Listen, I don't know why opaque fruit snacks taste better--they just do. I groan with annoyance when I open a pack of [insert random cartoon] fruit snacks and find translucent pieces. Some awesome types, like Betty Crocker's My Little Pony, have ALL opaque fruit snacks. This just plain rocks.
When it comes to food I am usually pretty picky. Were this any other type of snack I would opt for something like Annie's organic fruit snacks, or say an orange, because they're way better for you and I'm extremely conscious about what I eat (okay, maybe not extremely but more so than most people I know). But there are some things I just cannot give up despite all the bad press. I think the key is moderation. I say that after I just inhaled three packs. Fail.
Glorious new-found songs are like crushes (for me at least). Some are exactly what you need for a specific moment in time--like my brief mental flings with Shawn Mullin's Lullaby and Chad Michael Murray. Seriously, guys. What was I thinking?! Though who among us can honestly admit they weren't a little bit in love with Tristan on Gilmore Girls? He was the brown sugar to Dean's oatmeal.
But some songs thrill you from the first time you hear them, and for years after. I think about this so much that when I fall in love with a new song I'm always terrified that I will end up hating it. Some have stood the test of time (so far), but none as much as Johnny Clegg'sDela (Zulu for content), which I first heard it on George of the Jungle back in... 1997. 1997? Really? I thought I was much younger when that film came out. Anyway, I may not have figured out who the artist was until years later but even in that in between time of ignorance that scene in the forest where George and Ursula dance around the fire has always struck me as one of the most gloriously happy moments in film. It's light, it's free, it's innocent (but not childish)! I smile every time I think about it. I have never gotten tired of listening to Dela. And it opened the door to Clegg's entire canon, which is pretty freaking amazing. This white South African dude was like formally accepted by the Zulu nation DURING Apartheid! He couldn't even play his Zulu-influenced music in South Africa at the time. (Side note: Paul Simon's kick ass album Graceland was inspired by Clegg.) He's got some pretty sad stuff about injustice and all that but his joyful songs make me ridiculously happy. When I worked alone in a creepy archives I instituted dance parties (for myself) to Clegg's music on the hour every hour to distract myself from thinking about golums climbing out of the mikvah (don't ask).
And guys, he did the opening song in Fern Gully. How's that for trivia?
I finally got the chance to see Johnny Clegg live in San Francisco last year. One of my life goals was to dance to Dela live and it was glorious! The crowd was a little old and sparse, so I think his South African concerts would be more exhilarating--and I'll try to ignore how brusque he was with me when I had him sign my CD. But he's still my all time favorite musician. And I still have Dela dance parties at work.
And speaking of individual dance parties... check out this chick. She is so cool!
*I started writing this post intending it to be about The Lumineers' song Hey Ho, which I only recently heard but I think will be one of those eternal crushes. I feel a sort of bemused acceptance of... life and my lot when I listen to it.
