Sunday and post-Sunday blues

A very quiet week passed by. More classical than usual. Sunday was cloudy; when I woke up I couldn’t tell if it was morning or twilight. But I started my usual movements, stewing pork chops and watching John Malkovich, “I choose from what I’m chosen for”…fair enough. Last time I saw him was in “Beyond the Clouds”, guess nobody will turn it down when summoned by Antonioni. And he went on and on about how actors need to make a living and they cannot always do what they want to do. If people could be a little less greedy, hmmm, thought I, the pork started to smell really nice in the living room on such a lazy Sunday morning.

Later on I saw Robin Williams making all the funny faces and fell asleep. First time ever I fell asleep on the shabby couch. First time in months. When I woke up the audience were all upright applauding. I crippled into the bedroom and started playing the Beethoven Spring sonata CD. Anne-Sophie Mutter, on a common day of autumn, whispers this little tale of the spring in people’s fantasies. This sparkling melodies remind me of my college. Beethoven’s violin sonata was about the first classical cassette I bought. It wasn’t Mutter though. This recording has an amazing mixing. Every sound is perfectly crystal-clear.

And I started to make a compilation of my favorite bossa nova songs. ’t has been my favorite thing to do since I was a kid. Putting together some songs according to some motif, and just to enjoy that connection from melody to melody, between whirling chords and drunkening voices. I have been in America so long that I can easily name dozens of wonderful bossa tunes from various performers. It was, however, a wonderful experience filtering out just enough for a compact disc, and panicking about the sequence, the themes….I could almost see the stars and moonlight through this song list. Sweet and sour dreams.

It’s the weekdays. The weekdays that make me nervous. Especially this one. For some reason not to be disclosed. I came out driving in a sentimental mood just to dive into this huge jam on Sunset. People’s cars all rusted on such a cloudy day. They take 59 steps to make a meter ahead. And I looked out the window at the flowers. They are more feminine-looking without the sunlight. And the songs in my car keep blurring the past and the present, the hatred and the love, the sobering and the misunderstanding, the conflicts and compromises. All suddenly unraveled in a Los Angeles traffic jam. They give me the blues again.

But I made it to school finally. And I listened to the Spring sonata again. It sounds even better in the headphones. As if the punch line goes: spring only exists in people’s minds.





Song list-Ultimate Bossa

01 Diana Krall - let's face the music and dance
02 Sting – moonlight
03 Patricia Barber - dansons la gigue
04 Dianne Reeves - I concentrate on you
05 Michael Franks - this must be paradise
06 Vanessa Williams - love like this
07 Robbie Williams/Nicole Kidman - something stupid
08 Cassandra Wilson - love is blindness
09 Rossa Passos - chega de sandade
10 Joni Mitchell - night ride home
11 Patricia Barber - call me
12 Robbie Williams – grace
13 Diana Krall - the look of love
14 Coralie Clement - l'ombre et la lumiere
15 João Gilberto - the girl from Ipanema