Dear life 90
Dear life,
Coincidences, coincidences, it’s as if they get going whenever I get to this other side of the world, or maybe it’s me wanting to get meaning out of everything, kind of a game to amuse myself.
On the plane I decide to sleep (not that I need to decide to sleep!), I wear my ipod earphones (ok, this is IranAir to London, not Virgin to DC, so don’t be surprised cause there are no music channels to tune into!), and the very first song I am hearing sings, “… go to sleep, everything is all right …” no 12 in a selection of 16 compiled by a friend who told me “the selection starts from a bad mood which I know you are in right now, cheers up little by little, to the best of moods in the last song” when he handed it to me the night I was leaving. (Funny, his choice for the last song, a recital of the famous poem “Howl” by Alan Ginsberg, which starts with the very word “America”) So, each of the songs on the selection had a word with me, no doubt, great choices, but to go to sleep to those very words at that moment was kind of reassuring.
In DC, the very first website that I check out is Villagevoice (ok, I confess, after my emails, of course!) and to the right of the screen I saw this movie ad which I usually would not check, but somehow the title is inviting, “2 Days in Paris” and the actress is "Julie Delpy", who has also played my top favorite movies, "Before sunrise" (1995) and its sequel "Before sunset" (2004). It seems that she always comes to screen during my strange emotional phases. Always. Strange. Anyway, I have to check out the movie. It is an emotional comedy, so it may not be anything like the other two, but just her coming up, right now, right here, that’s enough to make my day.
Last night, in a really desperate down mood, I choose this folder of Farhad music in another selection a friend had offered for New Year, which I had not listened to before arriving in US (software problems, no offense!) and of course you know how Farhad can help you feel more nostalgic and sad and cry as much as you like, but there was more to it last night; the album was his concert in US and the very first song was all about the concept of one’s home country, in which he sang, “What if one could move his home country with himself wherever he went?” not a bad idea, right? But then how could you get nostalgic about leaving it? Sad that no place smelt like it? Sad that no place felt like it? And yet happy that it is yours forever and it would wait for you to go back?
Coincidences or whatever, at least I have this game I can play with you and whatever you put in front of me in the solitude of this far away land.
Ps. Another coincidence just came up after I finished writing this and setting to work on the book I am translating. I guess just noting the sentence would suffice: “What difference is there now between what I am now and what this city will make of me: something that is happening to me right now and that, like the cows about to be sacrificed, I cannot see?” (The Tango Singer, page 99).
Coincidences, coincidences, it’s as if they get going whenever I get to this other side of the world, or maybe it’s me wanting to get meaning out of everything, kind of a game to amuse myself.
On the plane I decide to sleep (not that I need to decide to sleep!), I wear my ipod earphones (ok, this is IranAir to London, not Virgin to DC, so don’t be surprised cause there are no music channels to tune into!), and the very first song I am hearing sings, “… go to sleep, everything is all right …” no 12 in a selection of 16 compiled by a friend who told me “the selection starts from a bad mood which I know you are in right now, cheers up little by little, to the best of moods in the last song” when he handed it to me the night I was leaving. (Funny, his choice for the last song, a recital of the famous poem “Howl” by Alan Ginsberg, which starts with the very word “America”) So, each of the songs on the selection had a word with me, no doubt, great choices, but to go to sleep to those very words at that moment was kind of reassuring.
In DC, the very first website that I check out is Villagevoice (ok, I confess, after my emails, of course!) and to the right of the screen I saw this movie ad which I usually would not check, but somehow the title is inviting, “2 Days in Paris” and the actress is "Julie Delpy", who has also played my top favorite movies, "Before sunrise" (1995) and its sequel "Before sunset" (2004). It seems that she always comes to screen during my strange emotional phases. Always. Strange. Anyway, I have to check out the movie. It is an emotional comedy, so it may not be anything like the other two, but just her coming up, right now, right here, that’s enough to make my day.
Last night, in a really desperate down mood, I choose this folder of Farhad music in another selection a friend had offered for New Year, which I had not listened to before arriving in US (software problems, no offense!) and of course you know how Farhad can help you feel more nostalgic and sad and cry as much as you like, but there was more to it last night; the album was his concert in US and the very first song was all about the concept of one’s home country, in which he sang, “What if one could move his home country with himself wherever he went?” not a bad idea, right? But then how could you get nostalgic about leaving it? Sad that no place smelt like it? Sad that no place felt like it? And yet happy that it is yours forever and it would wait for you to go back?
Coincidences or whatever, at least I have this game I can play with you and whatever you put in front of me in the solitude of this far away land.
Ps. Another coincidence just came up after I finished writing this and setting to work on the book I am translating. I guess just noting the sentence would suffice: “What difference is there now between what I am now and what this city will make of me: something that is happening to me right now and that, like the cows about to be sacrificed, I cannot see?” (The Tango Singer, page 99).
posted by friend @ 3:00 PM
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