Before I found these lyrics a few minutes ago I had asumed that the song was rather upbeat, being a fast-tempoed numnber, clearly the lyrics suggest otherwise.  Then again I guess it makes sense that the song is fast as it’s like he’s running away from the failing relationship.

LYRICS:

It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If’in you don’t know by now
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It’ll never do some how.
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
but I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never done before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you any more
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ walkin’ down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

So long, Honey Babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But Goodbye’s too good a word, babe
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right.

On the other hand the studio version (as I listen to it literally right now) does seem more reflective, rather than escaping.  Maybe i’ll never work out Bob completely – maybe that’s why I like him.

Yay, we had a snow day today in Britain.

Despite the freezing cold and wetness I like snow days.  I like to put on a big coat with a furry hood and walk to school, (well, I did today).

Yeah, so cool.

‘Bright night’ Effect

When snow falls at night, several things happen in urban areas that cause light levels to increase. This makes it much brighter even though the sun has gone down. First of all, the snow that has fallen reflects nearly all light cast upon it since it is very close to white. This causes the light from city lights to be reflected off the snow and back into the atmosphere. However, there is also cloud cover because snow is falling, and this bounces the light back to the ground. These two things greatly amplify the light emitted from city lights, causing the ‘bright night’ effect.  (Wikipedia)

Yeah, that’s really cool too.

Paris, 1966

I think maybe it’s because he has a blend of pure, natural talent and ‘not caring’ that sort of made him untouchable.  He wasn’t trying to be cool – he just was.  And because he wasn’t trying to be cool people thought that he was cool – and he is.

He’s clever, poetic, musical, iconic and cool.  Now that is cool.

About 6 months ago my parents divorced (sucks I know).  My mum had been having an affair for about a year and a half with a man from work and so that was that.  It should have been that simple but my mum continued to live with us for ages – it really began to piss off my dad.  I think he gradually became slightly alcoholic and sometimes resorted to a bit of violence (can you blame him – she had taken his bed and he had to sleep on the sofa for like, 6 months).

Anyway, when she finally got round to moving out I decided to stay with my Dad because, like most 16 year olds I though I’d best take the moral high ground and stick it out with my Dad who was afterall, innocent in all of this.  Not only this but I hardly ever see my mum anymore maybe once or twice a fortnight for 5 minutes, only enough to say hi.

So today she turns up at my house, I’m there alone.  She knocks the door and says, “look at my new car”.  On the drive is parked a brand new Mercedes C-Class.  I immediately forgot that I hated her and so I went out with her for a drive.

I love cars and since I am used to being driven around in my Dad’s 9 year old people-carrier this was a real treat.  My family is not a rich one at all, especially now as my Dad is paying off my Mum, trying to keep up with a mortgage and also up to his neck in debt from sending me to private school for 5 years.

I am able to start driving in a month and I can’t afford a car for myself, what with the cost of insurance, tax and petrol too – my Dad can’t afford to give me a single penny towards it and he says it’s not fair if my Grandparnets chip in because they’re retired, and not that well off either.

So, the dilemma is: do I suck up to my mum and her rich new boyfriend and get them to chip in for a car for me or do I follow my Dad’s advice and stick to walking.

I really want to drive.  My life at the moment is pretty depressing, all I seem to do is sit in the house in the evenings bored stiff – I just want a car to get out there and have some fun.  My Dad’s argument is that if I splash out all my money on a car now I’ll be in debt by the time I come out of university and coming from him I take this advice seriously.

What do I do – please help.

I’ve supported Manchester United (a UK soccer team if you’re not familiar with them) since probably the age of 8 or 9 (I’m 16 now) but recently I have really not been interested at all in watching them play, keeping up with news about them or anything to do with them at all really.  Wierd.

The only reason I can think of for this is that I’ve got less free time on my hands nowadays.  I’ve got a job on saturdays so I don’t really get chance to see them play on TV and school work is increasing in volume and dificuilty so whatever time I have in the week is scarce.

It’s not that I regret not having as much time it’s that whenever I hav free time it seems I devote it to something else like listening to music, watching TV / movies, going out etc.  Anyhow, I’m getting less and less interested in them.

I wouldn’t even notice how distant we have become only every fortnight or so a mate in school will make a comment like “What a game on the weekend!” or “So d’ya reckon United will let him go?”.  Half the time I don’t even have a clue what they are talking about and have to piece together what they’re talking about from small bits of information I’ve recalled from the newspaper or the TV news.  For example, about 3 weeks ago I watched a match on TV for the first time in a few months (actually, all season.  FUCK ME!) they had this new player called Wellbeck I think.  I had no clue who he was but it turns out he (Danny Welbeck) has been at the club for 3 years and been playing for the first team since last season.

This made me feel a bit guilty.  If someone asks me who I supported I would gladly say Manchester United yet I haven’t got a clue what is going on at the club in terms of results, fixtures or indeed general news.

I think it has something to do with the fact I dislike change.  I don’t know why, I’m a 16 year old boy not a 78 year old woman, but for some reason I seem to hate change.  The Manchester United I remember was the legendary team of the oldies, Giggs, Scholes, Sheringham, Solksjaer, van Nistelrooy Beckham et al. but now it’s full of youngsters I don’t seem to recognise.  (Christ I sound like such an old fart).

So I have a couple of questions I need to ask myself; do I still support Manchester United? do I deserve to say that I do? why do I act like such an old man?

I think…

Sorry I swore twice

I’ve have had a go once before and needless to say I became disinterested in it.  I think I approached it with completely the wrong attitude.  My strategy was to set up an awesome blog with a great design, cracking posts which people would read – I would become an online celebrity overnight and make a bomb!

How naive I was last year.

My first blog, if you’re interested, was (and technically still is) themodernstudent.com. God knows why I chose to blog about going to school but whatever, I did.  Perhaps I thought it was what I knew most about.  Anyway, I soon realised that I knew very little about being a “modern student” and gradually I drifted fom the blog.  I thought that if I posted what I thought people would find interesting the blog would triumph – this often involved me re-drafting posts several times until I appeared sufficently intelligent that people might be interested.  It was bloody boring.

Anyway, I think I’ve got a better approach now.  I’m going to post maybe once or twice a week my thoughts about interesting stuff that’s going on (to me, to my friends or in the world generally).  Hopefully if I find it interesting you will too.

So, that was me saying hi.