Heading into the sunset
Jul. 11th, 2014 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe are on the train, northbound, homeward bound, and the sun is low and red ahead of us. It is not a happy train: first it had to make a detour to avoid a trespasser on the line who refused to move, then it had to make an unscheduled stop to take on the passengers from a failed train. It was already quite full, and now it is very full, and we are sharing a table with some youn Americans who are getting more fun than I would have thought possible out of a pack of cards. But the train is moving, and there is the sunset ahead of us, and a full moon behind us.
We came south at short notice for the funeral of a cousin: we had known since earlier this year that she had cancer, and that things were bad, so this was not unexpected. She's been there all my life, and though geography never made us close, she brightened every event when we met: she had great warmth and charm - and it was a good funeral, because I came away from it feeling that personality through the reminiscences of her family and friends. A funeral's a bad thing, because it means that someone has died; but when someone has died, actually a funeral is what you want: a chance to say goodbye in the company of other people who are missing them.
As a bonus, we stayed with the Bears, who also came to the funeral. But first, last night, they took us to a Clean Cut Kids gig. The Kids are Keith Taylor and Richard Cryan, and they sing Dylan. I can't link to the YouTube video, because the train's wifi blocks the site, but scroll down their Twitter feed and there's a link there. If you recognise the name, you'll know that they range across the full Dylan repertoire: the earliest song they did (by a comfortable margin) was Blowing in the Wind (and the latest was probably Early Roman Kings, though I'm not reliable on the last decade or so). The best, I think, was also their least faithful: Highway 61. Disclaimer: Richard and Keith are friends of the Bears, and by now I have probably known them long enough to claim them as friends myself too. So I may be biased. But if you like Dylan (and I do) the Kids are alright.
Update: we are now in Newark Northgate, and the guard has announced that we are currently delayed by a balloon on the overhead wires.
We came south at short notice for the funeral of a cousin: we had known since earlier this year that she had cancer, and that things were bad, so this was not unexpected. She's been there all my life, and though geography never made us close, she brightened every event when we met: she had great warmth and charm - and it was a good funeral, because I came away from it feeling that personality through the reminiscences of her family and friends. A funeral's a bad thing, because it means that someone has died; but when someone has died, actually a funeral is what you want: a chance to say goodbye in the company of other people who are missing them.
As a bonus, we stayed with the Bears, who also came to the funeral. But first, last night, they took us to a Clean Cut Kids gig. The Kids are Keith Taylor and Richard Cryan, and they sing Dylan. I can't link to the YouTube video, because the train's wifi blocks the site, but scroll down their Twitter feed and there's a link there. If you recognise the name, you'll know that they range across the full Dylan repertoire: the earliest song they did (by a comfortable margin) was Blowing in the Wind (and the latest was probably Early Roman Kings, though I'm not reliable on the last decade or so). The best, I think, was also their least faithful: Highway 61. Disclaimer: Richard and Keith are friends of the Bears, and by now I have probably known them long enough to claim them as friends myself too. So I may be biased. But if you like Dylan (and I do) the Kids are alright.
Update: we are now in Newark Northgate, and the guard has announced that we are currently delayed by a balloon on the overhead wires.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-07-11 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-12 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-12 01:15 am (UTC)I hope you get home soon. I'll be thinking of arriving into the Durham rail station...(will you walk? take a taxi? did you leave your car there?)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-12 06:07 pm (UTC)The train got in at midnight, and if there'd been a taxi waiting we'd have taken it, but there wasn't, so we walked. No big deal, just - did not need.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 04:41 am (UTC)Well said.