1. we walk down the stairs to the platform of the 16th street bart station. our cousin has dismissed us from her birthday celebration earlier than expected due to the departure of half of the party, too long a wait for a bowling lane, and consideration of our work schedules the next day.
"pittsburg/bay point train in 2 minutes," my brother points out on our right. i look to our left and see, "daly city train in 2 minutes." perfect timing.
as our respective trains approach, we exchange a high five and side hug. small gestures of consolation and comfort to counter the heavy weight of grief in the air this week. we go our opposite directions.
2. buskers begin announcing their performance on the other end of the train car. they are raising funds for some reason or another. as i fiddle with my phone, they start to play a crowd-pleaser. it's the beatles. like many on this train, i've probably heard this song hundreds of times before. but when they get to these lyrics, the words seem to echo in my ears and head...
"life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend"
3. the internet on my phone or nextbus doesn't seem to be working, and so i start my walk home from rockridge bart. i'm stopped in my tracks by something i have never noticed before. four familiar faces in a window with words that remain too true:
our last evening in the big easy. if there is anything i learned in the few days visiting, it's that this city lives and breathes music. we're still amused by how saturday night started with soothing folk music, went to a lively new orleans jazz ensemble and ended up at a reggae band dance party. and this all happened barhopping from one side of frenchmen street to the other.
we needed one last nola-style live music fix before heading back to california.
we head down toulouse, past bourbon in an effort to flag down a cab. indie music artist toro y moi walks by going the direction we have just come from. after he passes, we look at each other and laugh knowing that frances interviewed him last year before he became "big" and landed on the line-ups for sxsw and outside lands.
we see cabs passing by down other streets, but it takes a while before one comes to the corner where we decide to wait. finally, a cab slowly approaches and the three of us climb into the backseat.
frenchmen street, please.
it is quiet as he turns the car around and pauses to let other cars pass.
look how nice i am. i let everybody go ahead.
we smile at his odd opening line. i try to make conversation.
busy tonight?
monday night is probably the slowest night in new orleans.
he flips on the radio and turns left onto decatur street. a DJ is recapping songs recently played.
ooh wheee! "two years of torture." that song has to be about a relationship! have you ever been in love? if you have, you'd know it's torture. you know the comedian christopher titus?
he had a tv show, right?
yea, a long time ago. anyway, in one of his stand-up acts he says something along the lines of "if you've never considered murder, you've never been married. if you've never considered suicide, you've never been divorced." HA! ain't that the truth?
he gets distracted because we have arrived at our destination and his pack of cigarettes has fallen behind his seat.
right here is fine.
frenchmen street. you've got the whole strip ahead of you.
we pay and get out of the cab. as i'm shutting the door, i try to leave him with a final word.
thanks and don't torture yourself!
oh well, you know...being in a relationship is torture...but being alone is torture too!
thanks to those who gave suggestions for this playlist. pre-vacation crunch permitted me from uploading and sharing it until now. it's all good because i was able to make the playlist art on the plane ride here. whether or not the sun is shining where you are, i hope that this auditory experience can transport you to your own island paradise.
i've never been a playlist craftsperson. i usually keep the tunes on shuffle with each song becoming a surprise for the soundtrack of life. i find that the appropriate songs usually attach to certain experiences to complete these moments and memories.
with that said, cheers to a weekend on shuffle (& video documentation)...
1. "black or white" - michael jackson
as we wait for our carne asada fries, i decide to slide a dollar into the jukebox. we can't seem to get the first song we want to play so i impatiently start punching semi-random numbers. the result was this song. one of the better mistakes i've made. =)
2. "i'm on a boat" - the lonely island
3. "drift away" - dobie gray
mary of the elephant odyssey exhibit at the sd zoo sways to a nicky classic.
4. "circle of life" - the lion king this needs a bit more explaining: i had a somewhat similar experience as L did a few weeks ago. for some unknown reason, this song just kept reemerging throughout the weekend.
- thurs: watched "the lion king" as the 2nd film during a movie night in - fri: richelle blogged about it - sat: we played it first thing in the morning before leaving for the zoo - sun: came back home to see this vid under my youtube subscriptions
5. "knock you down" - keri hilson this song had been in our heads all weekend. in the last few hours of my stay in sd, it inspired a one take session that we completed within the hour before i had to head to the airport. (check fbook for this vid) --------------------- p.s. the blogosphere feels alive this month! lots of folks making it a point to blog more...i think i will too.
"one in a million" - aaliyah "just friends (sunny)" - musiq soulchild "tell me" - groove theory <3 ---------------------------------- on my way to meet melissa for our saturday morning run, one of nicky's favorite songs "drift away" came onto the radio...
Your rhythm and rhyme and harmony You've helped me along Makin' me strong
it was comforting and reminded me to be grateful that he's getting better. nicky, soon enough you'll be "stronger!" [like a year ago in ibiza...=)]. ---------------------------------- too many concerts, so little time...
aug 12 robin thicke @ mezzanine sept 3 estelle @ the independent sept 27 JOURNEY! @ shoreline
...and it finally feels like i am slowly making my way up.
round II interview went well, so here's hoping i'll soon be part of the downtown oakland crew. ---------------- i'm looking at my calendar and it has a lot of race day registration dates on it.
yesterday was the first day to register for the nike women's marathon random drawing. holla back ladies who wanna run the half! (although guys can run it too)
prices for the sf half see their first increase after the 15th.
and last day of early registration for the bay to breakers is the 31st!
is it weird that i wanna spend my first pay check on new running shoes and race registrations? o_O ---------------- random ending note: last night, i watched american idol for the first time in a LONG time. it was alright...nothing too impressive. used to always watch it with the parents back in high school. even though i have the mp3, watching this moment from season 1 still WoWs me.
