Quick Pick with the Plus, Hospital Vespers and Such

Snow in Atlanta, Winnipeg Music on my nightstand.

It's Sunday.  It's snowing in Atlanta.  Yes.  It is snowing in Atlanta.  Did I bring this home with me?  It's been snowing for 2 days.  It's interesting to watch from my window how the snow decides to land from hour to hour.  Right now it is dancing... bouncing around in no particular direction - down, then up, left and right.  It makes as much sense to me as having snow on the ground in Atlanta on Christmas.  It's kinda like a seeing a unicorn.

My bags are finally unpacked, dirty laundry cleaned, the apartment is "straightened" and I am importing a stack of CD's that were given to me by some beloved Winnipeggers.  Rare tracks, live tracks, Winnipeggers covering other Winnipeggers, some historic Winnipeg music.

Per Stu's recommendation, I picked up a "quick pick with the plus" before I left Winnipeg.  This of course is another Weakerthans reference from (Hospital Vespers) a lovely, lovely song that I saw performed for the first time ever last week at the West End Cultural Center.

This song is a surreal heartfelt look at some one's hospital stay.  The song is desperate, vulnerable and almost futile.  It's a treasure.  With being a nurse of course, all of the Weakerthans lyrics that refer to illness, death and hospitals are very near to my heart.  Seeing life-threatening illness and death are a daily part of my job.  And it's not a burden to me somehow.

This song has always been so special to me.  I am not sure who or what inspired all of the illness-related songs that ended up on Left and Leaving and Reconstruction site, but cherish them.  Illness and death is such a difficult subject to write about.  It so easily goes entirely wrong and you end up writing a song like "Every Rose has it's Thorn" by Poison.  That's usually what songs like this end up like: Terrible.  But JKS can do it of course without pretension, keeping the heart in every line.  It's something I strive to do and feel I have done on one or two occasional.

One of the songs on my second album is about a dear friend that died of complications of addiction and mental illness.  From the time we were young I always thought to myself that she never had a chance at life.  When she died, I really wanted to write a song for her.  She was also a musician.  My mother taught us both piano when we were young.  Even as she was dying, she was still playing my mother's songs.  Music was still her light.  But I am always so careful when broaching this subject in writing.    Her life had been such a tragedy that I did not want to write her a sad song.  That would just add insult to injury.  I wanted to write her a happy, pop song.  One she would really enjoy, that would make her smile.  With that intention in mind, I wrote a song for her called Februaries which starts out very poppy and ends in lullaby of sorts.  I suspect she'd like it.   I kinda feel weird sharing my music here as this is about Winnipeg and the Weakerthans - but I will place a link below in case you want to hear this song along with Hospital Vespers.

Gosh, that was a side bar.

So of course honor of Hospital Vespers I did pick up a "quick pick with the plus" and like the song - it was "futile."  The result: absolutely nothing.  Not one single number!  Stu, you owe me $6. ;)




You can listen to Hospital Vespers here:


Doctors play your dosage like a card trick
Scrabbled down the hallways yelling "Yatzee"
I brought books on Harper in the Arctic
Something called "The Politics of Lonely"
A toothbrush and Quick Pick with a plus
You tried not to roll your sunken eyes

And said "Hey can you help me? I can't reach it"
Pointed to the camera in the ceiling
I climbed up, blocked it so they couldn't see
Turned to find you out of bed and kneeling
Before the nurses came took you away
I stood there on a chair and watched you pray