A Post for Loma P. on St. Catrick's Day

Disclaimers: Holiday mix-up alert! Yes, this is an old Christmas card and yes, this is St. Patrick’s Day. And oh yeah, if any of my coworkers are reading this, they know I totally swiped the "St. Catrick's Day" part of the title.

So..I’m writing this post in honor of my favorite Irish-born musician, Sean O’Hagan, and his band High Llamas. His/their music reminds me of my sweet cat friend Paloma, a pastel calico named for her patchwork fur and cubist face, a la Pablo Picasso. Almost, not quite, one side was gray and the other white. (S O’H has a song called “Half-Face Cat.” You can’t really tell what’s going on in the lyrics, but the Half-Face Cat is all magical, mysterious and beneficent.)

Come to think of it, Loma P’s totally a High Llamas kind of girl. It’s not like all cats are. Puff, for example, was “Walk This Way,” the Run DMC/Aerosmith collaboration. Derrick, I’m not sure yet—I’m thinking possibly show tunes and/or Jimi Hendrix. But Paloma is totally High Llamas—sweet, comfortable, nest-building music. (Yes, I know cats don’t make nests, but she was a Cancer, so a nester by astrological definition.)

Music to remember Loma P. by:
Over the River, High Llamas

Oh, it’s achingly sweet, music you can imagine small and elegant twittering birds, like chipping sparrows, listening to. Simple, meandering, storytelling…cozy rather than showy.

The name, too… Over the River. Paloma died 2 days before the September 11 attacks, and on that day I went to the Bendix Diner (no longer there) on First Avenue, where they would feature original artwork in the booths. The piece in our booth was entitled “Small animals and heavy furniture pass easily through the space-time continuum…” I think of Paloma traveling back and forth from one side to the other, a calico angel who can run and meow at the same time. And who likes Doritos.