Member-only story
Altitude Rhymes with Attitude: While listening to Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives
Season Three of Fargo is the one with Carrie Coon playing the cop Gloria Burgle. Maybe I liked it better than Seasons One and Two. I never saw Season Four. In the Episode “The Law of Non-Contradiction”, Burgle travels to Los Angeles and takes up lodgings in a quirky motel hosting a Santa Claus convention. The episode also includes an interlude with a wounded robot traversing the universe just trying to help out wherever it can despite a missing appendage. The episode is all about what happens when nothing happens, or when stuff, like a narrative thread, goes missing. The whole episode is full of tangential whimsy and connotative meaning. It just kind of announced this whole show exists as a spinning constellation, see in it what you will.
When I listen to Altitude, I feel all that I felt while watching that season of Fargo. Marty Stuart and his gang of gentlemen just seem like the sort of individuals who Carrie Coon’s character might see out her post Noir motel window. Somewhere in the L.A. margins of a Didion fever dream, just swap the Santa suits for some cowboy hats and spurs. This band is so full of charming vibes and wasted time they could be found just about anywhere trying to help with something so silly as a song, or a busted arm. “You’re a friend of mine,” goes the chorus on one…
