I was driving South on 680 yesterday and a flat bed trailer caught my eye. There was nothing special about it, except the color of the thing it was carrying. It was caring a tractor, an orange tractor, a Kubota orange tractor.

Then a flood of memories came to me.

While growing up, I lived on a small horse ranch. One day, my dad decided we needed a tractor. My whole life I’ve beed around tractors, so it was cool we were going to get one. I knew in my head what tractors looked like: they were green. They were made by John Deere. All tractors were like that.

But my dad brought home an orange tractor. What the hell is an orange tractor? Then it hit me. Anyone can make a tractor. Why couldn’t the Japanesse make a tractor? What’s so special about green, anyway?

It’s fun to remember when your world gets tilted a little. It keeps me grounded. I’d like to think I spend all day tilting my world a little.

As a side note, it’s a little surprising my brother and I aren’t dead from all the times we abused that tractor. It had an articulated bucket on the front. I remember taking turns to riding it up and down. Damn that was fun.

Last night I saw a concert performance of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A week before, they release a new album: English Electric. I spent the week listening to it and enjoyed it very much.
But I didn’t get the feeling that the band took too many risks while creating this new album. I like all the new songs, they reminded me of their past works. But I didn’t see them taking any risks with the new material.
Then I heard the new songs live. I started appreciated them in a new light. Metroland turned from an OK new song (on the album) to a fantastic new song live.
I noticed the audience during the live performance would react differently to the old material and the new material. This is understandable. The old songs have built in emotion for each individual. But I noticed how songs from their previous album, The History of Modern were equally appreciated as the old material. I found that personally gratifying. I know this new album will have an equal place in this fan’s appreciation of OMD. Hopefully other’s appreciation as well.