Preterition

I recently found a cache of old mix tapes I’d made in high school. Lots of hiss and lousy recordings – I think some of them were third- or fourth-generation cassette-to-cassette dubs – but they brought back some memories, and I finally caved in and did some searching at Apple’s online iTunes Music Store, and, well, I splurged a little. Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, Black Flag, Government Issue, Circle Jerks, and of course the Dead Kennedys:

So it’s Halloween And you feel like dancin’ And you feel like shinin’ And you feel like letting loose

Whatcha gonna be Babe, you better know And you better plan Better plan all day

Better plan all week Better plan all month Better plan all year

You’re dressed up like a clown Putting on your act It’s the only time all year You’ll ever admit that

I can see your eyes I can see your brain Baby, nothing’s changed

You’re still hiding in a mask You take your fun seriously No, don’t blow this year’s chance Tomorrow your mold goes back on

After Halloween

You go to work today You’ll go to work tomorrow Shitfaced tonight You’ll brag about it for months

Remember what I did Remember what I was Back on Halloween

But what’s in between Where are your ideas You sit around and dream For next Halloween

Why not every day Are you so afraid What will people say

Why not every day Are you so afraid What will people say

After Halloween

Because your role is planned for you There’s nothing you can do But stop and think it through But what will the boss say to you

And what will your girlfriend say to you And the people out on the street they might glare at you And what do you know you’re pretty self-conscious too

So you run back and stuff yourself in rigid business costumes Only at night to score is your leather uniform exhumed Why don’t you take your social regulations And shove ‘em up your ass

Why don’t you take your social regulations And shove ‘em up your ass

Why don’t you take your social regulations And shove ‘em up your ass

(Dead Kennedys, “Halloween”)

Course, the day after Halloween is kind of a big day for me – the big twoscore less a finn – but this year, November 2 seems somehow a little more important to me. :-)