Said the Gramophone

A Rare Peppermint Tea Allergy

The Great Invisibles - "Laughter and Grace"

It turns out I'm allergic to peppermint tea. I drank a cup and now I can't stop sneezing, my nose is running, I'm intolerable, I know. The tea was a failure not only in terms of the harm it caused, but also in the healing it failed to effect. I have a big goose egg on my head, you see; I got it today at the corner store.

Living in a city in your second language puts you on your toes, and sometimes when you're distracted by thought and a stranger speaks to you, panic is your only response. So it was today as I reached for a Diet Pepsi, and a man, pulling an ice tea from the refrigerator, asked in French if he was in my way. I dropped my soda, bent down to pick it up, and on my way back up to respond, whacked my head on the fridge door handle. "Ouch ... Non," and then I left without paying.

In so many ways we can be invisible. We can slip on Gyges' ring, or don an invisibility cloak. We can disappear in a shadow, or in a flood of light. We can be marginalized in the minority or drowned in the majority - hardly seen, or seen but rarely perceived. According to this song, The Great Invisibles become invisible in water - which is cool - but they are also almost invisible in song. Here is a melody slow and straight, like a Michael Gira or Flying Saucer Attack song - so slow and straight that you hardly hear it at first. Here is a song that doesn't pander, that isn't easy, that recedes and takes you with it.

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