In praise of Paul

This post was originally gonna be "In praise of Me", but then I actually really thought about the issue.

Paul is my favourite Beatle.

Up till, maybe last year, I'd bitten into the St. John myth. But my double score and one forces me to turn to Paul.

Later on that, but y'll know why......

When I was young, I loved being one of the gang. Family? Neighbourhood? I know not why, but that group esthetic was always very important.

sketches 1,2,3...


Sketch 1
I was a card carrying member of the Rabbit gang, a group revolving around a boy my age. He lived on the alley of 63d and Whipple, and had four bros and a sister. Rabbit was the toughest guy in our age group, and so he was the leader. Within this group, there were sub groups. The first important subgroup, for this post, was the trio of me, Mick Guiness,and Chemical Man. We were like kings back then. We were the ones breaking out the Stones and Beatles. We walked over to chix houses and chatted them up. We created comix books and skits and etc.......
The summer of 1980, Mick started to hang out morw with the greater Rabbit group reather than the more specialized core. kinda sucked, but that's the way it was. We had a tite group, and Guiness had to go his own way. At the time, I must admidt it almost seemed like he hung out with us to get into the group. Now I know the fluidity of youth groups, but...


Sketch 2
Flash forward to 1988. Again, I found myself in the middle of an impossibly funkee crew of boys and girls. We used to dresss loudly, look loudly, act loudly, and kiss girls !!! But we also sat @ a certain lunch table in the cafeteria @ university. sat there all the time. Once again, I loved the crowd, the talk, the view, and the chix. Then, unbidden, people started to opt out. They started (I'm blaming two : Crankface and Rocky, or was it Rocky and Crankface?) sitting elsewhere, and that neat umbrella of people started to unravel. Don't get me wrong, these people to the most part I still hang out with, but that young fresh time was then cut away. Again, time changes and often times I feel like I'm the Old Man in 'The Field', rage raging against the dying of the Light.

But PAUL, you ask ? Okokok, a little more.


Sketch 3
I am presently a card carrying member of many crews, I love it, but it racks lazy me with the responsibility. One Crew, called THAT CROWD by one of its central characters, The Joker. Nice crowd that somehow just came about with scraps of peoples frenz and blossemed into this extremely powerful combination of boys and girls in their 30's. This group would hang out each week @ least once, and usually twice. There were parties, concerts, trips, etc... I got used to going out 1.46 times a week to new places and shit.

And then...

One got a girlfriend. Then Another. then......they all did...........soon, a critical mass happened where the group, viewed from the context of 2-3 years ago, collapsed. It seemed that the group was only good for getting hitched, then .........uh.......bye, there's too much good stuff to watch on tv to-nite, so I'll see you next year. I must admidt, it was............pretty disgusting, dissapointing, and deflating. My jibe was that we went out 1.2x a week, and now we go out once every 12 weeks. pretty close to the truth, too.

And then again...

A few of the original opter-out returned once in awhile. Then, more, and more................What I percieved is that they had their year off from the crowd, and then, either a sense of duty, or the newness wore off, or a friday nite out sounded better than a friday nite in, or whatever ; now it seems that when a directive goes out, a lot of people show up. Not like before, and there are now kids, but That Crowd has been reestablished, to my satisfaction, with a worthwhile group dynamic. Just different, and yes I'm old enough to sense that this is ok. I hung out with That Crowd twice on the wkd, Friday and Saturday. One was a drunken time out @ the bar, and the other was a 1yrolds b-day. I loved both, and you cab rad about them later here (when I catch up).




HYPOCRITTER RESEASE:
Here I am complaining about three of the diff. groups and frenz I hung out with in differeing times, but I have to say: I've let groups down as well. This small sampling above even denates other groups not being written about. Since it doesn't fit into my paul thing, I'll let it go, but I fully know I live in a Crystal Palaces, so.......yr allowed to knail my knuts to the kwall if kyou kwant.



Paul.

I love all the Beatles, but I recently read the Spitz bio. of the Bealtes and that two score and one really opened mind up. The enduring Image of the Beatles, since I fell for them sitting on a porch on Mozart Street listening to the Red and Blue LP's or watching the cartoons after school, is the End. Johnis tripping every fucking day, George is sulking away, and Ringo.....(can't think of anything clever...). I understand that maybe it was time for them to go (like a relsationship that's not good), and the Myth wouldn't have been as good if the were still touring like the Stones or Who--I know, I know, I know..........but in those last days, it was Paul who was trying to keep things to-gether. This I respect, and whenever I read, I root for it. Pauls mite have said C'mon lads, we're the Beatles, and we are a force of nature when we are united. To-gether, we can do anything, and you've seen it before. Lets just try to stay united, and do this or that project. The whole world is watching. Don't forget, we can do anything,long as we are the Beatles.

So, my hypocritter release above nonwithstanding (I don't hang out w/ everybody I ever have, I have broken some girls hearts, I fight still ((still??) with my sisters) I'm sure you can see why Paul is my favourite.