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Drive-by

Thanks to my fine, responsive brakes, the lady who blew through the stop sign at full speed, talking on her cell phone, did not end up slamming into my car.

I honked, and she sort of glanced back at me with this odd expression.

Immediately, I started wondering, wait, did I have a stop sign? Was it my fault we almost had an accident? I didn’t. It wasn’t. But I was ready to blame myself, just because of the way she was looking at me. You ever feel like that?

What I really wanted to tell you about, though, was Steve Earle’s cover of Way Down In The Hole, which will be the theme for Season Five of The Wire. He strips the song down, keeps the beat subtle but insistent. I’m calling this the “One Day At A Time” version. Maybe it’s just because I’m conflating Earle with Waylon, the character he plays on the show, but this version really makes me think of the quiet strength it takes to keep those particular devils down in the hole. And now that I’ve read this interview, I think maybe my interpretation isn’t that far off.

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