this playlist on your blog page, how am I supposed to understand it?
of course it's personal ... now light-hearted ... now more emotionally poignant ... depending where the light falls.
how does one transport things of significance from the past into the present?
those Cocteau Twins tracks, one of them I knew well, it was on the Treasure album which I would have been listening to in Manchester in the time running up to our visit to Greece.
I preferred their first two albums which were a little more dark in their enigmatic scintillation, but, as you say, it all depends on what you link it to.
I don't quite know how you can deal with the feelings that must come to the surface via the music which will immediately conjure up another time in your life and ultimately surely make you confront the fact of how long ago it was ... surely it can only result in a sense of loss for an earlier self??? ... you saw what happened to me when I went up to the rooftop flat when I stayed with you in 05. one could describe it as a kind of grief.
but I could be wrong ... perhaps the feeling is more one of fascination for something that can be reestablished using the new possibilities of the internet, like just adding water to a dried powder. something to re-explore and find new things in?
so would you have gone to see Alison Moyet with S. ?
is there any ambivalence in your attitude to these items belonging to western pop culture considering some of the themes you discuss relating to effects of aspects of western culture on Greek culture and language or behaviour of Greek artists?
since the playlist and some of these themes appear in the same place, what kind of signals does this send out?
* * *
hmm, serious questions. You are asking for it, so here you go...
The truth is that it's more a fiction of the past than nostalgia. It's more the metaphor about the dry powder and water and mainly, using the internet to discover the past once more and look at it as if it were ever present and open to experiencing anew. I don't feel it's something fixed or hard to get back to; my memories are vivid and confused, I have listened to some of these tracks many times, too many times to associate them with only one period. Even the Cocteau twins track that you know and which I had been listening to on a cassette together with that Seeds track a summer in Mykonos at around the age of 24, it is always new and old. I experience time as a strange continuum, I don't feel that it's far away, I'm still the same person, I still have the same feelings, a deeper perspective, it's an evolving process really. Thus, I am not nostalgic, I am there and here and it's all one thing looking for its form. The list is not conclusive or inclusive or definite or anything special, just an inspiration of the moment, an attempt to summon whatever comes to mind and slide on memories (an enjoyable ride, sporty and refreshing), always curious about the result, what kind of landscape I would find myself immersed in.
What excites me most is the availability of these tracks and the ease with which I can find them and choose which ones to include (in a list that would supposedly be personal and meaningful, which it is to some extent, but mostly, it's a performance on the internet, like a short story I would have composed here and now with some references to lived experience and I simply enjoy creating this fiction, the illusion for listeners that I am confessing something, that I am sharing something personal.) The truth is that my own experience is totally chaotic and under scrutiny and questioned every time and it's all quite light, much lighter and fun rather than deep or significant.
Anita Ward... is probably the oldest track, I remember listening to it together with my brother. But, it 's just a track from that time, late seventies, just a track.
The ELO song, I am not sure I ever listened to it in the past, it was probably more some other of their songs, like Evil Woman or Telephone line, but I chose the track I prefer to listen to now.
Emmanuelle was something fascinating, a sexy thing I could relate to as a teenager, now I appreciate the music on a different level, I think the melody is interesting and the whole thing has style, a certain European sensuality, a bit spoiled, light-hearted and silly, good fun for civilized french society girls and boys hahah Just like the sea sex and sun track which Pierre had introduced me to by giving me some cassette with french cult stuff.
No, I hardly ever get nostalgic about anything, I am beyond that, I have spent all my life thinking of loss and I have gotten used to the idea and the reality. My understanding of time is much more abstract. I am quite detached, I always adore observing, I am a hard core observer.
I would never go to see Alison Moyet, even though I respect her work, I am not interested in pop concerts, I am only attracted to abstract orchestral music and stuff that is very technical. I don't know exactly why, it's maybe because I can enjoy pop stuff better at home, as some sort of furniture or clothes.
My main focus is on re-exploring and I am definitely addicted to the internet and to information management.
Finally, no, no ambivalence with regard to these items. Western culture is my culture and greek culture is anything but pure. What I often talk about in my blog relates to badly digested influences and monkey mimicry, the inability of people to produce interesting work by combining things in meaningful ways in order to create new perspectives.
All my questions about Greek artists and matters of language are rooted in my own quest for haute cuisine culturelle that can combine different elements in a meaningful manner.
My fight is against provincialism, lack of empiricism, the lack of interest in reality, the absence of a pervasive critique of what is given, all the side effects of a retarded educational system and degenerate politics.
OK, special for Friends of Miranda P., I'll confess a little:
Sunday morning by the Velvet Underground... my first one night stand at Vauxhall! It was great and we listened to this song having some tea.
Stay (a little bit longer)... me a silly kid watching a sun protection lotion commercial on Greek TV and I fell in love with the song
Entao Eu Vou by Farida... in fact, as a kid I had seen a movie with my dad, it was the Italian b-movie "3 supermen in Tokyo" and there was a scene with the three silly guys in Tokyo by night. The soundtrack was Superju superman by Farida. I couldn't find it so I posted this one which I like a lot by the same artist.
Could you be loved by Bob Marley... I danced to it on a beach disco, on the sand, in Amorgos. Oh, so beautiful there!
Big in Japan, La Colegiala, Self Control... going crazy in Mykonos! I love love loved those nights
Can't seem to make you mine... either Ios or Mykonos, probably Ios after all, summer friends, carefree, so carefree and so much in love with the world
Summerhead... Chios island, we had a car and drove around in the beautiful summer landscapes, on the car cd player, this album by the Cocteau Twins. Oh, so smooth the driving, so light our hearts, am I getting nostalgic now or what
photo: snapshot from the movie "Gomorrah"
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