I didn’t get into Damien Rice until after “Volcano” exploded, after he had already been on Last Call With Carson Daly, answering questions about whether or not he knew that Colin Farrell had made out with Britney Spears.

The bassist in my band at that time was pretty insistent that I listen to the Irish folkie, but since I have and always will be stubborn in my music exploration (I have to “discover” it “myself”), I didn’t get around to it right away.

It wasn’t until my Junior year of High School (‘03-’04) that I “stumbled” upon my bassist’s burned copy of O. I was in one of my electives, one of those taught-by-a-coach-to-justify-his-cushy-salary classes. We had a lot of downtime, so I made frequent visits to my CD player, digging my head into the cushion my crossed arms made on the desk, fleeing to the world of aural stimulation.

The first thing I noticed about O was how soft it was. The opening track, “Delicate,” was treated as such, until that climactic final chorus. As the album unfolded, the music became a pool for me to sulk in, to dwell on the “rough” time I was going through as a 16-year-old growing up in a white, upper-middle class community, who had just lost his dog and had been rejected by a girl whom he had rejected previously to pursue a long distance relationship with another girl he hadn’t seen since the 7th grade. And on top of that, his parents were always harshing his buzz about taking out the trash. I often refer to my Junior year as my “Dark Year.”

“The Blower’s Daughter” had become my go-to track as I found myself many a lonely night, pondering my place in the world of love and sadness, but mostly questioning whether or not I would ever get to kiss the cute and quirky Vietnamese girl I had fallen in love with. Moving on to ”Cannonball,” I found that most of these songs were evoking those same kinds of existential questions.

And then I found out that the girl I hadn’t seen since 7th grade had a boyfriend. How fitting that “Cheers Darlin’” rose to the top of my faves list. How dare she. How could she?

I think at some point, each song played a significant role in my depression, covering me like a blanket, keeping me in a constant state of feeling sorry for myself.

Yes, Damien Rice has a special place in my heart, a place that, for nostalgic reasons, has no filter, where my judgement of musical character has no power, a place where I can’t differentiate between legitimately good music and legitimately bad music. Because nostalgia is basically my musical kryptonite.

Side Note: Other music that I can’t categorize as either Louis Lane or Lex Luthor: Third Eye Blind, Matchbox Twenty, GooGoo Dolls, etc. Pretty much a whole lot of music from the 90s.

I didn’t really listen to the follow up, 9 mainly because the mp3s I downloaded (burned cds/paying for music was soooo 2003) were terrible quality, and because I had lost interest, having moved on to other folksmen to soothe my woes.

Lisa Hannigan’s since put out a nice little solo album. Here’s the first track.

If you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking. Closer.

Hay películas que uno puede ver una y otra vez sin cansarse. Yo tengo una lista larga y siempre, sin importar en qué momento llegue a ellas, me quedo viéndolas hasta el final. Aunque ya las haya visto, aunque casi me sepa de memoria los diálogos, aunque tenga otras cosas para hacer, siempre caigo en la tentación y me quedo atrapada. Precisamente ayer, mientras pasaba canales, apareció una mujer de cabello rosado que intentaba seducir a un hombre. Sí, era Jane Jones, o Alice Ayres, de Closer. Inmediatamente me concentré en la película y la vi hasta el final.

Hoy, cuando escribía una carta que se quedó sin destinatario, una canción hizo que mis ojos se llenaran de lágrimas, Damien Rice cantando The blower’s daughter hizo que dejara todo tirado y nuevamente me concentrara en Closer.

La vi de nuevo y por no sé cuánta vez me hizo sentir lo mismo de las veces anteriores: rabia, tristeza, seguridad, dolor, impotencia, asco, amor, alegría… muchos sentimientos encontrados.

Esta película me gusta porque expone perfectamente las miserias humanas. Muestra cómo somos, cómo actuamos frente al amor. El sentimiento más bello y sencillo que siempre nos empeñamos en complicar.

Sin duda, en las historias de Anna, Dan, Alice y Larry, uno puede identificarse más de una vez. Yo diría que con ambas mujeres tengo mucho en común. Con Anna y su forma de ser al principio de la película y con Alice al final de ésta. La razón, muy sencilla, lo que uno aprende es para crecer y hace rato decidí que aunque el amor es incierto no me voy a dejar derrotar nunca por éste. El dolor puede ser inevitable, pero permanecer en éste es algo que sólo a uno le compete.

…Y para rematar, como dice la Mona de El Guanábano: Uno no los necesita, uno simplemente los quiere amar.

The blower’s daughter – Damien Rice

And so it is just like you said it would be. Life goes easy on me most of the time. And so it is the shorter story. No love, no glory. No hero in her sky.

I can’t take my eyes off of you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes off of you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes…

And so it is just like you said it should be. We’ll both forget the breeze most of the time. And so it is the colder water, the blower’s daughter, the pupil in denial.

I can’t take my eyes off of you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes off of you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes off you. I can’t take my eyes…

Did I say that I loathe you? Did I say that I want to leave it all behind?

I can’t take my mind off of you. I can’t take my mind off you. I can’t take my mind off of you. I can’t take my mind off you. I can’t take my mind off you. I can’t take my mind…

My mind… my mind… ´til I find somebody new.

Closer, USA, 2004. Dirección: Mike Nichols. Guión: Patrick Marber; basado en su obra teatral Closer. Producción: Mike Nichols, John Calley y Cary Brokaw. Fotografía: Stephen Goldblatt. Montaje: John Bloom y Antonia Van Drimmelen. Diseño de producción: Tim Hatley. Dirección artística: Hannah Moseley. Vestuario: Ann Roth. Reparto: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman y Clive Owen.

The Blower’s Daughter by Damien Rice

This is why I’m so in love with Damien Rice!
Great voice, nice songs.
He is awesome

The Blower’s Daughter ficou conhecida como a música do filme Closer (2004). Foi assistindo a esse filme no cinema que também conheci o álbum do cantor e compositor irlandês Damien Rice.

No Brasil, a música chegou ao público quando Seu Jorge e Ana Carolina lançaram uma versão chamada “É Isso Aí” no show Ana & Jorge.

Todas as outras músicas do álbum O (2002), primeiro álbum de estúdio de Damien, são extremamente agradáveis de ouvir. Vale a pena conferir Older Chest, Amie, Delicate…

Mas é Cannonball que se torna a música do dia #9. Minha preferida do CD e que já foi trilha de diversos filmes e seriados, entre eles O.C.

.

          Era tristă, posomorâtă și mă privea aruncându-mi din ochii vii reproșuri nerostite. Știam cât greșisem față de ea, față de mine, față de noi… Și pentru că durerea ei mă durea pe mine i-am mărturisit. I-am spus că ochii îmi sunt fermecați de frumusețea ei, chiar și atunci când sunt închiși. Am recunoscut că de mult nu mai respir, doar îi inspir parfumul. Acum știa că nu îmi doream decât să îi mângâi părul, să îi ating obrazul și să îi cuprind buzele între buzele mele, pentru a îi împleti răsuflarea cu a mea, legându-ne în acest fel pentru măcar o clipă care ar fi putut deveni veșnicie.

          Am fost uimit să îi văd ochii înseninându-se, colțurile gurii ridicându-se la început imperceptibil, zdrobind tristețea cu care încă încerca să ascundă zâmbetul. Mâna mi s-a întins către bărbia ei, degetele mele au cuprins-o, întorcându-i capul spre mine. A tresărit, s-a zbătut pentru ultima oară în interiorul ei și m-a privit. I-am șoptit “te iubesc”… A înțeles că privirea mea nu se va mai depărta de ea, că va distinge în bezne, invariabil, numai silueta ei, numai zâmbetul ei… și dintre genele ei răsări soarele.

So I’ve been wondering why my week flies by so quickly and the weekend stops down just long enough for me to get really excited about it before *boom* it’s right before Monday again. And I realized (much to the amusement of my friends, who seem to all know this already) that my life is pretty hectic. But “good” hectic I assure you.

Johnny Deep

So Friday night I spent at Henry Tham’s in Colaba, Mumbai (which is actually quite rocking on the weekend so much so that is impossible to get from one end of the bar to the other without getting a full body massage.) An interesting Aussi-Panju DJ I met a few weeks ago called Nathan aka Johnny Deep was spinning funky fat funky minimal the sound of Ibiza (I’m so old I don’t even know what that means.) Anyway he was fun and the rest of my bar-hopping involved a trip to Redlight, Kala Ghoda Mumbai (no brainer if you want to dance to your favorite tunes like nobody’s watching) and then Oba, Colaba Mumbai (Rishi Acharya’s new pad which has the most awesome hip-hop DJ (Henry) in town for starters and it’s open late. Win win combo wouldnchya you say?)

Oh and by the way if you want something a little more laid back here’s new bar alert: a new “lounge eatery” just opened it’s doors in South Mumbai’s. It’s called “Tawouk.” (Wikipedia fans you’re right it comes from the Turkish word for chicken “Taouk” I’m told it has the feel of a house party minus the hassle. The DJ spins house and hip hop and you can play Nintendo Wii! “I thought of everything I’d like to see and experience when I go out, and put it in here,” says Suren, who used to design high performance engines and had a modeling stint in the US before he turned to the restaurant business.

Mid Day describes the owner as a “dishy” software engineer-turned-restaurateur Suren Joshi who has collaborated with Zenzibu owner Sunpreet Singh to set Tawouk up a stone’s throw away from Bombay Stock Exchange.
Potentially worth checking out for all the dishy-ness on (and off) the menu.

Where its at: 105, Apollo Street, BS Marg, near Stock Exchange, Fort, Churchgate

So then Saturday rolled around and since it was a dry day we did the right thing and had a house party at a friend’s  apartment. (Random thought; I find a majority of our conversations on Saturday’s have to do with something hilarious that happened on Friday.) Anyway the only celebrity spotting I did was Juhi Pande who truly has the most charming self-deprecating sense of humor I have ever seen on a girl. She revealed a life-long phobia of worms, caterpillars, centipedes you name it and mused that perhaps in a previous life she may have been a leaf and eaten by one. She even made like a leaf. I love her. She cracks me up. (P.S. She now has abs of steel thanks to crunches & skipping.)

Jim and Claire

Sunday of course was the piece-de-resistance as my friend Jean-Marrie Tassel aka “Jim” (it’s just easier that way) would say in his fabulous French accent. By the way he (and his friend Claire Thibault) are the friendliest French people I have ever met in my life and constantly appreciative that people in Mumbai are so nice to them. So if you happen to see them please say hello (nicely) they’re only here for another few weeks and I don’t want anything to kill their Bombay buzz!

Bonobo is a trendy roof-top restaurant that offers brunch and live music (yippee it seems to be spreading!) in the center of bustling Mumbai on Linking Road of all places and delivers just what it promises.

Bar. love. food.

The name, Bonobo, actually comes from a breed of pygmy chimpanzees (which explains the pink and yellow monkey’s on the little boy’s and little girl’s rooms) but the owners, Nevil & Sahil Timbadia, say it’s just to arouse curiosity. I love that all their bar staff is just as excited about getting you drunk as you are about getting you drunk! Perfect.

But what really did it for me was “Nikhil D’Souza and the Naked Tops” a super lounge band that sounds like a cross between John Mayer and Maroon 5 (which they cover very well by the way and you can hear loads of on their MySpace page) with an eye-candy lead that sings in the voice and style of Damien Rice.

Go rent the movie “Closer.” Now.

Till then watch the video of this fantabulous song (which they covered to perfection) called “The Blower’s Daughter” I can’t take my mind of of you… yup you said it.

One of the Naked Tops, Vinay Lobo (so named because they both have shaved head’s I’m presuming) made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I told him they were very good he told me I was very cute. (Score!) The other, Sankarshan Kini aka Shanks blew my mind with his insane ability to play just about every instrument possible. When I asked him how that happened, he smiled and said, “Just happened along the way.” Love that.

Sapna Bhavnani and Sameer “Daddy” Malhotra showed up to support the band, whistled, clapped, danced, delivered shots and filmed with infectious energy. Sapna even got all the girls to dance up front (much to the band’s delight) in exchange for “girlie songs” (how cute is she?! And seems like a much softer soul than her heavily tattooed exterior might lead you to believe.)

So where is all this talent suddenly coming out of the woodwork from? (Or have I been hanging out in all the wrong places?!) at any rate I love it and I’m waiting for my next Live and Loud fix. Bring it on!

Well, looks like it’s an Irwin day on One Neat Thing a Day. Your What the FUCK for today is from him (Yes! Don’t kill me! KILL HIIIIIIIIIM!), and so it this song… sort of. He actually played Magic instead of The Blower’s Daughter. I’m putting this up because I couldn’t find the first on YouTube and I liked the name of the second.

Originally performed by Damien Rice. Edited together by emmin3m.

Este post esta dedicado a John Lennon por su amor a lo bello de este mundo.

En este blog tengo la costumbre de hablar mas del desamor que del amor, quizás porque me resulta mucho mas atractivo escribir de lo que falta que de lo que se tiene. Pero tambien soy consciente que el amor es el tema mas importante de la música pop, creo no equivocarme diciendo que no hay disco de pop/rock que no tenga al menos una canción de amor.

Hay canciones de amor maravillosas, “Your Song” de Elton John quizás es uno de los ejemplos mas conocidos, pero su perfección se basa en la simpleza, tanto de letra como de melodía. Tambien las tenemos obsesivas como “Every Breath You Yake” de Police que en estos tiempos tan feministas el protagonista puede parecer mas un acosador que un hombre enamorado.

Estos ejemplos son obvios pero sirven para demostrar que el amor es y será un tema recurrente.

Los dejo aquí con un top five de canciones de amor, espero lo disfruten

She – Gram Parsons (hermosa versión de Norah Jones)

Hey, that’s No Way to Say Goodbye – Leonard Cohen (esta canción es una de mis últimas obsesiones)

The Blowers Daughter – Damien Rice (nota: Oli, tenías toda la razón)

God Give Me the Strengh – Elvis Costello ( esta canción se compuso para la película de Kristen Vigard Grace of my heart, altamente recomendable, aquí la versión del film)

Heroes – David Bowie (quizás la mejor canción de amor de la historia del pop)

Espero recibir vuestras listas. Disfruten del amor.

Song of the day: “The Blower’s Daughter” by Damien Rice

(Big ups to Drew, btw.)

…Es la realidad pura, la desaparicion subita de un mundo de ilusiones. La realidad ha sido para “el” nueva vida; para “ella” ha sido dolor y asfixia, la humillacion, la tristeza, el desaire, el dolor, los celos… la muerte!

- Y todo por…

- Y todo por unos ojos… Pero el dolor puede matar tan pronto?… Casi sin dar tiempo a ensayar un remedio!

Fragmento de  MARIANELA de

Benito Perez Galdos

The Blower’s Daughter

Damien Rice

I Remember

Damien Rice

The first one is two Braziilian Musician’s called Ana Carolina and Seu Jorge, while the second is the writer of the song, Damien Rice.

This is the same song that Diana Vickers sung in her X-Factor audition.

If this don’t move you musically, I don’t know what will!! I like this!! ALOT.

‘The Blowers Daughter’

did I say that I loathe you?
did I say that I want to
leave it all behind?
i can’t take my mind off of you
my mind, my mind
’til I find somebody new

I’m in one of those deep, exhausting funks where I’m filled with confusion, and nothing makes sense, and all I need is a hug, except that even that doesn’t feel exactly right and even the good version of “Here Comes the Sun” doesn’t make me feel better. Wish I would have found that brain switch. Anyway, in an attempt to get out of aforementioned funk, I’ve selected a few choice songs. If you’re in a funk, maybe they’ll help you too.

y asi es
justo comno dijiste que sería
la vida no me trata mal
la mayoría del tiempo
y asi es
la historia mas corta
sin amor ni gloria
sin heroe en su cielo

no puedo apartar mis ojos de ti
no puedo apartar….

y asi es
justo como dijiste que debería ser
ambos olvidamos la brisa
la mayoria del tiempo
y asi es
el agua mas fria
la hija del flautista
la alumna negada

no puedo apartar mis ojos de ti
no puedo apartar..

dije yo que te odiaba?
dije yo que queria dejarlo todo atrás?

no puedo apartar mis ojos de ti
no puedo apartar…

Scroll down past the video, and my thoughts, for the lyrics. Please share your own thoughts in the comments area. I’d love to hear from you. You can remain anonymous.

This song saddens me and gives me chills every time I listen to it.  When I first saw the movie Closer I was happily with the second “love of my life”.  Back before the problems began.  Before the heartbreak.  It was as if Closer was  a foreshadowing of things to come.

Even then, during the happy time, the movie saddened me greatly. The actors did a damned good job of portraying what it is like to have your heart ripped from your chest and shredded into a million pieces.  The scene where the doc wants to hear every detail of his wife’s affair, and the reasons he finally gives for wanting to hear those details, is something I can identify with, ’cause I would have felt identical in the identical situation (scroll down below the lyrics and watch the clip I’m referring to – it’s 9 and a half minutes long but, damn, is it raw – and perfectly played).

When watching the movie that first time, I somehow knew it would be my turn in the not-too-distant future.  At the same time, I felt as if she was the “somebody new” that took my eyes off the first one.  Almost.

And, ah, Natalie Portman’s character… should I meet her in real life my heart wouldn’t stand a chance…

This song perfectly sums up the movie.  Damien Rice pours the emotion out…

And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

I can’t take my eyes off of you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off of you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes…

And so it is
Just like you said it should be
We’ll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower’s daughter
The pupil in denial

I can’t take my eyes off of you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off of you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes off you
I can’t take my eyes…

Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to
Leave it all behind?

I can’t take my mind off of you
I can’t take my mind off you
I can’t take my mind off of you
I can’t take my mind off you
I can’t take my mind off you
I can’t take my mind…
My mind…my mind…
‘Til I find somebody new

Here’s the scene I mentioned, one of my favorites from the movie. Heartbreaking and very very raw.  Why must he know every detail?  I don’t know, but I can tell you that I would want to know, too.  I cannot express why. His reason is about right, and his reaction could just as easily have been my own.

Here’s a full trailer from the movie Closer: