Christy is back in T.O. for a contract working with her idol. Last night I went to visit her in the East end, where she lives in an adorable converted garage overlooking "crack alley" where she says all great overheard conversations are born.
We sat on her bedroom floor and split a bottle of wine and ate peanuts from the shell and listened to music and talked and holy shit we can talk in "14 years" spans now. It is so so good to see an old friend. I am so very lucky to know her.
Then the Stranglers came on her stereo, and you know when you hear a song for the first time in a long time and it is like you are suddenly listening actively, and remembering something you can't put your finger on?
"Golden brown texture like sun Lays me down with my mind she runs Throughout the night No need to fight Never a frown with golden brown"
That song reminds me of you! said Christy. I think you put it on a mixed tape for me (14 years ago??)
I remember in Prague, I met a girl from the interior of B.C. named nicola who had been there for weeks (she had only meant to stay a few days). She was tall and had this way of walking with her chest out and face to the sky. She said she was going to walk around the city, listening to REM so that she would remember Prague every time she played it in the future.
I did the same in Amsterdam, where I walked around stoned in the light rain, listening to Nirvana's seminal album when i stumbled on the lyrics "and I'm living off of grass and the drippings from my ceiling," and it struck me as poetic as it can only strike an 18-year-old spoiled girl with scuffed combat boots who is trying to roll her own cigarettes.
I remember taking the train from Cambridge to Stansted airport on my last trainride before home after 8 months in europe. I was listening to another of my mixed tapes when the waterboys came on. This is the sea.
"These things you keep You'd better throw them away You wanna turn your back On your soulless days Once you were tethered And now you are free But that was the river And this is the sea"
And then finally, this chorus had me in tears because the train was rolling into its stop at the airport: "here is the train. Coming on down the line. It's there if you hurry. there's still enough time. And you don't need no ticket. And you don't pay no fee."
