{"id":620,"date":"2011-05-11T13:27:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T02:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2011-05-11T13:42:42","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T02:42:42","slug":"paul-simon-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/?p=620","title":{"rendered":"Paul Simon and me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paulsimonandme\"Paul and I go back a long way. Some of the first songs I learnt on guitar were Sounds of Silence, Homeward Bound<\/em> and the lesser-known Sparrow<\/em> (something of a theme of mine over the years.) I\u2019m pretty sure that Paul doesn\u2019t know that I exist. We don\u2019t have a whole lot in common (nationality, fame and wealth for starters.)
\nI\u2019ve been listening to his excellent new album So beautiful or So What<\/em> for a couple of weeks now. Paul Simon\u2019s amazing \u2013 nearly 70 and still as good as ever.
\nOne song that\u2019s had a bit of a hammering on the iPod is The<\/a><\/em> <\/a>Afterlife<\/a><\/em>.<\/a> Every time I hear it I can\u2019t help but think of the similarity between the idea in the song \u2013 that the afterlife is simply a queue or a waiting room \u2013 and one of my short stories Running out of time<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\u201cStill I thought it was odd there was no sign of God
\njust to usher me in\u2028\u2026
\nYou got to fill out a form first <\/em><\/p>\n

And then you wait in the line<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In my story Zachary is late for a job interview, gets totalled by a truck and finds himself in what could be an interview for the Public Service or interminable self-improvement group therapy:<\/p>\n

\u2018Hi. I\u2019m Jeremy, your new Case Manager. Before we start I need to tell you that our core business is Customer Satisfaction. I\u2019d appreciate it if later you could complete this Customer Feedback Card regarding my performance.\u2019
\n\u2018Um, sure. Where do I go for the interview?\u2019
\n\u2018Counter A. It\u2019s not far.\u2019
\nCounter A isn\u2019t too onerous. Zachary has to complete a D43 form with questions like previous addresses, religious beliefs (Zac just puts a dash here), DOB and DOD.
\nThey proceed to Meeting Room 102 where they are expected. Zachary sits in the last vacant space in the circle of stackable chairs…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not accusing Mr Simon of plagiarising my concept. The theme of heaven-as-a-waiting-room is at least as old as the Kabbalah and the basis \u2013 I think \u2013 of Becket\u2019s Waiting for Godot.<\/p>\n

Running out of time<\/strong> was written while I was living in Japan in 2008 and an early version was read by Cath Kenneally on her Writers\u2019 Radio<\/a><\/em> program in 2010. It will be first published in print when the anthology Short and Twisted 2011<\/a><\/strong> is launched in Melbourne next month.<\/p>\n

Great to know we have at least one thing in common, Paul\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul and I go back a long way. Some of the first songs I learnt on guitar were Sounds of Silence, Homeward Bound and the lesser-known Sparrow (something of a theme of mine over the years.) I\u2019m pretty sure that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}