won't have to miss you". You can hear Terry Gross get choked up. She's completely taken aback by the sentiment. She's trying so hard to hold it together. It's such a beautiful, sad and generous thing to say to another human being. Listen to the whole thing. It's well worth it.

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today, I would be Patty Griffin every single time she performs "Up To The Mountain". If there was any justice in the world in life and art, this song would take the place of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as the go-to inspirational cover. I'm not knocking Hallelujah - it's brilliant - but Up To The Mountain gets me every time. When Patty gets to the part where she sings "And I hear your sweet voice, come and let go" (2:00 mark), you would have to be a gargoyle to not go weak in the knees and soft in the heart.

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today, I would be one of the people who works at Boston Dynamics on the BigDog robots. They build robots. Insanely cool robots. All day they build goddamn robots. How cool is that? (note:  I would NOT like to be the person who chose the terrible song to go along with this video of insanely cool robots.)

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today, I'd be this guy starting just past the one minute mark.

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today, I'd be Raymond Chandler when he wrote this dialogue for General Sternwood in "The Big Sleep".

The scene is at the beginning of the story where Philip Marlowe has been called upon to take on case for the General. They talk in an atrium that is hot, humid, sticky

Philip Marlowe: Mind if I have another?

General Sternwood (80 years old, extremely wealthy, confined to wheelchair and relegated to spending most of his day in a hot, humid greenhouse to aid his poor circulation):

"You may smoke, too.  I can still enjoy the smell of it.  Nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.  You're looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life, crippled, paralyzed in both legs, barely I eat and my sleep is so near waking it's hardly worth a name.  I seem to exist largely on heat, like a new born spider."

[ificouldbeanyone]

If I could be anyone today, I'd be Levon Helm in 1975, hanging out and rehearsing with The Band in our Farmhouse in Woodstock, NY.  A beer on the floor beside my drumkit.  Someone's dog running around the property.  The crackle of fallen autumn leaves underfoot.