"I FELL RIGHT INTO THE ARMS OF VENUS DE MILO"

I love that line. Pretentious it may be but surely all the surrealists ultimately are. Bunuel with his eyeball cutting scene in Un Chien Andalou achieved fame and notoriety but really, looked at after a few years it is a bit pretentious.  I've been playing one- on- one snooker and listening to random tracks and albums on the i-pod. One- on- one has meant just me with two different cues (sad I know but The wine Guy went to bed - the Sacred Hills Hawkes Bay Chardonnay got the better of him but I'm sure he will witter away about it on some soon to be published blog post). i-pods are a miracle - I know that I am a bit of a luddite - but when I was young I dreamed about some sort of central 'bank' where one could dial up at any time the best music tracks, films or television programmes. That dream has almost been realised (if I could master the technology). In regards to music, instead of sifting through cupboards of LP's and banks of CD's, all I have to do is dial up what I want, already sorted by album, track, genre, artist etc. Magic. Anyway, whilst enjoying a couple of post-prandial beers (Carlsberg Robert FYI), and practising some Snooker and Pool shots I strolled through a lot of different music. Eventually( just before this post in fact) I came across Television's Marquee Moon. I remember first listening to this in 1977 in Wellington, in a flat in Owhiro Valley Road (music has that effect, enabling you to remember time and place). A lot of the Punk, post Punk and New York music whilst being interesting at the time has faded away to (deserved) obscurity. Amongst the best and enduring is Patti Smith Group, The Clash and Television. The line which is this posts title is from a track 'Venus'.

I borrowed the lyrics below from Google Search:

Tight toy night, streets were so bright.
The world looked so thin and between my bones and skin
there stood another person who was a little surprised
to be face to face with a world so alive.
I fell.

Didja feel low? No, not at all. Huh???

I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
You know it's all like some new kind of drug.
My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves.
Broadway looked so medieval -
it seemed to flap, like little pages:
I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages.
How l felt.
Suddenly my eyes went so soft and shaky.
I knew there was pain but pain is not aching.
Then Richie, Richie said:
'Hey man let's dress up like cops
Think of what we could do!'
But something, something said 'you better not.'
And I fell. 


Doesn't do justice to the song I know as these lyrics need the beautiful combination of (different) guitar sounds from Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. Listen to it sometime, its worth it. The title track 'Marquee Moon is one of my favourites.