La belleza es tu cabeza

Dear blog, dear friends, it's been a long time coming. Long long long. I've been gone too long! I had the itch to write today, I even had a few songs I wanted to share, but providence led me elsewhere. I came across a few subtle gems, and while these fantastic finds threw my plan off, they also brought me a great sense of comfort. The kind you need on sundays, especially when it looks like you haven't had a hug in a while (I had the flu these past two weeks, so it has been a hug-less 14 days and counting!).

I've never been a fan of sundays for some reason, perhaps because it marked the gloomy end of the weekend, hence the ominous start of classes the following day, hovering like an impending near-death... after all, I did go to nuns' school... ta-da!



But even if my teen-angst ruined Sunday afternoons were marked by hours spent trying to study, cleaning, doing the laundry, melancholically writing half assed demo songs (for better TCMA songs, go here), and watching my father cook meticulously for hours, there would still be the precious yet fleeting Sunday morning-ish "morning".



Sunday morning once meant waking up late with an apex sunray rested on my smiling face, lazily sitting up in my bed as I'd grab my headphones to appreciate every single second of the fuzzy Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning", while I would reread some of my favorite childhood books. Then I'd prepare my famous brunch for the 'rents, and we'd savour it as we listened to some of my mom's favorites, Jacques Brel (whom she'd call Jacquot), Leo Ferre, or mine and my dad's favorite: Ella Fitzgerald and her golden, soothing, chill-inducing voice.



Then it would all end too fast, and the mid afternoon would morph into late afternoon, which led us to a generically bland Sunday evening (gotta save that energy for the long arduous week!), then bedtime, spent tossing and turning, and soon enough, being awoken by the gloomy cawing of that same damn humongous crow, followed by being reluctantly rushed through an inevitable slow paced, almost robotic, dazed and confused, almond-eyed, zombie-gulping-down-breakfast-driving-Nana-and-her-cousin-to-school-then-heading-to-work Monday morning.

Life has changed since then. But this morning, unlike other Sunday mornings, I woke up and had little to no must-do's on my agenda. Then I started feeling a little lost, sensing those anxious feelings of old creeping in. So I did something I haven't done in a while: I went looking for new music! I went over to one of my favorite blogs to once again enjoy the writing, photos and songs tastefully written, arranged and chosen by Dan, Jordan and Sean (and sometimes by their guests) over at saidthegramophone. [while you're there check out the umbrella tree picture and the awesome overlapping women with burnt eyes!]

I then stumbled upon a pretty sweet song. The kind that you've already heard quite a few times, but haven't outgrown or won't get rid of just yet, like your favorite holey shirt, or this Cranberries song. However this time, the trumpets are playing even more out of tune, the sky is grey, getting menacingly greyer and you know it's going to rain yet again, like it has all week, tutu-tutu-tutut, you know there will be thunder and lightning again tonight, because after all, this is South Florida and it's hurricane season! ok I got a bit carried away there, but I speak from the heart.

So after listening to that nonchalantly, slightly depressing yet appropriate song, I went over to another favorite blog of mine written in part, or should I say mainly, by an ex Montreal dweller and fellow lo-fi musician, vinyl collector and physicist (the last two of which I'm unfortunately not) extraordinaire: David Barclay (the one playing guitar in the picture below). Yeah, so David rocks my socks! he's pretty awesome, hell, Austin even had a little man crush on him! Yup, he's cute like that! [And I guess the folks at Channel 4 in the UK also fell for his rosy cheeks and cutesy twee songs, as I'm pretty sure the first thing I'm hearing in this Skins episode, or at least in this exerpt,is The Diskettes' "Art"!]



[Do I really find a way to talk about Donkey Heart in every post?!!! all THREE of them?!!]

So as per usual, Mr. Barclay had uploaded some pretty obscure and great stuff (or at least unknown to me, maybe aside from Nagisa Ni Te). And in one of the posts, he linked to this one blog, which linked me to yet another blog - ah the joys of the internet! To make a story short, I fell upon a goldmine (no worries, I'll share some of it one day... someday...), which in turn led me to finally listen to this:



here is the mp3 format:

Toumani Diabate - Ne Ne Koitaa

After hearing these magical golden drops, I believe talking and writing is void of meaning. Thus I will only add these words: this kind of beauty is yours to explore.

In the words of Mr. Murrow, good night and good luck!



P.S.: thanks for bringing it to my attention Mikey, "Shalom" is reuploaded.

It turns out Mordecai isn’t only a falcon…

I’d love to start off with a few swear-words, you know, "histoire de" (a soit disant fancier way of saying "in order to") get it out of my system. But I’ll just do it silently (everyone is asleep), from where I’m sitting, faraway from your ears and eyes… Done!

However, my potty mouth (or is it fingers? although in the latter case, the imagery is a tad repulsive...) is bound to crack, and I'm sure you'll pardon my French. Besides, I can't quite believe it's almost been a month since my first post!

Perhaps it would be best to begin with an apology for not writing a new entry earlier… I’ve sincerely been meaning to, however, the past few weeks have been exhaustingly busy. They essentially were what I’d like to call “fourre-tout” weeks, which means that everything and anything would happen, mostly all at once. So here’s what happened in a nutshell: A LOT OF SHIT!

And then, when you top it with today… Oh today, today… yeah, well, you know: learning that yet another family member has passed and that I consequently have to decide whether to travel to NYC or not for the funeral, but then realized that I can’t quite afford it because I’m oh shit yeah: BROKE! Then you add to the mix a full moon (which is nevertheless gorgeous!), PMSing, a crazy schedule, a lack of sleep, a stubborn blister that just won’t go away (it's been a month, any suggestions?! because so far patience and rest haven't payed off!), not to forget the fact that the clerk gave me the wrong receipt and I only realized it two days later (now that I want to bring the item back, what do I do smartypants, huh?!). If all this isn’t quite a cocktail Molotov, then I don’t know what it is!

*breathe in * * breathe out*, remember the breathtaking moon and all the good times you've had with your family...

Needless to say, I haven’t had the time (perhaps except for Monk Time) to post a new entry. No, no, no… let me put it this way: right now I’m taking the time to write this, which virtually didn’t exist in my schedule! It’s alright, because I enjoy doing it! This being said, I feel like kicking myself for not being able to avoid my second post to be, albeit briefly, about family once again, or that it might carry a tinge of bitterness. But since I don’t dictate the course of life, I’ll just go with it instead. Hi, my name is Neyza, this is my reality, and I’m sharing it with you.

So my dad’s great aunt has passed… which made me think of what my aunt said the other night:

“there’s only been four deaths in this family in the past 40 years. But now that those of the last generation are all aging at once, we have to be ready, that is not if, but rather when they start dropping like flies!”

Kapow!!! Reality check, right in the kisser! Just because they're family, doesn't mean they are eternal...

On a lighter note, and all logic aside, do you know which song I woke up with, in my head, this morning? “Jewish Girl”! Talk about reminiscing! For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s one of my old band’s songs, which we unfortunately never recorded. The funny thing is, little did I know (trailer) it was actually Purim (wiki) today. So, if your name is Esther, more power to you and merry Purim, if that’s the saying!

Oy vey! this was perhaps a shorter entry and a bit of a rant, but still filled with goodies! Let's be honest, this was goodies galore!! Well, till the next one, my little Johnnys, be good and don’t let winter bring you down, because spring is right around the corner!

P.S.: this time, all links = mp3s. If ever a link is broken or doesn't work, notify me.