Monday, November 15, 2010

Sadness

Heard about these Canuck gals from Gordon over at Alternate Brain... The Be Good Tanyas, "Junkie Song". Off their album Chinatown. And they cover Townes van Zandt, so you can't fault their taste...

-- Badtux the Music Penguin

2 comments:

  1. They must have been singing about Vancouver, because one of the lines in the song mentioned "down by the Skytrain station."

    I had one of those junkies as a patient the past two days. Attractive woman in her early 30s, intelligent, cooperative with meds and treatment, not belligerent or resistant to care like so many abusers. She had once been in training to operate X-ray machines, but her bipolar disorder derailed her. She copped to shooting smack, smoking crack (which caused the pneumonia that caused her to be hospitalized) and working as a prostitute.

    In hospital, she was meek and sweet, not even begging for the methadone which she could get extra of to ward off withdrawal. Today she got discharged, to "NFA," medical abbreviation for "no fixed address." A couple friends came to pick her up, disheveled, loutish fellows who started hooting when I came in with the last medicine cup of methadone, saying "Bring some more of that for me!" and "Where can I get some Ativan around here?"

    The patient, who looked small and vulnerable in hospital pyjamas, stepped out of the bathroom in an off-the-shoulder mini-dress that went up to her ass (remember, this is November in Canada) and high-heeled boots. All of a sudden, she was loud, brassy and doing that "pussy walk" like Iggy Pop sings about. She was stepping back into the street world, where she had to be trampy to survive. Sad. She could escape to the grim confines of the hospital for IV antibiotics and "let me listen to your lungs" for a few days, but in the end, she had to go back to the water in which she swims, and put on the old set of scales...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, they were Vancouver-based...

    -Badtux the Music Penguin

    ReplyDelete

Ground rules: Comments that consist solely of insults, fact-free talking points, are off-topic, or simply spam the same argument over and over will be deleted. The penguin is the only one allowed to be an ass here. All viewpoints, however, are welcomed, even if I disagree vehemently with you.

WARNING: You are entitled to create your own arguments, but you are NOT entitled to create your own facts. If you spew scientific denialism, or insist that the sky is purple, or otherwise insist that your made-up universe of pink unicorns and cotton candy trees is "real", well -- expect the banhammer.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.