FRIDAY RANDOM TEN, PRE-ATONEMENT EDITION

Welcome once again to Blog d’Elisson’s Friday Random Ten, the weekly feature in which I post a selection of Choons drawn at random from Elisson’s Little White Choon-Box.

Sure, it’s Friday...and not just any Friday.

For it is Erev Yom Kippur, the day before the Jewish Day of Atonement, that uniquely sacred time that begins as the sun sets. Therefore, instead of our typical Friday evening dinner with the Usual Suspects, we will enjoy a light collation before heading off to synagogue, there to hear the beautiful, haunting melody of the Kol Nidre liturgy and to beat our breasts, atoning for the sins which we have committed during the previous year.

For at least 25 hours, we will not eat or drink. We will abstain from wearing leather shoes - a symbol of wealth and of Man’s predominance over his environment - from shaving, from Pleasurable Ablutions, and from Humma-Humma (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Instead, we will focus on our relationship with God and with our fellow humans in an orgy of Self-Examination. It’s a wonderfully purgative experience.

For my Jewish friends and family, my best wishes for a g’mar chatima tovah - to be sealed for a good decree from the Most High, the Big Guy. And for my non-Jewish friends, Happy Saturday!

But meanwhile, we have Choons to attend to. Here they be:

1. Turn Around - They Might Be Giants
   
2. Mississippi Dildo Bust - Doug Stanhope
   
3. Jamaican Ska - Fishbone
   
4. Convalescing In Spain - The Judybats
   
   Convalescing in Spain
   Trying to purge this sickness
   You started in me
   At the outdoor cafes
   Trying to cool this fever
   Drink, relief, recovery
   In the scratchy shade
   Of a dusty almond tree
   Boozing it up with friends I’ve made
   Yeah, we laugh till we cry
   They don’t know my mind
   Is oceans away
   The people really like me here
   My Spanish is getting better
   
   But all I want to do is
   Break away from them
   And write you another letter
   That I’ll never send
   I fold them into boats
   Set them afloat in the
   Neighborhood pool
   The children love them till they
   Sink and say, “Hagame uno mas!
   Esos son muy cool!”
   
   Running on the beach
   Over the rocky part
   I can almost forget that
   Forgetting is the hardest part
   That letting go
   Is only a state of mind
   That love is impure
   That love is blind
   I’m talkin’ blinkers, baby
   
   Running on the beach
   Over the rocky part
   I can almost forget that
   Forgetting is the hardest part
   
   Convalescing in Spain
   I’ve been keeping a diary
   And I must be getting well
   Cause I write less of you
   And more of me
   Things like
   Did we sleep through the best part?
   Did we cry through the worst part?
   Did we chinga through the good days?
   Did we get stuck with the end?
   Don’t we cry when someone
   Steals the show
   Hate when it’s someone we know?
   Perhaps this is the best part
   Convalescing in Spain
   
   Perhaps this is the best part
   Convalescing in Spain
   
   
5. I Lost All My Money At The Cockfights - Minus The Bear
   
6. Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare-Krishna Beauregard (Live) - John Prine
   
7. Democracy Is A Flawed Theory - Doug Stanhope
   
8. Rockin’ The Suburbs - Ben Folds
   
9. Our Prayer/Gee - Brian Wilson
   
10. Wish Me Luck - Klaus Badelt, The Time Machine (2002)
    

It’s Friday. What are you listening to?