gordon_downie gja gone. a loss. the hip. 171018 ... raze my immediate response yesterday afternoon was this: https://johnnywestmusic.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/know-which-way-to-go/ (not an attempt at drumming up blog views ... no one reads my blog anymore. which is kind of freeing, really, because you get to talk to yourself in a small corner of the internet. it's just the only place i put that song, and i figure it might carry some meaning for fans of the man and his work.) 171019 ... epitome of incomprehensibility I heard when I came home from work yesterday. It's weird that my main exposure to Gord Downie was through tutoring. One of my students had to do a response paper on The Secret Path, so I watched some of the videos in advance. I was afraid it'd be something cheesy, but it wasn't like that at all. It was simple but layered, with different perspectives. It was sad. It was like looking at something through tree branches. I can't describe things. Confession time - on why I didn't listen to him much before - Someone in my poetry class, in the days of 2008, said I'd like his lyrics, but she made the mistake of mentioning the band name before giving an example of some lyrics. "Tragically Hip," thought epitome of incomprehensibility, "is a silly name. Who calls themselves that?" So I didn't listen to their music much for that reason. That raisin. That raisin was not raisinable. Risible, not rainwashable. See, I'm not silly at all. On another note - holy crap, you're good at playing piano. Why didn't I notice that before when I was only commenting on you doing cool guitary things? But yes. 171019 ... nr this is what i find so impressive about him and the tragically hip. they've pretty much ingrained themselves into the lives of every canadian in some way or other. i wasn't even a fan until after university, yet i still remember them being in my life growing up, through family, friends, school... it was like band osmosis. i can't think of another artist who's even come close to achieving that. 171019 what's it to you? who go blather from