Woe is You, Woe is Me

Photo from Songs from the Soul

So, over the last couple of days I've been fighting this cold and I'm all runny nosey and miserable. On top of that, Magic point guard Jameer Nelson might be out for the rest of the season and Orlando (as of yet) doesn't have any convincing replacement. On top of all that, the unemployment rate in NYC is hovering at 7-point-some percent and if you're a writer you may as well just kiss the thought of working at a paper goodbye forever.

Furthermore, and with all that in mind, I've been trying to work out what I'm going to do with myself. Should I make a big push to get whatever job I can or should I continue to hold out for something I actually spent three-and-a-half years of my life working towards? Should I start studying for the GREs or is grad school a big waste of time if I don't want to become a teacher?

Should I just join the French Foreign legion (as my father once joked)?

I did love Universal Soldier as a kid.

In all honesty, though, my problems aren't so bad, but with the present age ripening for all manner of escapism, I'm certainly not immune to the temptation of wallowing in my own personal jacuzzi of self-pity.

After all, taking stock of one's problems and having a good sulk is often the first step to revitalization (quoth me), and so this morning I had the idea for a post on one of popular music's most palatable whiners. As both a singer and a trumpeter, jazzman Chet Baker made a career out of mopey, boyish charm. You may know him best for his strung-out, yet classy version "My Funny Valentine," but his finest martyr ballad must be 1958's "Everything Happens to Me."

Key lyrics include the line, "I've mortgaged all my castles in the air." Nice to know that refinancing is such a timeless bane, eh? Also, it's very possible that he sang this song with his mouth wired shut, meaning that, basically, he beat Kanye to the punch by about four decades.

(14)Everything Happens to Me - Chet Baker


Party on, Chet