Johnny Clegg "Dela"

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's Dela (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. 

Mariachi

I've heard mariachi music here and there my whole life, but I had never actually seen a mariachi band preform live until 2010. I was awestruck. 

I used to go to rock concerts all the time but since college I've lost interest. I don't care for the noise level or being squashed in a crowd. But when I went to the Museum of Northern Arizona's Celebraciónes de la Gente and saw Mariachi Sol Azteca preform I couldn't move from my seat. Mariachi is epic. It is brimming with life and love. Plus, the whole matching charro outfit thing is just cinematic. The musicians make me feel like the world is a bit more interesting and romantic than I sometimes suppose it to be; like every wayward glance that falls upon a strange man is weighted with future assignations, heroic deeds, and love everlasting.

I want to marry a Mexicano (for authenticity) just so we can have a mariachi band at our wedding. And I loathe weddings! I think I just want to plop into the experience of being Mexican in Mexico and being the bride at a rapturous traditional wedding with colorful paper garland, el lazo around mine and my husband's necks, thirteen gold coins in my pocket, and dancing to mariachi.

Brideshead Revisited Sountrack

My favorite instrument is the piano and I love finding ethereal little pieces like "Sebastian" by Adrian Johnston and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. I think I'll forever be disappointed that my life is not an ongoing movie, but compositions such as this (when listened to on the bus with very good headphones) somehow make the anonymous masses cinematic.