Songs I Love in 88 Words or Less: “The Loving”

Number one with a bullet on Pollyanna’s playlist—ladies and gentlemen, I give you the happiest song ever!

"The Loving," XTC

A friend of mine once said that all songs have balls—some are enormous, some are small, some are hardly there at all. This song boasts a veritable bunch of balloons, big and birthday-colored, filled to a breath below bursting and delivered to you by a troupe of Siamese kittens. In lederhosen!

Seriously, though, I’m blown away by that big, fat ujjayi-breathing guitar chord in the chorus that makes you feel all oceanic. Freud might’ve really dug it if he could get past the whole ball-sizing thing.

Songs I Love in 88 Words or Less: "Salvation"

“Salvation,” Elton John & Bernie Taupin
 
The latest installment in my little series—for my mom on her birthday.  (It’s not the first time my card has arrived a day late. )

At the bottom of the hill I  met a man with a cane, carrying a pack of Dunhill Blues.
“I’m going to quit,” he said, "when I get to the end of the street."
“Good luck,” I said.
“I’m going to quit today.”

I saw my mother fall at the bottom of the hill.
She couldn’t talk, eyes shut to light
the path
She squeezed my hand when she got there:
A developing Polaroid of a shy ingenue,
a violet on her first day in the world.






I don’t think I’ve shared my own video here before—it was a limited release, and supposed to be as close to a minute as possible : )