I wrote on my home page, and I'll shamelessly copy and paste here, that Valentine's is about being with the people you love. When that's not possible, friends of friends will do. This year I spent Valentine's weekend with some of Beth's friends from Berkeley (by way of England, New Zealand and Australia). It was a great weekend and although no flowers or cards were exchanged as such, platonic love was indeed in the air.
Platonic love is really the way forward, I think. For me personally, I mean. I don't imagine it would be very good for the world. It would bring about its end, in actual fact. But last weekend was cool. Being around friends - granted, not really my own - and looking forward to this coming weekend with my friend Pam, really puts things in perspective and has a calming effect when I'm freaking out about the, er, D word (last mention: dissertation). I just wrote this sentence:
With this recording, James Brown developed the fundamental funk principle, ‘on the One’ – to hit the first down beat of every bar of music – and discovered that he was “hearing everything, even the guitars, like they were drums.” With “New Bag”, and subsequent recordings, James Brown employed ‘the One’, reversing musical priorities by subordinating melody to rhythm.
You've gotta love the funk. Well, I do. I'm writing a d***ertation on it! Okay, as if St Valentine's hasn't been flogged enough already, in the vein of last weekend, here's a list of things I love today:
- Sally Shurter, in an e-mail: "I quit my job selling women's shoes to go to Costa Rica for a month."
- Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989): At the peak of his powers, Spike delivers a film about race in America that doesn't take sides, and is tragic, moving and utterly fair. "Wake up!"
- The Onion: "Osama Bin Laden Found Inside Each Of Us"
- Mini-Cheddar snack biscuits sandwiches with cream cheese and chive filling. Think about it.
- Michael Penny: Always a pleasure. And for a limited time only, comes with new clothes.
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