Tonight I've been working on several things I've fallen behind on and something changed. I couldn't put my finger on it first of all and then it struck me. The coqui frogs had gone silent. Normally I put up with a 90-decibel chorus each night and have learned to live with it and so it seemed strange when everything became silent. Well, not really silent, because I could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs again and more. These are the sounds that made this such a wonderful place to move to over a decade ago.
A few hundred yards away are humpback whales. I know they're there even if I can't see them. The wailing and unmistakable spouting and fin-splashing are now the loudest noises of the evening. To hear them once again made me feel quite emotional!
Just a couple of weeks ago I was in Carpinteria with Pam and listened to something else that made me emotional. I don't know quite what triggered it but think both of us had been through the most traumatic year possible. Cancer, possible redundancy, having to relocate, promotion, successful completion of a huge project, dodgy knees and back, money, lupus, pneumonia, and, well all sorts of things that I'd normally expect to deal with over several years, not twelve months.
So I played this song in Carpinteria for Pam and simply started crying. I think I lasted quite a way through it but probably lost it at around the 6-minute mark, because although everything before that bit is stunningly beautiful, everything after just got me. I don't know how else to describe it other than a song about optimism. Pam and I are still around, aren't we?!
I promise this is the last Cohen video I'll post, not least because it'll make me emotional again! Still, please enjoy the music and the musicians. And I apologise to Pam for the totally unexpected and out of character loss of a stiff upper lip!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I cried when I read this post.
love pam
Don't think this explains fully why I lost it, but the non-video version of "Anthem" that I have doesn't have all the acknowledgments Cohen gives to the musicians after 6 minutes. Perhaps it was because that was new to me and seeing someone like him being genuinely interested in the music and the talents of his crew got me somehow. There's something special about how he holds his hat to his heart while listening to the musicians and then thanking them. You don't see that in most gigs.
Plus it's one of the most beautiful and uplifting songs I've ever heard!
Tom
PS. And of course the whole song is about terrible times but how there's always light at the end of the tunnel. I think that got me as well after the last 12 or so months!
Tom
Been trying to post (I lost it there many times) a link to what to me is the "Michelle" song, but unfortunately windows XP positively won't let me past into this.
"This is where I came in" is the song.
Maren - just been woken up by a phone call despite UKIRT being closed. Sigh...
I don't know the song "This is where I came in" but did a google search and all I came up with is the Bee Gees. Please don't tell me I have to listen to a Bee Gees song! I do have a limit!
Tom
yup, it's that Bee Gees song. For me it will forever be connected with Michelle. Michelle was "the danger zone" for me.
We dealt with Michelle (more than once), we'll deal with the rest. As long as UKIRT is allowed to stay open.
Maren - I can't say much but suspect we'll hear some good news soon. On the other hand I would like to quote my ex-boss when it comes to the Bee Gees but it's so rude I can't.
;)
Tom
Post a Comment