Now for the good stuff!! I mean….really? I come back from the gym (late afternoon workouts are my fave thing now) and I get back to this! Talk about post gym temptation…let the record show I had 1! They’re pink champagne truffles. Totally hoarding these in my freezer for special visitors. Now before you think this is something new…its not. Not reading into it more than it was a nice Valentine’s day gesture. We don’t have Valentine’s day plans, we’ve never made out, etc we’ve just had that “I’m going through some shit and you’re going through some shit, let’s see who is more fucked up and tackle those problems first” kind of friendship. Nom nom nom
Last night I was lucky enough to be the plus one at Retna’s The Hallelujah World Tour Exhibition. We got there before the masses and got take in the collection with patience and an undistracted eye. It was a great show and the space was perfect for it and there was no piece left without being admired. To follow the path of his brushwork and see just what a steady hand he has to not have a skip, nor flaw in the lines was just impressive, especially with the size of the pieces. The names of the pieces were just a powerful as the pieces themselves. Especially when you stepped back to really take it in.
My one word to describe the theme of the collection. Loss. The pieces along with the titles I interpreted them as phrases/phases of loss. Retna a handcrafter of the modern art of calligraphy (aka graffiti) managed to use ancient symbols/tools or writing and put out what looked like transcripts of what the titles of the pieces represented. It was like they were his reminders aka “love letters” if you will about his loss.
We got to have a convo with the artist Retna aka Marquis Lewis. This was after a couple of glasses of vino and I was a little nervous about sounding like a jackass if he asked me what I thought/got from his collection. And of course when I get nervous, I talk really fast and take on this overexcited form of myself but I had no time to think because I was put on the spot. I went into what I thought about the loss theme and how it seemed they were conversations with himself or letters that he was writing. My crazy dissertation went on for about 3 minutes, to the man who everyone wanted to talk and there was this girl just running her mouth.
Apparently, he appreciated it…all of it. From what I said about the titles and asked what I thought about most of them being in Spanish and he went on and told me about how it his process of “letting it go” for a good 5 minutes and we bonded over our new found appreciation for meditation. Then we went into this hilarious back and forth “No, thank you”, “No thank youuuuu” while the former French Editor of Vogue looked on, who was probably like “disss bish”.
Retna’s first New York solo presentation, opens today at 560 Washington Street. He’ll be a world tour and get this…each city gets their own set of paintings.
There is just something sexy about watching someone examine art. Whether its hearing them passionately break down a verse or production which they love or watching them look at a piece of art. I wonder just how they are breaking it down in their mind…what are they telling themselves. What turns them on/off about it. Its the “taste” factor.
So this has now moved from to be my favorite track. I know I said ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ was but after watching her perform ‘Don’t You Remember’ this for her VH1 Unplugged taping (yes, I don’t know how its VH1 AND Unplugged when Unplugged was an MTV property but anyways) I got goosebumps. Her runs on it are seamless and the lyrics shoot me right at the heart. She sounded perfect at the taping and she didn’t have to sing a song twice. She did everything in 1 take. Her voice is beyond perfection live. You think she sounds good on the track? Well live she takes it to another level. She also murdered Aretha’s version of “Natural Woman” at the taping. Before she started she said that she may have to do a couple of takes because they had never performed it, she knocked it out with 1 take. Again. Perfection. The taping was 50/50 boys/girls and a cultural melting pot. I believe it airs the first week in March on VH1. Of course, catch it.
When will I see you again? You left with no goodbye, not a single word was said No final kiss to seal anything I had no idea of the state we were in.
I know I have a fickle heart and bitterness And a wandering eye, and a heaviness in my head
But don’t you remember, don’t you remember? The reason you loved me before, Baby please remember me once more.
When was the last time you thought of me? Or have you completely erased me from your memories? Cause I often think about where I happen to roam. You more I do, the less I know.
But I know I have a fickle heart and bitterness And a wandering eye, and a heaviness in my head.
But don’t you remember, don’t you remember? The reason you loved me before, Baby please remember me once more.
Ohhhh
I gave you the space so you could breathe, I kept my distance so you would be free, I hope that you find the missing piece To bring you back to me.
Why don’t you remember, don’t you remember? The reason you loved me before, Baby please remember you used to love me.
I know Adele’s “21” deserves a proper review post of its own. It’s just that good. Here is “I’ll Be Waiting” which is moving up to be my favorite track on the album. Although I do feel that this album is one of those few that come around where you keep playing favorites and switching them around depending on your mood. The upbeat nature of it makes it not so much “sad bastard music” but an honest plea to get her lover back with her voice sounding like perfection and some notes that I couldn’t even attempt to hit without my dog running into the other room. Each instrument is crisp to the ears on this track. From the blasting horns, to the crooning and quick piano, to the infections snare, I f’ing love it. It warms my heart that there is still music out there that I get excited about and manages to move me and take me to a place where I can just exist in every layer of the album, from the emotion that she wraps up in her lyrics to the her voice that is unmatched by most in music today, to the note of every piano key I am in love. Adele has said the album is about 1 specific breakup and I can relate. I can only think of one major player that this would all relate to, with maybe 1 or 2 ghosts of breakup’s past sprinkled in-between.
Here is an a great track my track breakdown of “21” by Adele.
“ I belong to you; there is really no other way of expressing it, and that is not strong enough. But for this very reason I don’t want to know what you are wearing; it confuses me so much that I cannot deal with life; and that’s why I don’t want to know that you are fond of me. If I did, how could I, fool that I am, go on sitting in my office, or here at home, instead of leaping onto a train with my eyes shut and opening them only when I am with you? ”
Excerpt from a love letter by Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, dated November 11, 1912.
