Tool - 10,000 Days

I just popped in 10,000 days again after hearing about a concert my best friend attended in Vegas at the Pearl. I don't know if this is the appropriate venue to rant and rave given the supposed critical aspect of the blog, but Tool always offers the best counseling I can find. The energy packed behind the powerful percussion of Danny mixed with Adam's adept axe work make for beautiful music. Add in Maynard's ability to scream, sing, recite lyrics from each of our subconscious and well... it is beautiful. From Right In Two...

Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.....

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs they make a club,
And beat their brother down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability,
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.

May peace and love find you, and if not may you come to understand how to get there.


** full lyrics available here.

Politics...

How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms! - Yeats

The first four lines of this poem are featured in the 1964 edition of Crick's In Defence of Politics, which I am currently rereading. I don't have the knowledge to hash out a thorough critique of this piece, but I felt it was most appropriate to share as we enter a presidential election year. Let us not forget that politics is many things to many people, but as Yeats urges us -- Don't let it get in the way of love... sweet love.