Worst-case scenario

I've been staring at hurricane footage for so much of the past couple of days, spending so much time trying to track people down, that just now when I went outside with the dog, I was a little surprised not to see whitecaps and rushing water. It is only moderately wet here and drying out now, and I guess we are out of danger (though I thought last night's tornado sirens were a malfunctioning metal fan and did not even realize differently until a coworker was telling me this afternoon about cowering in her bathtub with a mattress and two children with a tornado blowing through her neighborhood, so I am not to be trusted).

Out of danger. I wish I could say the same for my friends in NO, most of whom are homeless--not to mention jobless--as of today. And much more worrying, the parents of a couple of friends decided to stay and haven't been heard from since the storm began, one set in NO which is bad enough, and the other on a farm in Pearl River County in MS, which. It's just north of Gulfport, you see.

( Two pictures, now. )

Signs of the coming apocalypse

I have just returned from a two-hour lunch, which you might think is a bit decadent of me but you will no doubt change your mind when I tell you that a little over half of it was spent waiting in line at a gas station so that I might pay $3.00 per gallon (up, apparently, from $2.67 at about noon) to fill my tank. I got back to the office to discover that there are rumors of fuel rations, and that is why the insanity (every still-working gas pump in Macon has ten cars waiting to fill up). Is anyone else seeing this happen? I am just curious.

:::

This morning I got to work and my officemate--she of the fondness for lite rock and top 40 radio--was all excited about last night's episode of Rockstar*, excited enough to want to share her excitement by making me listen to the performances from last night, because she knew I wouldn't have watched it. (My taste in television, when I'm watching at all, runs more to mild interest in next season's "Earl," in which Jason Lee whacks around at his karmic energy like a guy whacking at a wasp with a rolled-up magazine, than to reality TV.)

So here's the breakdown of songs performed last night: "Wish You Were Here," "Suspicious Minds," "Live and Let Die," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Imagine," and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Which, okay, not a fan of all the songs, but I have enough invested in enough of them to find the idea of listening to a bunch of posing pop-star wannabes systematically dismantling them to be a little horrifying. But then I thought, well, you are stereotyping these people, Cammy, you are being totally unfair, and D was blown away by their performances, and...so I listened.

And of course I was right in the first place, right enough, when it was all over, to have to stammer out some polite response that tried not to hurt her feelings or piss on her pop parade, but which I think failed miserably, and I really am sorry for that because I like her very much.

Does taste count for anything in this? Because if it does, I mean, I gotta give them credit; they've sung some kickass songs over the past few weeks. The Kinks, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, Squeeze, David Bowie, Nirvana, The Violent Femmes, and many more. Usual and unusual suspects. And I didn't listen to them--I couldn't bring myself to do it, although curiosity may yet get the better of me--but I'm willing to bet they just eviscerated every last one.

I've been thinking about this all morning, what goes into the making of a great cover song, why I'm so distressed at the covers I heard this morning. I won't bore you with my thoughts or analyses because I feel like enough of an elitist asshole already; really, I am just wanting a bit of a palate cleanser. I want to listen to your favorite cover songs.

What are they?


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* Probably everybody knows this already, but I wanted to clarify that this is the reality TV show wherein INXS auditions replacements for the tragically departed Michael Hutchence by listening to them cover other people's songs, and sometimes play original ones also.