[Abby’s Road] Thinking hard about the weather

Autumn has always been my favorite season. Because of this, my brain has an inordinately unbalanced pocket of memories, seasonally speaking. Most of my fondest happen to have occurred in and around the crisp, fall days of my past. There is nothing like being in Western Pennsylvania roundabout this time. Despite the dying flora, it smells like life.

New music is always in abundance post-September 1st…always an enormous amount of new releases for overzealous holiday shoppers who want to have their swag purchased by Thanksgiving (whatever), plus tours and smaller shows are in full swing; a cornucopia of musical delights, if you will. Yes, well, it is no surprise then, given my predisposition for being happier when the pumpkins are the plumpest, that I like to plan visits to my childhood home roundabout this time. October, in particular, is the finest. With my impending move across the pond in December quickly approaching (yes – I am moving to Munich in December!), my most recent trip home was the most bittersweet visit in a long time.

First and foremost, I was home to hang with my mom. As always, we planned the customary dinner, wine nights and walks but this time I was home to do something that has been requested of me since approximately 1995: clear all of my belongings (read: crap) being stored in her attic. There are no two ways about it. This, friends, was madness. To those of you half my age out there – take this as a token of my sincere concern for your future mental well-being. KEEP YOUR SHIT ORGANIZED. I cannot stress this enough. I beg you.

The last 15 to 20 years have seen many attempts by me to catalog the items I didn’t necessarily want in my own apartment but, for some bizarre reason, wanted to hold on to in my mother’s house, a place I visit 3-4 times a year. Incidentally, these visits never include my venturing into the 3rd floor catacombs to lovingly stroke the giant bins containing VHS tapes of back-to-back recorded episodes of 120 Minutes. At any rate, I made a decision to really purge this time. If I hadn’t looked at it (or missed it) in the last ten years, for the love of Kevin Shields, it was going to be trashed.

Continue reading [Abby’s Road] Thinking hard about the weather