Goodlifer: Weekend Playlist

LOVE

I hear you coming,
footsteps that echo from the hall
I wait patiently cont.

Regardless of where you find yourself at this moment — in 20F New York… or 81F Miami Beach — may this playlist be your backdrop for a good snuggle by a toasty fire, a walk on the beach, sunset cocktails or a deep meditation in your favorite flotation device. cont.

Silent Winter

It’s not music this time. Sometimes it’s the sweet sound of silence that makes us appreciate the beauty that surrounds. Nature is wonderful and inimitable. Take a walk and listen to the crunch beneath your feet, the sound of your breath and the wind blowing through snow-covered branches. Peaceful serenity. cont.

Night

“Whistling in the darkness, shining in the light,
Trip the light fantastic, dance the swivel hips”
- Grace Jones cont.

WALK

Your carbon footprint is huge!… walk. Nothing will be decided at the Copenhagen Summit… walk. That über party is dull?… walk. You are showered, dressed and night beckons… walk. You have doubts about being #1?… walk. Your A.P.R. went up?… walk. Your special one decides to play it cool?… walk. Got an itch you can’t scratch?… walk. Tired of waiting to be rescued?… walk. Don’t know the meaning of life?… walk. cont.

V.

“Do you know how few vampires have the stamina for immortality?”

“Very few things really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds — justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.” cont.

Dark and Lovely

Listening to WEDR, The Black Giant, in Miami and hearing SWEET THING by Rufus for the first time in the backseat of a hand-me-down turquoise Oldsmobile Cutlass. Going to The Public Lounge for smothered chicken cont.

Paris / Le Roi Soleil

When I ran my fingers over the edge of the guillotine blade, it felt quite dull.

Waking up at rue Mazarine, Having café crème at Deux Magots, buying bread at Poilane, strolling the Marais, dinner at Meres and Filles, fireworks over The Basin of Neptune at Versailles, Lunch at Café Marly facing I.M. Pei’s pyramid, taking the tour of Sully and Richelieu at the Louvre, visiting Napoleon III apartments, Batobus to Jardin des Plantes, cont.

Music for Films

“You see, this is my life. It always will be. There’s nothing else, just us and the cameras and those wonderful people out there in the dark.”
- from Sunset Boulevard cont.

The Spice Route

Spices were an important component of ancient commerce well before the 15th-century, but were monopolized for centuries by Middle Eastern and North African middlemen who guarded the Asian provenance of their valuable sources closely and became fabulously wealthy for it. cont.

My Lost City

Before the advent of revolution, vulgarity, thought police and the great Diaspora, there lay a magical city, The pearl of The Antilles; Habana, Cuba. Amidst its architectural wonders, the denizens of Habana were a spectrum of chic and savvy urbanites, gangsters, libertines and the old grand Cuban families. Much has been written about Cuban music and it’s roots in Europe and Africa; which gives it it’s unique flavor. cont.

Sketch for Summer

An impression or a pentimento, the line flows from your fingers as it fashions a beautiful shape, it curves and travels as you introduce color. Hold it to the light as it prisms and shatters into fragments of dancing flames like those above the heads of saints. It circles, bows and grows faster and faster as it leaves you behind and races towards the horizon.

cont.

Sabor de Verano

In other words, A Taste Of Summer. Yes, taste it, live it. Happy Birthday to the United States of America with a wink to Henry Hudson. Fireworks can be made or found anywhere, not just at night or from a barge over the river. cont.

True Flowers

“… Whether it is because the faith which creates has ceased to exist in me or because reality takes shape in the memory alone, the flowers that people show me nowadays for the first time never seem to me to be true flowers”

-Marcel Proust, from Remembrance of Things Past

cont.

Aqua

The water glitters and shines as it dances in the light. On this gorgeous weekend find a pool, or an ocean, or a stream. Leap in the sun and dive in again. These are the days. cont.

Armed and Extremely Fabulous

It’s time to dig up your bijou de plage for the 1st big Summer weekend. Why not frolic in cool waters with a delicious cocktail, preferably of the flammable fluid variety? Shimmy, Shake and get out of Dodge… And NO you don’t look fat in that bathing suit. Enjoy yourself; Next week is a lifetime away. cont.