Love Ain't Leavin

Patrick Porter • Effort

If you were ever in doubt of how prolific Patrick Porter was, well… he just released another full length album. That is 3 in 2012 (50 tracks between the 3 of them). The latest is called ‘Effort’ and you can check it out over on his Bandcamp page.

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There Is A home For You

A Singer Of Songs

asingerofsongs:

Fourteen years ago I moved from a small Belgian town to Barcelona. I was young and I wanted to know pain and life and pleasure. Far away from the small safe life I had lived up to then. Far away from family and friends and all things known. I moved here to be ignored, feel less than nothing and start from scratch. Like one of my favourite songs of that time said: I wanted to go to the bottom and put my soul on fire. And I got what I came for. Barcelona had fun and sun to spare. Life became a day-to-day struggle to make ends meet. And most of all, people ignored me happily. I was a stranger to everyone and I don’t think I’ve ever felt freer since then. But you can’t be a stray bullet forever, you’re bound to hit a wall or flesh sometime. And that’s when shit started happening. I had thought about a lot of things, but not so much about language. The Spanish language had never been on my mind except when I tried to sing along to The Miami Sound Machine as a little kid. I knew a couple of words when I got here (hola, adios, no, sí, chuleta de cerdo –no idea where that one came from-), but nothing to keep a decent conversation going. And once the stray bullet started landing places, it got hard. It is one of the most frustrating things in life to be the mute at the table. Smile when everyone else smiles. Shake your head when everyone else has decided things are wrong. Without language you are a piece of dead wood on rolling waves. And things can get pretty ridiculous. Like that time when I ordered a Penis Sandwich (the Spanish word for chicken –pollo- is ridiculously similar to the one for penis – polla-). Or the other time when for reasons unknown I was hired as a translator for a Belgian psychiatrist who had written a book about sex. During the presentation to the press he pronounced the following sentence in Dutch: “The male sex organ should be used as a paintbrush rather than as a knife.” There was a silence, the room full of journalists looked at the translator –me!!!- and I mumbled some words and everybody started laughing and I was fired on the spot five minutes later. Funny how two of my most embarrassing moments ever had the word penis in them… Anyways. Being unable to express myself had become the hardest thing to handle in this adventure. You crumble every time anyone says something to you. You start doubting everything. Fourteen years later most of those doubts have disappeared (they should let me translate the penis thing now…), but one of them remained for a long time. When you are walking and somebody you know well enough to greet but not well enough to engage a conversation with walks past… Do you say “hola” or “adios”? Do you say hello or goodbye? Both are logical: you meet and walk away. I always said “hola” until I realized that people here say goodbye rather than hello. And every time I said hello I saw them doubt for a moment. Should they stop and start one of those awful conversations where you have nothing to say (there is always a reason why you barely know a person)? Why had I said hello instead of goodbye? What did I expect? So little by little, after years of misunderstandings and terrible small talk, I started saying “adiós” as well. I learned to love Spanish as the incredible language it is. I learned the words for penis and chicken and sandwich. I learned to decide when to smile and when to shake my head. And I learned how to say goodbye. 

 Here is a song about doubting whether to say hello or goodbye. It’s called “There is a home for you”. My friend Laura Rasanen played the violin and sang along. I hope you like it.

Love,

Lieven      

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Good Woman

Eddie Vedder • Live @ Carré Theater, Amsterdam, Netherlands

perfectmidnightworld:

“Good Woman” by Eddie Vedder // Originally by Cat Power (2012)

The original version of “Good Woman” by Cat Power (and featured on her stunning 2003 album, “You Are Free”) is a crushing, heartbreaking song about coming to terms with a poison relationship despite loving the other person. It’s Chan Marshall at her most powerful and poignant. The song features haunting backing vocals from Eddie Vedder (and drums from Dave Grohl), and now Vedder has gone and performed a stirring version on his own while on tour in Amsterdam last month. Surely this has made it’s way around the net, but I felt like highlighting it here as it’s a stellar version of one of my favorite songs of all time. 

love this song, love this version

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