https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2e6yo2KRlAtGMaQwLGO62O?si=2zvFHwxFQB-x1x8hP0Zpkg I’ve never seen a venue clear out that quickly. From the final applause to the bar staff counting their tills must have been about 10 minutes. I guess all those New Yorkers had some place better to go on a warm Tuesday night in Manhattan. As I waited for her to return from the…
Tag: Travel
March 2019 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/2vQr05RhzJ37O9NiPwoiNG?si=DbiwnXnRRum7SNowD3jSpg Nicotine is a hell of a drug. Cigarettes have been my safety valve, my stress relief. A constant companion. My secret exit strategy. My reward. If I want to be honest with myself though, tobacco has also been my jailor, locking me in a yellow-stained, foul-smelling cell for far too many years. But…
February 2019 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/2zm0r9bSI2ROncYtyBm4Jf?si=3RjSA8tfSaSW1rCSsnEl9A The stage was a clear cultural divide. To the left, African American dancers hopped and skipped, leapt and spun. To the right, their Irish counterparts kicked out a fury of flailing legs, steps heavy and arms tight. It was a dance-off: African Juba vs. Irish stepdance. Their movements were the storytelling vessel; telling the audience…
January 2019 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/0SmYDoZRfoImxxbSaRcpTl?si=KaXbU5TUTXSMOEKYe-GcPg I’m not a thrill-seeker. The notion of jumping out of a plane or rappelling down a mountain is totally absurd to me. My idea of risk usually involves a big board game. Earlier this month we travelled to Panama. We were staying in the pristine valley of Hortino, a dormant volcano to the north…
September 2018 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/2xLozkeTf7tdmzttkeHCLO?si=2WmgvvUcSTanIi9iJXM5IQ It was a historic hangover. So mind-bending that I think it made me cross-eyed. We attended a fish fry the night before and according to reports I skipped and danced my way home. I can neither confirm nor deny such reports as that I have zero memory of getting home or going to sleep…
August 2018 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/5app5lx7gEwu0vJSKfPZze?si=xLkbD8F-QnWJcbLV6cb_CA A few days after Aretha Franklin died we rented a car to escape the city on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We drove to Niagara and as endless vineyards looped by, The Queen of Soul’s discography boomed. The power of her voice is undeniable, but for me, it’s the feeling that it creates when you hear…
July 2018 Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/6yy4si3Rg6cOxdnnC2CR0i?si=LAGVjAHbQCS2cl3lFwDKfw I think it was a piano that drew us in. Or it could have been the raised voices, swelling together in harmony. We were wandering the narrow, winding lanes of Bergen when we stumbled across the choir. We stood motionless in the stairway of a nondescript Norwegian row house and just listened. The world melted…
Counting Stars, revisited
Music can take you to unexpected places. I curated this playlist as a best-of for 2016. Listening to it again I’m instantly transported back to our trip to Costa Rica. It was our soundtrack. https://open.spotify.com/user/22lqswu5hmkt555wivb5iqaii/playlist/2pfxcwHKZxK8KGnimrcvhk?si=nYhYyglXStiyLobX8xhbrg I remember our little apartment in downtown San Jose fondly. We stayed there a few times, it was a jumping…
