Why aren't there more Blues songs about Sushi and Rain?
In fact, I don't know of any at all. Not even one. But there should be. Several. There should be several songs about Sushi and Rain. There are Blues songs about The Rain. Plenty. Either Rain on it's own or in combination with other items or things. But not with Sushi. And there should be songs about Sushi and Rain.
The Blues is a feeling (or to quote a Luther Allison song “ just a feelin' that you gots to have inside”). It can come as a consequence of that which occurs, but it is not the event itself. Perhaps a memory of it or a loneliness inflicted by it or confusion of how to react to it, but not the event itself. The events in our days are just 'life'. Often, The Blues has very little to do with something specific and 'is just there'. (If you listen to the intro of Leadbelly's 'Good Morning Blues', you'll understand what I mean by that.)
For me, this feeling – My Blues – is something that lives outside of the regular order of my things and only comes into my days when there is a void it can flow into. It creeps into gaps and looks to fills up spaces. It is out there, somewhere beyond me, nervously fluctuating all over the place looking for somewhere it can crash into. It buzzes and hovers, looking for entry. I can't hear or see it, but I know its there.
Now, despite how consumingly psychotic this sounds like it could and should be, it's actually quite an agreeable state of affairs. For, I know how this all seems to work and I am able to build and work on keeping My blues at bay - just keep the gaps all clogged up.
So, internally, I am just like that little Dutch boy with his fingers in the dyke, desperately keeping the on-flow at bay. (So many juvenile places to take comment on that sentence and I have stumbled over and around 12 of them. Suffice to say, they all included plays on the words 'fingers', 'Dutch', 'on-flow' and 'dykes'. But I can't choose my favorite, so I will leave them all to die a silent, untyped death. Signs of gradual maturing of the writer?)
As you could imagine, this does end up turning into a revolving loosing battle, for the appearances of the gaps always outweigh my capacity to keep them occupied. Loneliness most often provides the most gaps. Boredom is a big problem too. So is Desire. On the other hand, Exercise – like a jog around Hancock Park or a brisk, hyperventilating climb up Runyon Canyon – is a great gap-filler. Loud Music fills all the little nooks and crannies too. But you gotta be careful, because some music, no matter at what volume, can open you up all over the place. A Kiss is a funny one - it can go either way. If you're kissing who you want to, then that shit is like silicon, but if you aren't....well all that does is make you think of the one you want to be with and you got yourself more potholes than a Los Angeles sidewalk. Guitar is a good combatant; a Harmonica a little less so; but a Mandolin is terrible. Booze can be a reliable temporary filler. Prescription Pills less temporary - but then also less reliable too.
And the list goes on.
I'm not gonna go through a full declaration of the awareness of my insanity, but I will add one more time when the gaps for My Blues win out:
It's when I experience that un-heavy, full stomach satisfaction you get when you've eaten just the perfect amount of food to kill even the slightest temptations of hunger, but not too much that you are bloated and slowed. Do you know what I speak of? That moment when you feel any crave for more food slowly leave you, yet the sensation inside your gut is refreshment and not a laden pause. It's when you pay the bill and leave the table still light enough to just leisurely meander back home, yet harbor no need nor motivation to hit the 24-hour supermarket on the way back for those little almond cluster thingies.
That relaxed satisfaction brings on My Blues. It always has. I think it is something to do with a dropping of my guard or something. It's not bad thing. It is not like I get incapacitated by My Blues. I just surrender and let the feeling waft inside. Sometimes, in the good moments, it can warm me like an electric blanket of nostalgia and familiarity. Otherwise, most of the time it's a consuming distraction more than anything else.
And this is where Sushi comes into play. Sushi, to me, when eaten in just the right dosage, leaves me with exactly this satisfaction. The lightness of the raw fish and cold rice and ripe avocado and bright wasabi and cleansing ginger and refreshing sake seems to just take me to the edge of full and hold me gently, before I tip over down a crevice of dense over-consumption. Sushi brings on My Blues. It just does.
So tonight, as I stepped out of my local Sushi hangout and into the pounding Californian spring rain, I felt like I had just stepped into a Blues song. Exactly. And now I'm wondering if anyone else has felt the same. And if they have – and I’m sure I’m not the only like this out there. Please tell me I ain't! - why haven’t they written a song about it? And why isn't there more songs about Sushi and Rain?
See – it all makes simple sense, doesn't it?
Or maybe it wasn't just Sushi bringing on My Blues. Maybe it was the place itself. Maybe it reminded me of something else. Some other gap opening up at the moment....
Woops. Started drifting into Non-Fiction there.... Better stop here for now.....
