The W Files 5

"Oh boy, it has been really hot up there," says the cheeky bastard to his colleague for all snowbound passengers to hear. In a pensive tone, he says, "not much snow up there. Nope. Hasn't stopped raining either."

"Yup, yup," answers his colleague.

"Not many people this season because of lack of snow."

"Nope."

"They had some snow the other day, but a lot of melt."

Thanks for harshing our mellow, dude.

"I haven't committed to moving yet," said the Australian to his seat mate. "Got the city and the slopes nearby. It is a nice city with delicious food. World food. Different from Melbourne, for sure. They don't do Mexican right."

"Mexican?"

"Yea, like Mexican food. You get Mexican food in Melbourne, and it just doesn't taste right. I don't know. Here's just better. More authentic."

Fire to begin whipping dance of the dead

Blackened is the end

The lady with the headphones up front sways back and forth in her seat. First she starts with small motions and soon she begins swaying widely like a pendulum. The man beside her sits still looking at his phone. I can hear the music she is listening to and recognize the song, Blackened by Metallica. Inevitably, I begin to sing the lyrics in my head

Fire to begin whipping dance of the dead

Blackened is the end

Who listens to vintage Metallica while outside a world of wonder is opening up like a marvelous realm of water, mountains, and mist? Nature at her most majestic, I guess, it's pretty metal.

Darkest color, blistered Earth

True death of life

She sways back and forth, round and round. She's in the zone now. In her own world of drums, bass, and screeching guitars.

We smile politely and give her the social space to sway round and round and round... Her companion seems perfectly fine with her behaviour, so why shouldn't the rest of us. Let the lady enjoy her Metallica.

Blackened is the end

I'm a massive Metallica fan, but to tell the truth, nature doesn't make me want to headbang but groove with the mellow auditory photosynthetic signals. When I travel along mountains, sea, and forests, my mind fills up with folk, ambient, electronic, or laidback rock like Pink Floyd. A few specific tunes come to mind whenever I'm on the road. Truckin' by the Grateful Dead is one of them. For those who may not be familiar with them, the Grateful Dead was a psychedelic band from the 1960s era, who became famous because of their amazing literary music, and the cult-like following they created. Called deadheads, members of this sub-culture travelled the continent back and forth, attending Grateful Dead concerts and dropping lots of acid (LSD). No doubt they created neurological attachments to the band as a consequence of their drug use.

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street

Chicago, New York, Detroit and it's all on the same street

The song captures the era in which mass travel and transportation allowed tribes of middle class youth to follow their neurological compasses out on the road. The great American trip, popularized by the likes of Jack Kerouac and Thomas Wolfe in literary circles. The Dead put music to that dream of the great outdoors. The stories that you encounter as you move from place to place on the highways of that lonesome American dream.

Most of the cats that you meet on the streets speak of true love

Most of the time they're sittin' and cryin' at home

One of these days they know they gotta get goin'

Out of the door and down to the street all alone

Back in the day, you really couldn't sit at home and hammer on a keyboard in front of a screen for a living. You needed to get out there. But after the second world war, travel became more than a survival activity, or a way to let off steam from work with a two-weeks vacation. At this time, travel became more of a lifestyle for bubbly hippie kids in search of deeper existential meaning, communion with leafy signals, and new cultural configurations.

The last line of the song has become famous:

Lately it occurs to me

What a long, strange trip it's been

Here's where the song takes on a whole new meaning. As I mentioned, this band was psychedelic, that is associated with the use of mind altering substances. These substances were used by the 60s generation for a variety of purposes. Under the influence, they experienced a state of higher awareness, focus, confusion, pleasure, chaos, joy, and a cornucopia of visions and hallucinations. The trip usually lasts several hours, and by the end of it, after all the bizarre phantasmagoria, the "neuronaut" feels as if he has been in a long strange trip. That's the in-joke of the song, and the Zen of it. Traveling, and life in general, is like a psychedelic trip, and if you're lucky, then you'll enjoy a long strange one.

"Thank you for traveling with us. Don't forget that items such as bags, snowboards, and skis likely shifted during travel so be careful when taking them out. Enjoy your stay and we hope to see you again."

Explore the W files

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Images by @litguru
Song lyrics by the Grateful Dead (Truckin') and Blackened by Metallica

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