"Lo que queda del día": la metáfora del amor reprimido
Me siento agotada después de venir una tarde de la tele. Me desplomo en el sofá blanco de Ikea mientras la luz flota fuera. Hace un calor descomunal para ser abril y los días se alargan como si fuera agosto.
Pongo la tele, zapeo, en el atardecer monótono y cansado de un lunes impenitente y descubro, en TCM, la última media hora de “Lo que quede del día”, una de mis películas favoritas de la…
Marc Anthony en el Movistar Arena: salsa para ser feliz
Marc Anthony en el Movistar Arena: salsa para ser feliz
Télam – (Por Hernani Natale) Una auténtica fiesta salsera fue la que desató anoche el artista puertorriqueño-estadounidense Marc Anthony en la primera de las dos funciones del “Pa´lla voy Tour”, en el Movistar Arena, del barrio porteño de Villa Crespo, junto a una excepcional banda, a partir de un monolítico repertorio que permitió exhibir la mejor versión del género y una brillante performance…
hiii 😊 May i request the prompt Person A stealing person B’s sweater/clothes. With benedict bridgerton please 💜
A/N - What a great request for Benedict! Thanks for requesting this, anon!
Eureka!
Summary - Benedict never thought he would lend his crush his sweatshirt.
Warnings - Just some fluffiness
Benedict had to stop his painting to look at his work. Something didn't feel right, leaving him to stand with his hands on his hips and his head cocked to the side. It felt off, unlike the other pieces he would paint and sell. This one didn't feel right to him, maybe it was the shade of colors he used or the way he stroked the brush. But his heart wasn't in the right spot with what he wanted, and he was interrupted abruptly by the tapping at the front door.
It sounded urgent.
"Who would be here at this hour?" Another asked from his spot on the couch, placing his newspaper down and walking over to the door. Benedict paused in his work too, placing the brush down and looking across from his art corner in the living room. Was it the landlord? It couldn't be since Anothy was usually on time in turning in the rent. Nor could it be any of their brothers or sisters, it was even late for them and they would call ahead of time.
What he wasn't expecting was you, drenched from the rain and shaking like a leaf with your arms tight around yourself to stay warm.
"Jesus! What happened? Come in!" Anthony said as he ushered you inside. Benedict was shocked to see you, no matter you being his crush for some time after meeting you through Anhony. You were good friends with Kate, Anthony's girlfriend and soon-to-be fiance. Kate could see how Benedict was instantly smitten with you when you commented on modern art as the new frontier in marketing and high society compared to older art. Kate saw it immediately and teased Benedict endlessly when you left to return to your apartment, Benedict blushing red and trying to play it off. But how to he deny it? You were spunky, exceptionally great with your art history, and your smile was enough to make his heart stutter a bit.
But to see you drenched like a wet cat in his home? He never saw that coming.
"I'm so s-s-sorry for coming to your p-p-place," You stuttered as Anthony ushered you into the apartment and closed the door behind you, "My c-car broke down a mile d-down the road and my phone d-died. I n-need to call K-K-Kate and a tow--"
"Take it easy and come sit, please," Anthony said with ease as Benedict went over to get a kettle ready for some tea, "Let me text Kate and have her come over to take you back to your apartment, okay? And we can call a tow truck first thing in the morning to take care of your car,"
"Oh, I don't wanna w-wait for my car until t-tomorrow--" You tried to reason with Anthony, but Benedtic finally spoke up as he walked over to you.
"It's not worth it in the rain, no tow trucks will come. Just wait until tomorrow when the rain stops, we know a guy who works at the auto shop down the street and I can call about your car," He explained, you giving him a genuine smile. He loved that smile, reminding you of springtime and fresh flowers in a vase, filled with joy and serenity.
"Thank you, you're far too kind," You thanked him, Benedict slightly blushing, "I don't mean to interrupt your night,"
"Our night was boring, nothing to apologize for," Benedict told you as he gestured to the spare bathroom, "Go take a shower and I'll get you some clothes to change into while we wait for Kate,"
You thanked him again and waddled to the spare bathroom, closing the door gently behind you and locking it. Once it was Anthony and Benedict again, Anthony eyed his younger brother with a smirk.
"Smooth, Benny. Real smooth," He teased, Benedict glaring at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," He replied with a shrug, walking away to his bedroom to grab some clothes. Anthony chuckled and followed behind Benedict, pulling out his phone to text Kate as he spoke to his brother.
"Kate told me about your little crush on her," Anthony said casually, Benedict whirling around and hushing him. Anthony laughed, "It's obvious to everyone, including mom mind you! Why don't you ask her out finally?"
"Because...because I don't think I'm her type," Benedict explained as he grabbed a pair of sweats and one of his old sweatshirts from college.
"What makes you say that? You're a catch, Benny. And I don't say that to you a whole lot, do I?" Anthony challenged him, Benedict giving him a soft look to see that he was telling the truth. Anthony merely smiled, looking down at his phone with a message coming in.
"Kate will be here in 20 minutes," He explained, closing his phone before he gave Benedict one more smile, "Think about it, Benedict. You two would be great, I swear,"
Anthony walked back to the living room, leaving Benedict there to think about it. He did think about asking you out, maybe taking you to an art gallery or a picnic since you seemed like the kind of person who would love that. But then again, he was still afraid to jump in and be bold, and sometimes that fear got the best of him.
He was going to put it on the back burner for now.
5 minutes later you emerged from the bathroom, wearing your new clothes that Benedict left outside your door. Anthony was back in his room working on some paperwork from his job, leaving Benedict back out in the living room with his painting again as you walked out to see him. Your hair was back and freshly washed, your skin glowing and looking rather calm and the color was back on your lips and cheeks. The sight of you wearing his sweatshirt, the same one that had a few paint stains and one coffee ring on the end near your right hip, it was gut-wrenching, to say the least. Benedict never thought on how beautiful you would look in that garment when he got it for you, and he would never look at it the same way again.
"Thank you again, Benedict," You thanked him, then noticed the painting in front of him and pointed with a curious finger, "Is this a new piece you're working on?"
"Oh," Benedict said, looking at his piece and then back at you, "Oh yes! I'm trying to work on it but it's....it's not right. Something's missing,"
You hummed, walking over to stand next to him and looking at his work with your eyes. Benedict seemed rather nervous to have you stare at his work, he shouldn't since you've seen his work plenty of times. But not during the process of creation, only when it was complete and hanging on the wall. He felt most vulnerable when he was creating, the barriers were down and nothing was judging him when he had the brush in his hand.
"What if you use your fingers?"
Benedict looked at you in shock as you looked back at him with a shrug of your shoulders.
"W-what?" He asked, sounding a bit more high-pitched.
"Use your fingers, not your brush," You explained, then moving your pointed finger to the cured strokes to the left, "I think it would look more natural with your fingers, don't you?"
Benedict nodded his eyes without saying a word, his eyes on you as you were smiling at him. If his crush on you was bad before, now it was a lot worse. But this time, this time he wasn't afraid about it too much. He was tongued tied, yet you still grinned at him as the front door opened and Kate burst into the room.
"Thank God you're okay!" She said to you as she ran over to you and hugged you. Benedict left you and Kate to reunite and talk about what happened, his eyes going back to the half drawn picture and a massive grin was on his face. The idea struck hard and true, almost sideways to have him be knocked over.
Eureka!
He would hang it a few months later at his first professional showcase, with you on his arm as his girlfriend and the inspiration for the piece called Eureka!
The Good Times
Lovely Soliti releases from Ghosts on TV, Juppe, Stinako and Knife Girl.
Old Music
Ennio Morricone – Quando l’amore e Sensualita
Beach Boys – Friends
George Michael – Older
Felt discography
The Songs of Bacharach and Costello was on constant rotation (my fave reissue of the year.)
Teardrop Explodes – Culture Bunker box set
Lana Del Ray – Norman Fucking Rockwell
Rip Rig & Panic – I Am Cold
Plush – More You Becomes You
Neil Young – Chrome Dreams
Stevie Wonder – Fulfilling His First Finale
Joan Baez – Blessed Are
Paul Weller – 22 dreams
Sault discography
Velvet Underground – Loaded
Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit
David Sylvian discography
New Music
I didn’t think this year offered much until I put this list together.
It’s been quietly fabulous.
Lana Del Ray – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
Kara Jackson – Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?
Robert Forster – The Candle And The Flame
SAZ – SOS
Feist – Multitudes
King Krule – Space Heavy
Christine and the Queens – PARANOÏA, ANGELS, TRUE LOVE
Overmono – Good Lies
Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12
The Lemon Twigs – Everything Harmony
John Cale – Mercy
Bar Italia – Tracey Denim
Sufjan Steven – Javelin
Wilco – Cousin
Sparklehorse – Bird Machine
Amanda Brown – Eight Guitars
Durand Jones – Wait Til I Get Over
Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here.
Beach Fossils – Bunny
ANHONI – My Back Was a Bridge For You To Cross
Lankum – False Lankum
Mitski – The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
El Michels Affair & Black Thought – Glorious Game
Best tracks
Everything But The Girl – Nothing Left To Lose
Dexys – My Submission
Lana Del Rey – A&W
Devendra Banhart – Sirens
Kara Jackson – no fun/party
Knife Girl – Estrogen
Felt – Primitive Painters
TV, films books
The Bear (TV series)
The Last of Us (TV series)
Mrs Davis (TV Series)
The Last Movie Stars (TV Series)
Welcome to Wrexham (TV Series)
Dirty Harry movie box set (all five movies)
Richard Jewell (Film)
Crimes oF The Future (Film)
Barbie vs Oppenheimer (loved both of these)
The Exorcist (Film)
Love to Love You, Donna Summer (documentary)
Quentin Tarantino – Cinema Speculation (Book)
Dylan Jones – Loaded: The Life (and Afterlife) of the Velvet Underground (Book)
Alan Moore/Jacen Burrows – Neonomicon (Book)
Collected Judge Dredd (Books)
Sight & Sound (magazine)
The Guardian (online)
The Quietus (online)
This is a good thing
My family and home life. It’s still my favourite place to be.
Football in all its gross financial injustices, still remains a truly entertaining, all welcoming spectacle – a break from our realities. I spent a lot of my days obsessed with the beautiful game.
My own team Tottenham’s reimagining as a team for the neutral under Ange Postecoglou.
I’ve had a serious post-covid hangover about going out; crowds and especially going to concerts.
But still this year I managed to catch a few shows. John Cale and Knife Girl at the Helsinki Festival was very special.
Elvis Costello at Kulttuuritalo was a great way to spend an evening – I didn’t really want it to end (and this was also a rare date with my partner!) Emma Ruth Rundle, Sorry, Jake Xerxes Fussell were good festival experiences.
I’m an eternal optimist with dreams that we can all get along, people can be who they wanna be and somehow humanity pulls together to save the planet. My dream state staves off the dark feelings that are increasingly hard to ignore.
This is a low
The Israel demolition of Palestine in response to Hamas atrocities is a key world happening which will resonate for decades to come.
British Conservatives and all right wing ideologues who – in collusion with the mainstream media – spend most of their time demonising refugees and the trans community.
The public discussion around minorities in Finland is base and inhumane. This right-wing Finnish government has been a hard dose of reality that has sprung many of us out of our comfort zones. The casual racism of the Finnish government has normalised terminology that should offend everyone. Disgraceful.
The lack of a moral compass or compassion in world politics – who exactly are the good guys?
I hope someone could point out who’s looking out for us all nowadays?
Elon Musk and the destabilising of Twitter. He just couldn’t leave it alone could he?
The unstoppable rise of AI. It’s a slow process (or maybe a fast one) that results in the death of a certain kind of creativity. Hearing that some people in the Music business are using AI to write press releases is a little sad.
The Saudi exploitation of football. It doesn’t stop. How long till the whole of football is owned by Saudi Arabia?
The Vinyl market becoming an expensive artefact for the wealthy. In typical Music Industry fashion, the vinyl format becomes revitalised only for the music industry to make the price prohibitive for most people. Own goals are rarely clearer.
And - continued from part 2 - some more! This one does what it says on the tin. Levon Vincent knows the old chestnut "dancing about architecture" is accidentally profound: this is 11 pieces of holy four dimensional architecture exquisitely designed for your body to move through.
It's been a great year for old school BRAINDANCE, in no small part thanks to Mighty Force records releasing thick and fast, and this from Kams, straight out of Beckenham, is the best - just warm-hearted, melodic, acidic, danceable, classic electronica.
My old mucker Culshaw is a scholar, a gent, an adventurer, and on the sly a great musician. This comeback to the studio is MAGIC - global and spiritual and incidentally Balearic in a Jose Padilla sense - but its connections are based on highest common factors, never dully fusioneering.
Just fries my mind that Boris seem to get creatively hungrier and angrier with every passing year. This collab brings in all sorts - goth, thrash, synthwave - but what I really love is the unironic POWER METAL energy. Music to be struck by lightning to.
It's been an incredible year for electropop - and this album from producer turned singer songwriter Avalon Emerson is the *sweetest* of the crop, lighter than air, a gentle digital dream, but with surreptitious emotional heft. Reminds me a little bit of millennium era Morr Music, Tarwater etc? Must listen as a whole: it draws you in and in....
Even heavier than the Boris, and the record that made me fall in love with grindcore all over again - had to order the vinyl even given transatlantic premium. Nepalese band in New York Chepang TAKE. NO. PRISONERS. HUURUUUURURRGGHGHHH.
I was NOT expecting this from Anhoni - but I'm a sucker for Muscle Shoals style country-soul grooves, and though they risk getting "a bit Jools Holland", here they're delivered with total assurance plus the bleakness of the lyrics, fierceness of delivery and a few noises moments all adds some serious edge.
More electropop - this one from Jessy Lanza is not a million miles from the Avalon Emerson in its pristine futurist sound, but it's a bit spikier, eerier, like she is setting puzzles for you.
My most played record of the year. Like the Culshaw, a bit Cafe Del Mar in the most urbane possible sense - Sissoko & co's blend of jazz, classical, W African & European folk is done with unbelievable poise and emotion and is completely addictive.
This has been all-conquering this year and rightly so. It's not just the fearsome doom bits, it's the straightforward folk that's great: Lankum remind us of dreadful, beautiful paradoxes of being human that don't really change through the centuries.
Paul Simon says this was written in dreams, and it really sounds like it. Genuinely transporting, surreal, gorgeous and - I have to say it - roughly 10,000,000 times more interesting than anything Bob Dylan has done this century.
Completely UN-deconstructed trance... the way Romy taps into the melancholy of the most globe-conquering of 90s pop dance is something quite special and will serve as a real cynicism test... go on, let it twang your heartstrings!
I've kind of idly admired King Krule's music from a distance previously but that changed last year - he really is something special eh? Way more than the sum of influences, and a proper world-builder.
One of many where I missed the promo at the time (sorry PRs) but then discovered it via my sp****y recommends. Just beautiful post-classical, post-ambient musing music from Audrey Carmes that sounds like austere but lovely perfumes and crisp clean cotton.
Of course death is at the heart of Depeche Mode's music so how tragic but appropriate that it took Fletch's death to turbocharge them creatively. This is like a telescoping together of their whole history - but also still in love with new sounds...
More death, more darkness, with Amy Winehouse serving as a dark angel muse drawing together and crystallising the ambient, abstract and dream cabaret influences Kevin Martin has been incubating in his solo KRM albums since 2019. Crushingly sad and great.
Espec after seeing him rock it in the morning at We Out Here, I do feel like Joshua Idehen is in danger of becoming a late-blooming star, you know. Explicitly connecting David Byrne, Mike Skinner, Maxi Jazz and a finger-jabbing Nigerian preacher, he ROCKS.
Yes, Yussef Dayes really is all that and a packed of Pickled Onion Space Raiders. Brit jazz just seems to have been in a consistent triumphant state these last five years or so and there's no sign of it stopping being that way with albums like this still coming.
Ben Howard is an artist who'd completely passed me by despite being really quite big - but again the sp****y algorithm brought me this and it's really amazing, thought provoking, grown up pop. I *instantly* guessed it was Bullion on production too, no lie. ❤️
I've said for a long time that "mumble rap" has deep atavistic echoes of the blues and psychedelia - and here's the mumbler in chief Lil Yachty joining the dots back through the decades. Funkadelic, Hendrix, Beck, Outkast, BUTTHOLE SURFERS? Yeah it's all here. Not saying it's one those levels, but it's great and
Holy shit is Dot Allison on a roll or what? This is effectively 2021's Heart Shaped Scars growing in all directions: bigger, grander, more cosmic, even more beautiful. The partnership with Hannah Peel as arranger is front and centre and works incredibly.
Alright it's not as unique as Bad Bunny's 2022 masterpiece Un Verano Sin Ti - this is more trap, less overtly "Latin" - but it's really, really good. Sometimes not knowing the language can emphasise the emotion in the sound: the blues in the trap, the Spanish derived "tristeza"...
My fave Villalobos moments are often him working his wonky magic on "real" instruments and songs (see his Tony Allen / ECM reworks) so a whole album of him tweaking A Mountain Of One's Balearic soft rock is a real treat. Gets progressively "more Ricardo" as it goes on.
I love how Young Fathers have become such a beacon of what a "big festival band" CAN be when it broadens its influences out and grooves a bit. This album is such a big step up for them, and I really hope they keep this momentum because it's BIG FUN.
And talking of Scots "big festival bands" with diverse influences pushing the envelope and having fun with loading in more pop, dance, rap etc, The Djangos really went to town on this one and I was surprised not to see it getting more hype. A proper weird and wonderful party of an album.
I took this to mean songs that make you feel inspired and hyped up, and I have a few of those, but this from Nakhane and ANHONI - New Brighton has bonus queer solidarity and a really thumping beat that always gives me such incredible main character energy.
28: A song by an artist with a voice that you love
Going to cheat and stick with Nakhane, who has one of my favourite voices when it comes to artists currently recording. This song By the Gullet is such a deft blend of delicacy and power. Just masterful. Also always here for a song shouting out Holiday Inn.
Also Nakhane's vocal on this Black Coffee song is next level if you want to check out more.
30: A song that reminds you of yourself
Four Below Zero - My Baby's Got ESP reminds me of a very particular time in my life, when I had an incredibly dumb yet all consuming crush. And my motto is: if you're going to act like an idiot over someone, at least get a banging soundtrack.
Rapid mood-swings in this week's AM — a mellow first hour and gloomy second hour give way to a post-Pride disco celebration in hour three. LGBTQ2S+ artists abound in this week's program, too, from Beverly Glenn-Copeland and ANHONI to a spotlight on the dark & beautiful sound of Coil.
Listen on Soundcloud
Stream on CJSW
Spotify playlist (missing a few tracks)
Other links
Hour One
Machine Elves
Polypores • Multizonal Mindscramble
Castle Song
Green-House • Single
pattern_06
Spectral Tambours • Preliminary Draft
Gleisdreieck
Conic Rose • Heller Tag
Sorbet Pool
Hassle Hound • Scaring the Grass In the Garden
Gentle Pets
More Eaze • Strawberry Season
megafauna
RAMZi • hyphea
Light
Easy Idiot • Monkey Fancy
Electric Heart
Goodnight Girl • HSL
ETGSS
Time Wharp • Single
Hour Two
It Must Change
ANOHNI and the Johnsons • My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross
Collisions of Light
Tristan De Liège, Jambal • Single
Did You Know
Alabaster DePlume, featuring Momoko Gill, MettaShiba • Come With Fierce Grace
The Ones Ahead
Beverly Glenn-Copeland • The Ones Ahead
Jitters
Matthew Cardinal • Single
The Dreamer Is Still Asleep
Coil • Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 1
The Darkest Timeline
Holy Wave, featuring Lorelle Meets The Obsolete • Five of Cups
maladaptive daydreams
Shn Shn • e.strange.d
alife
Slowdive • Everything is Alive
Angel In Your Eyes
Austra • Future Politics
Hour Three (Disco Special)
Aaj Shanibar
Rupa • Disco Jazz
Megatron Man
Patrick Cowley • Single
Disco Dancer
Kiki Gyan • Feeling So Good
I Hear Music in the Streets
Unlimited Touch • Unlimited Touch
This round for Aramis was really normal. But he and Carlos had some big plans to move in together. They just had to get a little more money for their future house.
The round in the Surmu household ended with Anhony dying of old age with a smile on his face.