Untitled Document

Some of the songs here are about two years old, I guess. “5150” for example was written in the fall of 2005 just after my Brother Steve, having consulted the rest of us, had to dial 911 and call in a 5150 on our father. “5150” is California police code for “a danger to himself and/or others.” Which was the case with our father at that time, as he had become considerably demented. That was no fun.

And “He is Not” was written a month or so after our father died on February 2, 2006.

And then we had to sell the family house—Delridge, we called it because it was located on a street named Delridge —just as the bottom was starting to drop out of the market. Additionally, not fun. And I came down with pneumonia while we were trying to sell the house, which we did and finally closed December 31, 2005. Which we had to do to be able to pay for the “home” our mother went to.

That was hard to do since she owned Delridge, and that led to a miserable day when I had to go down and sit in a room in the home and convince our mother to hand over her business affairs to me as the executor of the Tingle Family Trust. She had appointed me to that. I sure didn’t ask for it. Anyway, it was either do that—get her to sign—or have her declared mentally incompetent.

And then she died on April 10, 2007. She went into the hospital with pneumonia and she came out with a staph infection so potent that we had to wear those white doctors’ masks when we visited her, not to protect her from us but to make sure we didn’t get what she had.

That was pretty terrible.

The picture here was taken on an island outside of Charleston, SC. We went there for a little break after we buried our mother next to our father in the cemetery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ora, South Carolina. We had taken him to that graveyard the spring before. And there we were back again in the spring of 2007 driving down the road on an island outside of Charleston SC. It was raining that day.

Also, some time, during this time, I hit 60 which turns out to be a real pain in the butt….especially when people start dying all around you. Your whole focus or perspective on things starts to shift and not in a happy way. At least that was the case with me.

These songs arise out of that context. They are pretty universally glum, gloomy, and depressing, dealing as they do with mostly death related topics, not a good topic for me, in any case, since I have been obsessed with dying since I was 16. I used to romanticize my death obsession feeling that I was profound or deep or something; now I just feel I am anxious and depressed.

I liked it better being profound.

The songs as follows:

Until the Day is Done