Oriphiel

Something very amazing happened yesterday. It marked the 1,000th time that somebody accidentally clicked on "Blood and Diamonds" while scrolling through the Journal section! Normally (like back when I was doing "Stuck in the Garage") I'd commemorate the event by going out and buying a bunch of random albums to review. Even though this Journal wasn't designed for reviews, I still fully intend to keep the tradition alive. Kinda...

Side Story: Cleo Goes to the Hospital

The hospital was having a massive surge of patients, something that had come to be expected as a sort of summer tradition in the city. As they had no choice but to focus on those that needed immediate care, patients with injuries deemed stable were stored away in whatever room they could fit in for later treatment. Such was the fate of Cleo, who was examined, processed, and dropped in a bed with the assurance that they would return after running a few tests. Apparently, they didn't think her wound was so bad that she needed immediate treatment, and she had to admit that while her bruises looked quite nasty, she felt better now than she had back at the hideout (but not by much). Thinking back on it, she had been feeling pretty terrible in the days before her injury; she recalled almost throwing up back at the Three Fingers Club, despite the fact that she hadn't drank too much (most of the bottles on her table were consumed by her roommate, who had left earlier that evening, and she couldn't have been too drunk if she'd been able to beat up a bunch of Blue Shirts and evade a hangover the day after), and the day before that she had a sore throat and a nasty stomach ache. "Go ahead. Kick me while i'm down. Really lay it on me," she said to the universe. The universe didn't respond, but the man in the next bed over did. He slid back the curtain between them and asked "What?" Cleo looked at him with a bit of surprise; she had thought that he was asleep. "Hm? Oh, uh... nothing. I'm just, you know, venting. The last few days have been pretty bad," she replied. The man smiled, and said "I know the feeling. So, if you don't mind me asking, what're you in for?"

"Oh," said Cleo, smiling as she gazed up at the ceiling, "not much. Just some sore ribs." She looked back at her roommate and asked "You?" "Car crash," he responded. "I broke one of my arms, one of my legs, a few ribs... but those aren't so bad. They've been mostly healed for awhile. Still got to wear the casts, though," he said, pulling down his blanket to show Cleo his injured arm and leg. "I'm sorry," said Cleo. "It must've been a nasty crash." "Yeah. A few of my organs are still recovering, which is why I can't leave," he responded. Cleo looked around her roommate's bed and noticed a stack of books on the floor, next to what looked like a plastic briefcase and a few records. "How long have you been here?" she asked. Her roommate shrugged, and said "A long time. It goes by faster if I don't count the days, you know?" "Sure," said Cleo. She turned her gaze down at the plastic briefcase, and asked "Does that work?" The roommate smiled and nodded, obviously excited that she asked about it, and used his uninjured arm to lift it up and set it in his lap. He opened it up, revealing a pristine portable record player. "My family brought it over for me, and they drop off a few new albums every once in awhile. Honestly, if it wasn't for the music, I think I'd have gone insane by now." Cleo couldn't help but smile. Her roommate looked over at her, and expectantly asked "Do you want to try it?" At first, she was going to say no, since it seemed like it was too important of a possession to him for her to mess around with, but he seemed so excited by the prospect of sharing it that she couldn't help but say yes. "Alright," she said with a shrug. He folded it back up and handed it to her, as well as pushing his stack of records towards her. She leaned over and helped him slide the records until they were right beside her bed. Setting the record player up in her lap, she grabbed the first record off of the pile and started to play it.

Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls

While it wasn't exactly the disco that Cleo was used to, she still found herself enjoying the album right from the start. "Not bad," she said to her roommate, who had started to read one of the novels beside his bed. Without looking up from it, he smiled and responded "I know, right? Post punk and new wave are fantastic." As the album carried on, Cleo found herself growing more and more relaxed, a dozen thoughts racing through her mind as she gazed up at the ceiling. All in all, it was a pretty solid and engaging album, although the first side seemed stronger than the reverse.



The Association - Birthday

Cleo decided to play this one next, because it had fun looking psychedelic album art. She figured that it was from the sixties, and the sound of the album confirmed her suspicions. There were vocal harmonies, strong yet simple beat-style drum and bass lines, tambourines, and more trademarks of the time period, all mixed in a smooth fashion. Cleo was a bit disappointed that it didn't have more of an exciting psychedelic flavor to it (although there was a bit of a psych flair here and there); really, it had more in common with beat, pop, and folk. But it was a nice album, continuing at a slow but steady pace.



Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law

"Saxon?" asked Cleo to herself as she looked at one of the albums in the pile. "I wonder what genre they are..." She put it on the record player and set down the needle. Suddenly, she was bombarded with the power of HEAVY METAL! It definitely had more of a punch to it than most of the disco she'd danced to in the past, and she was surprised with how much she liked it. While she wasn't impressed with some of the songs, most of them were pretty fun, and the title track was nice and exciting. She wasn't about to fry her hair and buy a leather jacket, though.



Before she could put on another album, a nurse entered the room and walked over to her bed. It was the same nurse who had initially processed her, and Cleo greeted her by saying "Hey again." "Hello," said the nurse as she scanned a piece of paper on a clipboard. "I'm sorry that the doctor who examined you was in such a rush, but we've been quite busy lately. Anyway, like he initially said, the wound isn't substantial and should heal fairly quickly. After running some tests, it seems like the majority of your discomfort is probably from Stomach Flu." "I've got the Stomach Flu?" asked Cleo. The nurse nodded, and continued "Yes, and it looks like you've still got a ways to go before it leaves your system." "Huh," said Cleo with a flat voice, unsure if she should be happy that her wound was alright, or sad that she probably had many days of heaving ahead of her.