How the music evokes

Just when I thought I couldn’t think my boss was any cooler, I came across her c.d. collection. About 10 Bob Dylan albums, 2 Ani, 2 Dar, 2 Dead, 4 Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens, and Elliot Smith just to name a few. So as I cleaned out and organized her daughter’s “art closet” I put on Out of Range. It’s the first time I’d listened to the album (all the way through) in a few years and I was not surprised by how surprisingly amazing I still think it is.

“Life is a B movie: it’s stupid and it’s strange
It’s a directionless story, the dialogue is lame
But in the he said/she said sometimes there’s some poetry
If you turn your back on it, let it happen naturally
Oh yeah… oh hell yeah…”

And as I listened I remembered the first time I heard Ani’s music. It wasn’t from Ani, it was out of the mouth of my friend Meg who sang beautifully, softly, a cappella while her and I and a few other girls, high as kites, played a kind of Hide-and-Seek by the Florida moonlight:

“I search your profile for a translation
I study the conversation like a map
‘Cause I know there is strength in the differences between us
And I know there is comfort, where we overlap
Come here: stand in front of the light
Stand still so I can see your silhouette
I hope that you have got all night
‘Cause I’m not done looking, no I’m not done looking yet…”

What a gift she gave me that night!

Listening and remembering I was filled with a warmth and a bittersweet
feeling
of…

SISTERHOOD.

For all those out there (the brothers too) that know what Ani’s words mean, how they can make you feel and think and hurt and rejoice, my heart goes out to you today... =)