Henry Rollins: The Column! Globetrotting Blues

By Henry Rollins Thu., May 31 2012 at 3:30 AM

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.]

I am on my way back to Los Angeles, on the second of two flights to get back from Johannesburg, South Africa. The first flight to New York City was 15 hours and 22 minutes. I think that beats Dubai to L.A. by a few minutes, making it the longest single flight I have ever been on. My seat, 51D, was especially brutal. The back pain I was in for the last seven hours was exceptional. On a happier note, Gene Simmons and his wife were ahead of me in the customs and immigration line at JFK a couple of hours ago.

Also, this morning, I think I pulled off one of the greatest fails of my life. I have been experiencing less-than-consistent coffee over the last week in Africa and was looking forward to an upgrade. And so I got a cup of coffee on my way back to the gate, took the smallest sip and, damn, did it taste good. My mood elevated and I had an almost Proustian opening of the mind -- I was taken back to the streets of my old neighborhood in Washington, D.C. I walked into the men's room and, as I was putting my cup of coffee on the flat surface above the urinal, my left foot started sliding out from under me. Here's what happened next:

I am now making a slow, Matrix-like clockwise turn. I feel myself going down and try to secure the cup, but drop it. My backpack, which is on my right shoulder, slides off as I watch my coffee drop in agonizing, De Palma slow motion into the urinal and explode. My left hand, now free of coffee, manages to grab the upper edge of the urinal divider, and my backpack strap lands in the crook of my right elbow with the backpack hanging about an inch off the ground. My coffee empties down the drain, triggering the flush cycle. Not a single drop hit the floor. Total time, about two seconds. There is some Caddyshack Ty Webb perfection in there somewhere.

Many hours later: back in my office in Los Angeles. That was a long day and night of travel. I am tired but feeling pretty good. I get a momentary energy surge when I get off the road -- perhaps that whole "long march to the sea" thing.

When I get back from the leg of a tour, I always go to the office first. I have done this ever since I had an office. Immediately, back up the hard drives and get a sit rep (situation report) from Heidi, the woman who runs my life. Today was a briefing of all the hoops I will be jumping through with press and studio obligations, meetings that start tomorrow morning and go until the day I leave again, about a week from now.

Tags:

Henry Rollins, The Column

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Paul Sivertsen

I certainly know what it's like to have music staving off depression. Had that going on for the latter months of my college experience as I maintained a 24/7 live internet stream of music from my computer. Maintaining that stream, rebooting it whenever necessary, kept me focused on greater, more fulfilling goals than the pursuit of romance and such. Music is paramount.

Jennie Vasquez

I not only think music can help with depression but also with dealing with a number of issues. I think it can motivate people, it can help calm people in stressful situations and it can provide much needed soothing and entertainment for those in hospitals or recovering from illness of injury. There are so many situations in which music can make a situation better or at least tolerable.

ahuman

"I honestly don't know how I would get through life without music. I like it more than anything else. I would be the lab rat in the experiment who keeps pushing the pedal for music instead of food and eventually starves to death. "

I couldn't have said it better myself. Music is life.

spirit cherokee

Nothing Like good music to make the world a better place to be. When you have a good cup of coffee to go with the music, now its like living your best days. No matter how tired you can be that one song, album will electrify you out of your coma state. I live many days in a music state of mind and its never a dull moment, I never regret a tune I'm always playing in my head instead of thinking of more important things. I can't imagine a day with out music either.

Thank You Henry for another delightful article, keep the music playing and have another great tour. Hope to see you somewhere on this leg of it.

Jennie Vasquez

I'd be depressed too if I were Henry but not from being home. The thought of watching a perfectly good cup of coffee get flushed away is enough to make me want to cry. It's always the good tasting cups that get dropped. Never those bitter cups you drink out of desperation taken from the remaining burnt coffee in the pot at the end of the day. I must add that if that coffee incident is one of his epic fails in life, he's had a pretty good life. I have a epic fail coffee story involving a full coffee pot that involved spending a month in the hospital as a baby, now that was an epic fail. Coffee in a urinal, a bummer, but at fortunately he didn't spill in on himself.