and I ruin any kind of fun you have in mind

Complacency is a double-edged sword. While there is something to be said for blissfully coasting through life, free of the stresses that ulcerate the stomachs or hemorrhage the cerebrums of more proactive folks, there’s a very high risk that one’s slacker ways will spill over into areas of one’s life that need more than the minimal required service plan.

There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. No matter how comfortable with the status quo one may become, without an influx of energy, entropy will be the inevitable end result.

…and by “entropy,” I mean:

- your normally close-cropped hair has been allowed to turn into a pompadour with muttonchop sideburns

- there’s a package on the computer desk you’ve been meaning to mail to a friend in Seattle for weeks

- it’s been fourteen months and you still haven’t rescheduled the dentist appointment you cancelled, despite waking up with pains in your jaw every morning

- you can’t remember the last time you actually did anything outside the normal household routine with your spouse

- between the long playing sessions of Rogue Galaxy and searching the music archives for songs to match to individual Justice League Detroit members, you forgot you even have a spouse

No, I’m not talking from personal experience. What made you think that?

Dow Jones and The Industrials – What’s the Difference? (from Hoosier Hysteria, 1980) – Unlike better known punk stomper “Can’t Stand the Midwest” this is an excellent bit of art-damaged punk/postpunk and is more representative of the Indiana-based outfit’s unique sound.

X – When Our Love Passed out on the Couch (from Wild Gift, 1981) – Many songs with ambitious titles fail to deliver the musical goods, but this track isn’t one of them.