Kathy McCarty Cover Version of "I Had a Dream" by Daniel Johnston

This is a remarkable, tasteful, and loving rendition of the song I had a dream, by the late Daniel Johnston. Daniel spent his life battling mental illness, yet he attained success in music and art with a dedicated cult fanbase. This song is covered, along with others on the album Dead Dog’s Eyeball, by Kathy McCarty, Daniel’s onetime girlfriend. Kathy’s somewhat jazzy, yet soulful, and bittersweet version of this tune lends itself to playing in a smoky nightclub or on a rainy afternoon with a cup of coffee. Kathy’s voice is beautiful and recognizes the heartache Daniel felt when composing this song. The unrequited love he felt for Laurie Allen, a young, beautiful woman he met in college, inspires this tune, and so many others of Daniel’s. Laurie was a friend, and she married a funeral director and moved away. All of this became grist for Daniel’s songs and artwork. Listen to this song and appreciate its inspiration and enjoy the heartfelt, yet whimsical lyrics. You’ll understand why a person can get close to someone yet still be so far away. This is my new favorite song.

Greetings -- I Suppose

 I hate buying cards. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, glad you didn’t die —— it’s a chore. There never seems to be an appropriate message inside, or the artwork is simply silly, or meaningless. Happy Anniversary: here’s a couple sitting in a canoe on a lake. Get well soon: here’s a dog wearing a cast on one of its legs. Haha! I’d rather flee a swarm of angry wasps, or accidentally walk in on a Satanic human sacrifice than shop for a card. Like I said, I hate buying cards, and if you get one from me, either my wife bought it, or I must really, really like you.

Swing On By Emergency Room

  At first, I thought that this was a joke. It’s a serious toy set sold on Amazon, and it came up in my feed. Any parent who buys this for their kids either loves visiting the emergency room or hates their children. Seriously, a swing hung from a tension bar in a doorway? First, when we were kids, we treated swing sets like launch pads to the moon. We would pump hard enough so that we swung back and forth higher than the bar. And what kid wouldn’t be tempted to jump off the damn thing, whether it’s indoors or outside? Crash! Right into the China cabinet. Or the kid jumps and flies through a plate-glass window. Even if nothing else, the kid swings high enough to bonk their head on the ceiling. Also, do you think that flimsy tension bar is strong enough to not break off? We used to rock the entire swing set hard enough to pull the poles out of the ground. Even if the parents have the skills and tools to install it properly, the molding trim around the door will rip off, sending the kid flying. Put the swing aside and look at what comes with it: a knotted rope and a rope ladder. Watch the kids accidentally hang themselves with the knotted rope while playing a 21st century version of Tarzan. Also, count the minutes until the kids get the idea to dangle the rope ladder out of a window to scale down the side of their house and then plunge to their death. Amazing. Do I sound like a parent, or what? I survived childhood in the 1960s and 1970s when playgrounds culled the weak and unlucky from the herd. Concrete, steel, and scraped knees are what I remember. Because of that, I know what my friends and I would do with this home swing set and ropes. If my siblings and I had this set when we were young, our parents would have invested in their own ambulance. I don’t want kids to play survival games like we did when we were young. Oh Lord.

*Originally posted on my Facebook page 12/14/2021