Alan Baban - poet, writer, medical student - was at the Modern Canadian Poets launch last night wearing the best geek chic eyewear I've seen lately, and after we went out for some talk and dinner (I don't eat before events) the subject of the year's best music came up - Alan is a music critic for cokemachineglow, and we're lucky to have his comments at Eyewear, too. Anyway, he's heard a review copy of what is apparently going to be the kick-ass album of 2010 - Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The reviews so far have been ecstatic - as if this was Pet Sounds-Thriller-Okay Computer as second coming. Let's hope so. If it is, it will confirm my suspicion that this has been the best year for popular music, ever. The new effects that can be achieved in production, combined with the new immediacy of transmission, have led to the scene breaking open in so many ways, sounds, and styles, that the cornucopia has become narcotically, insanely enveloping.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Comments
The best CD I've bought this year was Eliza Doolittle. She is like Lilly Allen, only better.
My wife hates it but I love it!
Best wishes from Simon