Leg Up Aspirations

It's the middle of winter. Well, a little over a month is left, technically. But we're still in the thick of it.

I normally don't look forward to winter. In fact, I fear winter. Once November rolls around I'm kind of a Sour Simon. But there are are few things that make it somewhat bearable, things that I actually look forward to.

The list (in no particular order):

--Sledding all day, coming home to wool socks, dry pajama pants, and hot cocoa. Like burn your esophagus hot.
--Maybe take a snowboard lesson.
--Ice skating with a lady friend.
--Going out to a candlelit dinner by a fire, sipping wine.
--Travelling about town on "going out" nights whilst wearing a pea coat.
--Sitting at home all alone in front of a fire listening to folk music while sipping wine on a night before another workless day.

This last one is special for me for a couple reasons.

1) I've developed an appreciation for folk music only recently, probably starting with the release of the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. I think it was the first step from constantly listening to loud, grungy, electronic Clear Channel shortsightedness to going to a more eclectic multi-vitamin plethora of genre and timbre. It's a symbol of growth and maturity.
2) Having a fireplace is a fucking privilege. College to post-college apartments and houses rarely have a fireplace, so when you're in front of a fireplace you're either at your parents house, a friends' parents' house, or on a trip, like at a cabin or a lodge. I aspire to have a fireplace in my future home. That is the only necessity of the dream house, that it have a fireplace. So, the fireplace is a symbol of aspiration.
3) Sitting ALONE. This signifies that I'm comfortable. I've made it career-wise, I don't have any obligations at the moment, but I'm sitting pretty knowing that I'll have future work in the coming days. It's a nice, long break from obligation. I won't have roommates, the significant other is either non-existent or absent for the timebeing, and kids? Again, non-existent or absent at the present time. Comfortable.
4) Wine. Fucking wine. A whole bottle for me. Need I say more?

Last night I saw Alela Diane and Blitzen Trapper at First Avenue. I discovered Alela through MP3 blogs, and I absolutely loved her voice. I sought out live shows immediately, and found that she was going to be opening on a tour with Blitzen Trapper. The thing about Blitzen is that some friends of mine know the band personally, to the point where they stay at one person's house every time they come through the Cities. So last night, I got to see these peeps for free, since we were on the guest list.

This also signifies new friends. A future for when the current brotherhood breaks apart. It's also a contact in the music world. It's a movement toward future comfort.

Both of these bands are folk, to some degree, Blitzen being a bit on the louder cusp, striding the Southern Rock/Nashville Bar Band sound. But they are both already on the list for the future event of the Folk Fireside Drunken Descent. And while listening to them and sipping wine, I'll think back to a time when I was a fledging musician recording in his cramped up poor excuse of a bedroom living with the closest friends he'll probably ever have -- a time that signified the start of his true career and destiny in life. A junction in the bars surrounding my Karmathian cage.

And then I'll drink to the present and future . . .

Blitzen Trapper -- "Furr"