Sunday, January 29, 2006
AN EXPLANATION
the title of the blog is "the great saturday night swindle" which comes from a story janis joplin told. it seems that before she became famous she had left texas and was living in north beach, bumming on the streets, living the junkie life. she wrote home to her father periodically and in one of her letters, she told him that she felt really cheated, that all of her life everyone had been telling her things would get better and work out. she wrote that everyone functioned under the belief that if they could just get a certain job or live in a certain place or meet the certain person, their life would be perfect and they'd be happy. she had come to the conclusion that none of that was true and that things were never going to be perfect, no matter what. on her next trip home, she said, she walked in to find her father with his friend, "the only other intellectual in town" as she said and he greeted her with, "i hear you figured out the great saturday night swindle." she said that she felt really proud and validated, that she knew that her father talked about her to his friend and that on some level he was proud of her and thought of her as intelligent. and, she said, she realized then that she was correct, no matter what happened in her life, things would never be better and they'd never be perfect.
the title of the blog is "the great saturday night swindle" which comes from a story janis joplin told. it seems that before she became famous she had left texas and was living in north beach, bumming on the streets, living the junkie life. she wrote home to her father periodically and in one of her letters, she told him that she felt really cheated, that all of her life everyone had been telling her things would get better and work out. she wrote that everyone functioned under the belief that if they could just get a certain job or live in a certain place or meet the certain person, their life would be perfect and they'd be happy. she had come to the conclusion that none of that was true and that things were never going to be perfect, no matter what. on her next trip home, she said, she walked in to find her father with his friend, "the only other intellectual in town" as she said and he greeted her with, "i hear you figured out the great saturday night swindle." she said that she felt really proud and validated, that she knew that her father talked about her to his friend and that on some level he was proud of her and thought of her as intelligent. and, she said, she realized then that she was correct, no matter what happened in her life, things would never be better and they'd never be perfect.
