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March 20, 2005
On Catching Up
Last week I had mentioned my renewed interest in French House and since then I have been collecting some singles to listen to while on the road. Tonight's anthem was Falcon and Bangalter's infamous first tag team attempt Together, an ultra repetitious but absolute joy inducing disco romp. The entire track is basically a seven minute exhibition of the same 4-beat measure repeated over and over again but I never grew tired of it; keeping the song on repeat and listening to it at least a dozen times just today.
Though Together's groove is no doubt infectious my current addiction to the track no doubt stems in part from its inclusion in my midnight Amistad sets from 2000/01. As I drove through the tall pines of Halifax I remembered how it felt to have the knots form in my stomach as Jed, Matty and I set up the decks at 'the V' and the way the Jasmine tea smelled brewing in the other room. We had a small, but tight knit audience then and when the requisite crew gathered on those Tuesdays at midnight the ambience was absolutely electric.
I don't want to wax poetic but part of the appeal of those times was that all of us were under the assumption that the relationships we nurtured then would continue indefinitely into the future. It turns out that the aspects of intensity and fragility in human relations are in no way mutually exclusive and the unexpected demise of those treasured bonds only adds to the melancholy joy of their fond remembrance.
Czeslaw Milosz describes the emotion best in his Nobel Prize winning Late Ripeness:
Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
One after another my former lives were departing,
like ships, together with their sorrow.
And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better than they were before.
I was not separated from people,
grief and pity joined us.
We forget - I kept saying - that we are all children of the King
Posted by Jon at March 20, 2005 05:42 AM