Out.

Out again in the sun today, really trying to make a go of it. As I've mentioned to a friend, I'll be brown as a nut and fit as a lass. Echoes of Daffy Duck. Today's walk was a bit more pensive. I've started having migraines sans the actual migraine part...just the auras, or, to be more realistic, hallucinations. Two (and a half, one tried to pick up speed but couldn't get off the runway) in three days. I gather "ocular migraines" are much preferable to their kin, but it still has me a little down. They start small, as if you stared in the sun for too long, but get bigger and bigger and it always ends with my vision being too skewed to even walk, much less read or (god forbid) drive. I recently live in horror of one of these bad boys catching me on a long stretch of traffic-ridden freeway.

The beach was cleaned up, not so disgusting as the other day...and instead of a trash skip having overturned, today it looked as though the local fruit stand had taken a dip. There were oranges and lemons rolling in the sand, and an entire split watermelon with a spray of distressingly meaty-looking chunks sprayed around a goodly 12 feet or so. It looked so much like a smashed animal I had to count on logic to provide me with the disturbing intelligence that seagulls would be all over the pieces if they were actual meat. It looked as though someone had tried to play the summer watermelon smashing game, but hadn't bothered with the follow-up. Some young teens were excitedly digging in the sand, which worries me occasionally - I wonder if they have a critter who haplessly wandered into their clutches. But not today. They were building a sand castle and there were several excited invites to join in. Oh, yes, that would have looked just fine. Social mores aside, I was too tired to handle the yelling. Smiled and moved on, to find more fruit playing in the sun and sand.

Today's soundtrack was a little off, not really what I'd consider "summer" music, but I'd had an urge since last night:

I began with the eponymous Liquid Liquid album, which is zippy enough: percussion-laden and exciting in a low-key way. I located it on emusic shortly after careful consideration of the $50 OOP cd on ebay. Listening reminded me of my trip to London last October, during which a friend and I would "meet" in Starbucks each morning and go over my day's plans. One a.m., he suggested I visit the Rough Trade West shop near Portobello. I walked from my hotel, spurning the tube, so it took a while - and was tired once I got there. I picked and plucked from the racks, trying to decide what I wanted, and decided upon a cd reissue of the post-punk album "Memory Span" by the Lines, entirely due to their song "White Night" (which is wonderfully sleazy). While making the purchase, the gent behind the counter looked at me quizzically and asked why this cd in particular had picked up in popularity, and I could only shrug...I knew it had been posted on a friend's blog not too long ago, but wasn't sure that would have a world-wide sales trend effect despite the immense popularity of his blog. Shrug. Then we began talking about Liquid Liquid. He told me they'd recently played in London, and inferred that some bands should let it lie. But I would have loved to see them back in the day. Nearly everyone who has ever seen sunlight (and those who haven't) know this band if only because they provided the bass sample for the song "White Lines" via their tune "Cavern". My personal favorite from the album is "Out", a funky beat-ridden track that I would've gleefully danced to in clubs, drink in hand.

It seemed natural enough to follow up one New York Noise act with another, so I turned on Lizzy Mercier Descloux's 1979 album "Press Colour". She continues to be one of my absolute favorites. Review after review states how she wasn't all that talented, but I beg to differ. You can play your brains out, but you either have it or you don't. And she most certainly HAD it. "Hard-Boiled Babe" will always be one of my most-played tracks. To be honest, I was introduced to both Liquid Liquid and LMD via the brilliant New York Noise compilation from Soul Jazz Records (so forlorn about not going there while in London). I'm a slow beginner, but catch up fast. And thanks to Lizzy I then hopped on the ZE/Mutant Disco train. Excellent snowball effect!

If I'd walked further today, the next album might have been Essential Logic's "Fanfare In The Garden" - I think it's the finger cymbal sound in EL's "Love Eternal" that transfers so readily from those used by Lizzy.

Funny: hadn't realized until now that I located all three of these albums on emusic. Do listen to the samples provided; I think you might get hooked. As for me, I'm off for a cuppa joe and some reading. Enough sun for one day.