Tracy Bonham – "Mother, Mother" (1996)

 

I'm losin’ my mind

EVERYTHING’S FINE!

2 or 3 lines is going to be moving to new digs soon, so things are kinda crazy around the office these days.

We haven’t finalized the location of the new 2 or 3 lines world headquarters yet.  I had hoped to be out of our old space by now – whether in temporary quarters, or in our new permanent location – but the best-laid schemes of my wildly successful little blog have gang aft a-gley.

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Our current state of limbo is the result of landlord issues.  I knew our current landlord wouldn’t be happy when I gave notice of our intention to move to a new address, but I didn’t anticipate getting this much resistance.

The landlord is making what we lawyers call a “detrimental reliance” argument – she is claiming that my moving out would be inconsistent with certain statements I made in the past, and that she relied on those statements to her detriment.  

I feel a little guilty because I know that my landlord sincerely expected that 2 or 3 lines would remain in our current space indefinitely.  My announcement to the contrary took her by surprise.  

But I haven’t been happy with conditions here for quite a while.  I’ve made that clear on numerous occasions, but to no avail – my complaints have never been addressed.

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To be fair, 2 or 3 lines hasn’t been a perfect tenant – far from it.  But our landlord has unrealistic expectations – she wants us to make some very fundamental changes in the way we do business, and I’m simply not willing to make those changes.  

The landlord knew what she was getting into with 2 or 3 lines when she agreed to give us our space.  If she expected us to do things differently, she should have made that clear at the beginning. 

I should have found a new location years ago – God knows there are plenty of attractive spaces out there that I think would welcome us with open arms – but I’m a bit of a procrastinator.  

In any event, I’ve made up my mind and plan to move forward with the relocation as soon as possible.  The current kerfuffle may delay that move until after the first of the year, but I’m willing to delay things until after the holidays as an accommodation to my landlord.  

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In the meantime, the atmosphere around here is a little chilly.  The landlord isn’t exactly making it easy on us.

Nonetheless, I’m determined to keep things civil until the move is a fait accompli.  As King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 15:18, “A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.”  (To put it another way, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”)  

In the end, I believe it will be worth all the mishegoss to get the hell out of here and start anew.  Check back in a few months, and I’ll let you know how things are going. 

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Tracy Bonham’s first single – “Mother Mother,” which was released in 1996 – went all the way to number one on the Billboard “Hot Modern Rock Tracks” chart.  It also earned her two Grammy nominations.

Tracy’s follow-up efforts were not commercial successes, but she continues to perform and record.  

Tracy Bonham

Carl Wiser of Songfacts interviewed her earlier this year.  Click here to read that interview.

Click here to see the “Mother Mother” music video, which features Bonham’s real-life mother.

Click here to buy the record from Amazon.