Down to London / Joe Jackson

I was painting all that summer, 1989, and if I had a shift at night I’d stand there in my boxers all day and dread the phone ringing because it would be Clare wanting to chat. I could hear the cigarette exhales as she told me about her day. I just want to play the music and finish the painting. The spare room smells like linseed. I have nails in the wall, and I use binder clips to hold up the canvas. The main painting is Icarus, soaring over the labrynth, his greenish wings reaching as the sun broils in the upper right hand corner. No one ever said much about it but I think it’s great. I go see Joe Jackson at the Wiltern and he plays right through Blaze of Glory, beginning to end. On Nineteen Forever he comes out in costume, Elvis, which at the time is pretty damn funny.