Re-visiting my love for Paul Simon and Graceland in particular (despite the Chevy Chase cameo - re-calls traumatic memories of Lampoon Family Vacation. GROSS). With Ladysmith Black Mambazo!! I saw Simon & Garfunkel in concert a few years ago. It's a weird thing that this generation doesn't get to see the artists they love from the 60s-80s in their 'prime'. They come to us as dinosaurs, as nostalgia, as a desire for a different time and place. But the music still translates. I remember seeing Bob Dylan in Christchurch, his voice grainy and inaudible, playing songs I'd never heard before and didn't care about, when he whipped out Just Like a Woman. For that one moment, the audience connected, could sing along, thousands of people in this incredible soaring chorus. Wow. But I'm sick of ageism/fear of death anyway. When I get old it'll be awesome. We'll drink port wine out of chandeliers, read books, and really know ourselves. Appreciate the imperfect nature of existence, stop trying to control everything.
Sometimes I feel like the only truth and meaning in life is in art. Listen to some music and forget your troubles! Or bask in them, cry about it, see that this is just a moment in time. And I kind of like that Graceland was Paul Simon's comeback hit, after a period of sort of muddling along post Simon & Garfunkel, it's "a shot at redemption". And in the most random way you could possibly imagine - going to South Africa and collaborating with mbaquanga and isicathamiya artists. And just like that life takes a different turn.
