I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JAMES BLAKE-“Retrograde” (2013).

I don’t know anything about James Blake.  Indeed, I always assume he is a country singer.  Which he isn’t.

Daft Punk raved about this song as well, so I’m giving it a listen.

There’s not a lot to it, but I love the hummed melody–it’s catchy and distinctive.  The whole production of the song reminds me of Seal’s bigger hits.  Blake has a very beautiful voice as well.

 Even though I probably won’t listen to it again, (although now that it’s over I kind of want to hear it again), I’ll bet I have that hummed melody in my head all day.

[READ: June 17, 2013] “Slide to Unlock”

This was a short story rather than a True Crime, but it was very short, so I’m including it here at the end of the week.  I have complained before about stories that are more or less lists–series of words or phrases that don’t really create a story, just a series of ideas.  This story takes that premise of a series of ideas and actually makes a story out of it and I liked it very much.

As the title suggests. the story is about passwords.  And it begins (in second person) “You cycle through your passwords.  They tell the secret story.  What’s most important to you.”

And he gives some examples:

Your daughter’s name.
Your daughter’s name backwards.
Your daughter’s name backwards plus the year of her birth.
Your home town backward.

Then he gives some suggestions that one might use:

First concert you attended.
First sex. You remember the day, month, year.

And as he is cycling through these ideas we see in italics : Stop stalling.

Favorite film?
Sibling you don’t talk to?

The end of the story pulls together the ideas behind this and links it to why he keeps hearing “stop stalling.”  And suddenly the story which seemed so thoughtful and introspective and which seems to concern identity theft suddenly becomes a lot more real and a lot less virtual.The way Park pulled that out in the last two paragraphs of this very short story was pretty great.