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Trouble in transit
Jul. 8th, 2005 10:20 amDoraville station and the Southbound, as should be no surprise to long time readers of this blog, is running late. The red letters on the digital marquee flash 'SOUTHBOUND:ARRIVING' over and over mockingly. Next to me are two guys waiting for the train and having themselves a laugh to pass the time. It's Friday morning and they're ready to go home already. At one point they drop the banter to take in the finer pleasures of a young Mexican girl passing by on the platform, a low cut top threatens & teases to spill out at any moment, like if you concentrated on it hard enough it would. The two guys laugh some more, 'What-If-ing' to each other and casually switching shoulders to holster their machine guns. From a distance, in their flak jackets & drab olive regs, they look imposing. They look like my old action figures come to life. Complete with accesories and background dossiers you can cut out and save. But up close it's anything but. They're just kids, tweenagers. They're roughly my age when I joined the Navy. Fresh faces that shave every morning strictly for practice. Young, dumb & full of cum as Chief Ewald would say. One of them is snapping bubble gum, the other fidgets with his vest. I'm the only guy standing next to them. Something about kids with gun, uniform or not, that makes people nervous. There's a bunch of MARTA cops making the rounds up and down the platform. An intercom squawks and indecipherable message. Above us and lined along the ceiling, are little cameras that swivel back and forth in a series of dark brown plastic bubbles. There's another team down the other side of platform with a black dog- bomb sniffer i'm guessing. It occurs to me I was'nt this well monitored in bootcamp. All this and no ones safe. That's supposed to be the deal right? A camera in every store, on every block. Am I wrong? Soon they'll have these kids doing block patrol. They'll stand around joking & smoking, manning a barricade at the edge of some ghetto. I know i'm just being paranoid. I have'nt woke up yet. Shake it off. I glance down the curve of tracks, the horizon is empty of any sign of a train. I'm gonna be late if this keeps going. Great, meet the new facism, politically correct, focus grouped, demographiced, spun, marketed but no, sorry, not the kind that make the trains run on time.
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto,
I’ve lived all over this town
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now
Transmit the message, to the receiver,
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
You don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
Everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or c. b. g. b.,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about houston? heard about detroit?
Heard about pittsburgh, p. a.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
To last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
Heaphones, ain’t got no records to play
Why stay in college? why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
I ain’t got no time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
We blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping pohne lines,
I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
We make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
You ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
Then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
Whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
Notebooks? they won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
The burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
Don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
You better watch what you say
~Talking Heads, Life during wartime
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto,
I’ve lived all over this town
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now
Transmit the message, to the receiver,
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
You don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
Everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or c. b. g. b.,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about houston? heard about detroit?
Heard about pittsburgh, p. a.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
To last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
Heaphones, ain’t got no records to play
Why stay in college? why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
I ain’t got no time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
We blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping pohne lines,
I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
We make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
You ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
Then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
Whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
Notebooks? they won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
The burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
Don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
You better watch what you say
~Talking Heads, Life during wartime
