LINKS OF THE DAY

Brokeback to the Future

Lonesome Jim

Three new documentaries

Bird flu & border news

Toronto yesterday

Song of the day: Star Witness by Neko Case

My true love drowned in a dirty old pan of oil
That had run from the block
Of a Falcon sedan 1969.
The paper said ‘75.
There were no survivors
None found alive.

Trees break the sidewalk
And the sidewalk skins my knee.
There’s glass in my thermos and blood on my jeans
Nickels and dimes of the 4th of July
Growing off in a crooked line to the chain link lots where the red tails dive
Oh how I’d forgot what it’s like

Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there’s such tender wolves ‘round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there’s such tender wolves ‘round town tonight
Round the town tonight

Hey pretty baby get high with me
We can go to my sister’s if we say we’ll watch the baby
The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain
And I would do anything to see you again

So I’ve fallen behind…

Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there’s such tender wolves ‘round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there’s such tender wolves ‘round town tonight
Round the town tonight

Go on go on and scream and cry
You’re miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don’t even put on the siren.
And right down the street the pavement bleeds.
Don’t let ‘em die…

"Star Witness" revives the fine American tradition of the dead-sweetheart song-- think "Leader of the Pack", "Dead Man's Curve", "Last Kiss", or Case's own "Deep Red Bells". The song conjures a ditch-bound car on a lonely road in the middle of the night, the wheels still spinning, the radio using the last of the battery to broadcast some lonely tune.

As if drawing from memories that time has made hazy, Case sings around the crash, describing the aftermath in her most effectively elliptical lyrics to date; the concrete details are mysteriously veiled, unanswered emotions as gory as police photos. On the second verse, Case steps back to depict the frenzied teenage hormones that preceded the crash: "The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain." The song ends with a roadside pietá, as the narrator cradles the boy's head in her lap and pleads, "Please don't let him die."