Sunday, August 12, 2007

Of heat and hate

One thing I've noticed throughout this heat wave that has lingered in NC, is that people are meaner on the road. My commute has never exactly been easy, but this past week, people were markedly more aggressive and irritable. I had several near-misses, caused by angry drivers piloting speeding vehicles.

Musing on this on the way home one day, I thought about the intro to Siouxsie and the Banshees' track "92°", from the 1986 album: Tinderbox. The diatribe (lifted from the 50's Sci-Fi film: It Came from Outer Space) states matter-of-factly that more murders are committed at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than at any other temperature. Adjusting for global warming, perhaps more murders are committed at 100°, but I have no way of verifying that statistic at all. I can, however, say with confidence that at 100°, people get irritable!

Consider these lyrics:

Shaky lines on the horizon
Snakey lines invade each person
Watch the red line creeping upwards
Watch the sanity line weaken
To coincide with this past week's record breaking temperatures, I thought it'd be appropriate to dust off the old Tinderbox and share a couple of choice cuts from this classic album.



+ Siouxsie & The Banshees — 92 Degrees.mp3
+ Siouxsie & The Banshees — Cities in Dust.mp3

2 comments:

luisa said...

Siouxsie & the Banshees... high five.

The angry heat: it's similar to the Santa Ana winds that plague California.

my very favorite Joan Didion piece is on the Santa Ana. I think it's from Slouching towards Bethlehem. a true great summer read.

bigshoulders said...

back atcha. i had forgotten how cohesive this album is as a whole.
you know, i've never read any Joan Didion. i'll have to add that to my reading list.

i'm digging into Dylan's _Chronicles Vol I._