I'll be a pharaoh soon, rule from some golden tomb

My four day long (or one month long, if you count the warm up exercises) bout with the flu has ended, leaving me feeling completely exhausted and with an unpleasant aftertaste redolent of a corn starch smoothie in my mouth.

Literary and popcult precedent would have me believe that the extended nightmare of this experience was supposed to serve a greater purpose – a virally-triggered vision quest with the objective of getting me to rethink my ways, burning away the petty flaws and unnecessary fixations to reveal a newfound purity within myself.

It’s not going to happen. The new me is the same as the old me, just a little wearier and slightly more introspective about whether a can of Hormel chili would make a wise recuperation meal. Small changes to be sure, but at least I have no plans to install my favorite horse to a seat on the Imperial Senate, like Caligula did after his bout with a nasty life-altering illness.

Today’s featured track, “If Looks Could Kill,” comes from Scottish indie poppers Camera Obscura. My wife picked up the album a few weeks back and has had it on repeat ever since. It’s sweet, breezy pop reminiscent of the 60’s girl group sound, with some Wilsonian (Brian, that is) flourishes, and a nice antidote to an influenza-induced funk.

Camera Obscura – If Looks Could Kill (from Let’s Get Out of This Country, 2006)

Come to think of it, maybe I have picked up some post-fever megalomaniacal tendencies, judging from the other song that has been lodged in my head during this morning’s convalescence… I wonder how Oscar the Chihuahua-pug would feel about being made a vice consul.

Dead Boys – Sonic Reducer (from Young, Loud, and Snotty, 1977)