Artist	Song
Andrew Bird	Imitosis
Modest Mouse	We've Got Everything
Radiohead	There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)
Fields	Schoolbooks
The Mountain Goats	Game Shows Touch Our Lives
Chris Thile	Stay Away
Stone Temple Pilots	Big Empty
Ted Leo	The High Party (solo)
Modest Mouse	A Different City
The Original Brothers and Sisters of Love	Dead Radios
Lake Trout	Systematic Self
The Dears	Warm and Sunny Days
Belle and Sebastian	If You're Feeling Sinister
Pearl Jam	Soon Forget (live Detroit)
Pearl Jam	Baba O'Riley (live Detroit)
Colin Meloy	On the Bus Mall (live)
Brian Vander Ark	1229 Sheffield (live Hillsdale)
The Eagles	Hotel California (live)

Comment:

"Please, Tom-"

"No. I'm busy."

"Tom, he's acting creepy, I don't-"

"That's what you said about the last two guys, Kat. I'm tired of getting egg on my face."

"Tom, this is serious! I-"

"How many times am I supposed to care about you crying wolf? Three? Four? Seven?"

"Tom-"

"Get out of here. I have a paper to finish."

She leaves with those fake tears brimming in her eyes. Damn, the time of mine she wasted, even after the cheating... all that time investigating her stupid fears. Always she insisted on some malevolent force threatening her, something she could never define or point out... "It's there in the gaps," she'd say. Think it might be guilt that's hiding under the attention whore's bed?

Paper's already done. The prof wanted to know how Nietzsche's Zarathustra could come to an understanding of morality without the aid of a god. Can't, of course, but that's not what the professor wants to see. Won't get a passing grade for a one-line dismissal of fairy tales. So I'll parrot back some arbitrary value system.

Heh. There's Carrie with her well-amplified theory. And she comes so close! Yes, you can't step into the same pair of shoes twice, but the big secret is this: you can't even step into the same pair once! We've all got our own theories on what's right and what's wrong, and we could only ever come close to confidence through subjective experience, but then... such divergent results! We acknowledge differing moralities but then cover them up with nonsense like dogmatism or consensus or - Carrie's favorite - everybody's right in their own way. Nah, kid, nah... everyone's wrong in their own way. We're ALL accidents just waiting to happen.

Nothing's ever solid. The sun rose on the side opposite this window for the last four thousand years - heh - but that's no guarantee it'll do so tomorrow. This, too, shall pass.

The only sensible path in such a maze is to avoid debt. Don't wrong. Don't take chances when it could wrong. My sole choice of moral law is the law with the best chance of balancing out: the Silver Rule. Do not do unto others as you'd not have done unto you.

It's the only safe way, the only way to avoid the discomforts of mistake and embarassment. It's the most decent way to treat other mediocre gods as well: let them make their own mistakes. Let them waste their paychecks on scratchoffs. Avoid imposition and your only debt will be to an unresponsive god.

Gods, I can hear her braying laughter through the window! Guess she wasn't that frightened after all. Guess the wolf appears for her in a clown suit. Does this latch still work... ah, that's better.

Let everyone deal with their scary gaps on their own terms. Let those invisible deadly forces shine where they will. Impositions could help... or they could end in suspicious boating accidents.

I'll take comfort in not taking the chance.

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