Conditional Affection

  She only loved me while the sun was in the sky. As it sank beneath the horizon her back would turn on me and out the door she went.  Before she left she would promise to bring back lilacs in the morning.  Some nights my heart would ache so I'd go looking for her.  On pale nights I'd find her at the bar, but she'd never recognize me.  So I'd sit in the corner sipping my beer and admiring from afar.

   After finishing my drink and paying I would walk the streets with an odd smile playing on my lips. Were we cursed?  I don't know, I never knew.  We grew accustomed to the situation, it worked.  And each morning she'd come back, knocking on the door, her hair parted differently from the night before with the biggest bouquet of Lilacs in her hand. I also could never figure out where all the lilacs came from, but I loved them. I would hug her while laughing: imagining that as the sun popped the tiniest bit into the morning's sky she might have hopped over some neighbor's fence to swipe the flowers from the garden.  But I never really knew if she'd return, so I cherished her conditional affection.


                                      -----------------------------------------

  Now for a bit of music.  I thought the music video for Death Cab for Cutie's song "Underneath the Sycamore" has a very cool style of animation that tells a surreal noír-like tale.  Hope you enjoy.

Death Cab for Cutie
Underneath the Sycamore

Bowed Out

   I bowed out from the fight gracefully, if I do say so myself, with a black eye and an ache in my lower back from a few too many rabbit punches to my kidney, the ache would probably take some time to shake off. As I walked away from the crowd, away from the commotion it began to rain softly.  The cool drops eased the harsh stinging from my face.  I walked on the side of one of the city's many canals and listened to Venice singing itself to sleep.  The sounds of ores softly stirring water mixed with flutes and acoustic guitars, every once in awhile a crooning voice or sprinkle of a conversation could be heard in the tapestry of sounds. It was a beautifully mingled lullaby, it was the sound of a child blinking his eyes to fight to stay awake for fear of missing even an instant of excitement.

  Each step I took eased the stiffness and soreness from my bones, with the rain and music of the city dowsing me into a peaceful drunkenness.  From a window I heard a man call down to me, "Oy, Signor! That was quite the fight earlier! You showed quite a spirit, good show, Signor!"

I nodded to the window and tipped my hat, continuing on along the canal.

Bizness

Happy February everyone! I would like to start the month off by sharing a music video for the song Bizness from the band tUnE-yArDs. This video does so many things well, and fits the energy of the song perfectly. The use of stop motion and shot replacement with the choreographed children in the beginning is wonderful.  A girl representing the lead sing of the band, crawls out from beneath her desk and starts singing, leading her classmates in a rebellion against the monotony that was their lesson and into an exploration of creativity.

I think each time Merril Garbus shouts "Don't take my life away! I'm the victim, yeah!" in the chorus she is calling to the listener not to succumb to drudgery, not to lose themselves in the routine of maturity. Don't become a mindless zombie, there is hope yet.

tUnE-yArDs
Bizness