24. SHOWER SCENE

From the Archives

(March 2003) No, this is not an entry about the movie Psycho, although I did have nightmares about that shower scene for a while after seeing the flick. I actually wanted to write a little about why I added the category SINGING IN THE SHOWER to my morning entries. Sure it’s funny, but I wanted to bring a touch of surrealism to my blog, since what I sing is so damn random and I have to believe that I would never consciously choose to blab out a bad Bee Gees song!

Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of association, in the supreme authority of the dream, in the disinterested play of thought processes. It also explores the overthrow of authority.

When Max Ernst was asked to define Surrealism in 1934, he said that there is no such thing as individual talent, that the legend of individual creativity is one of the last and most ridiculous of the superstitions with which civilization is encumbered, that the active, constructive, initiatory role of the artist is a myth because all one had to do, in reality, is open the doors of the unconscious and play host to the inexhaustible stock of images [or songs] that come flooding in.

Breton, an early feminist, took this notion further. He said that Surrealism stood “ for the restatement of the rights of man.” He imagined a Future Continent—an as yet unlocated landmass on which all men and women would tread freely and as equals. Breton laid equality out as an integral part of Surrealism and said “not only must we put an end to the exploitation of men by men, but we must review—from top to bottom, in a totally unhypocritical spirit and as a matter of the first urgency—the problem of men’s relations with women.“ (And yeah I know this has nothing to do with singing in the shower; I just added it because it’s cool.)

And all of that serves to introduce the fact that, this morning, I sang “I Got Friends in Low Places” in the shower. And here’s a confession. A couple of years ago, at B&S’s raucously fun karaoke New Year’s Eve party, my pal Opera and several glasses of champagne convinced me to sing this very song with her. Shiver...!