thistledown


powered by SignMyGuestbook.com

Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

2002-10-27 - 11:29 p.m.

I picked up the phone and punched the blinking "mesage" button and heard the faint strains of music. For a moment I thought it was some kind of a prank call, but then, just as the song began to take shape in my mind, I heard Skootie's voice: "It's your song." She held the phone up to the radio and recorded the rest of it on my voice mail. I listened to it four more times before saving it in the archives. It was the song I have been wanting to find for months, ever since I first heard it on TV.

And then, because Skootie is so good at finding things, she thought of how to search for it on the internet, and we found it. We solved the mystery of the song. I told her that if I could find out who sang it, I would run, not walk, to the nearest music store to buy it. And that is exactly what I did. We stopped on the way to the concert we were attending Friday night so I could buy this CD, and I listened to the song in the car three times on the way.

Every once in a while I just fall completely in love with a song, or a piece of music. It doesn't have to grow on me, it is always love at first listen. Once in a while there is a song that just pushes all my emotional buttons and makes me want to cry every time I hear it. This is one of them.

The song is "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/ What A Wonderful World" as sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. He is an enormous Hawaiian guy who plays a ukelele and sings this medley of old standard songs in kind of a high voice. Nothing remotely like my usual taste in music. Obviously I cannot describe in words how beautiful it is to me, or why the familiar words to these songs sound so poignant when he sings them. But it makes me think of how bittersweet life can be and it is good to be reminded of that.

I had never heard of this singer before but I listened to the rest of his album and he was singing mostly about the Hawaiian islands and how sad he was that their native culture has been usurped by the American excess. It was something I had never thought of before. As a midwesterner, the image of Hawaii in my mind was just synonymous with college theme parties and vacation cliches: hula girls in grass skirts, loud shirts, mumus, palm trees. But you cannot listen to this music without feeling the pain of his loss. And being reminded that there are so many sophisticated and dignified cultures that we have trampled in the urge to spread our "standard of living."

That thought was occuring to me as we listened to the concert, too. We went to see John Williams, the famous classical guitarist. He is touring with a group of musicians who are playing music from Africa, including a guy who played all kinds of unusual folk instruments. The music was incredibly complex and had so much energy and spirit. Whenever I hear something like this, I am just so appreciative of music and the people with the talent to make music. It is one of the few ways we have of reaching out to each other, across all the great cultural barriers in our world.

We spent another weekend at work on the binders. We actually made a dent in the job, after working two long days: the binder gig is over half done. So many hours to keep the body at work, getting pains in the neck and stiff in the back.... and yet the mind is just barely engaged, so you end up thinking about everything on earth. Ideally, one could kind of zen out on the job, but neither of us is very good at letting go of analysis. We have analyzed every aspect of the project and found it wanting, if not downright ridiculous.

At least.....we got an extra hour..... it is "fall back" weekend. Maybe it won't be so hard to get up in the morning. But it is the end of summer stringing into fall, the end of light at five o'clock so I can take a walk. The beginning of living life in the dark for a time. My body thinks it is later than I do right now, which is why I should probably go to bed. But it is hard to let go of my few minutes of personal time out of this whole weekend. It is hard to go to bed, knowing the next thing I will do is face Monday.

Maybe I'll go listen to my song one more time.

previous - next

< ? Random Acts of Journaling # >

alchera ? !

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!