SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-“Thank U” (2020).
The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series is soon to be releasing a record Good Night Songs for Rebel Girls.
Unfortunately, the site doesn’t list the songs on the disc (yet).
The first song from it that I’m aware of is Aurora’s cover of Alanis Morissette’s “Thank U.”
I don’t know that I’ve heard Aurora sing another person’s song before. I kind of expected her version to be radically different–uniquely Aurora. But in fact, her version is quite faithful to the original.
The music is understated (Aurora’s music is a little softer) and when Aurora starts singing, it almost sounds like Alanis. The big difference comes in some of the vowels, in which Aurora’s voice glides through the sounds in a slightly different way (a little smoother, perhaps).
In the original, Alanis’ “thank you silence” line is a little harsh sounding. Aurora’s is a little as well–it must be a very sharp note or tone to hit.
Alanis’s song is based around some thumping drums and bigger swells. Aurora keeps the whole thing lower key and the cover works beautifully.
[READ: October 24, 2020] “Face Time”
This is actually the second story I’ve read about COVID. As I was reading it I was surprised that it was about COVID–that it was so current. The story even mentions Tom Hanks having COVID which happened in March. This story was published in September and was clearly finished before then (I don’t know how much lead time a story needs). So that’s pretty quick. And it’s pretty spot on.
There’s not a lot to the story, in a sense. A woman, one of three adult daughters, is FaceTiming her father who is in a nursing home. Her father caught COVID while in the facility. He is now in an isolation room being monitored by nurses in full hazmat gear.
The daughters can only talk to him through FaceTime. He is older and does not understand the technology, so the nurses have to set up the connection.
The youngest daughter (the favorite) says she can’t see him like this, and refuses to participate. The narrators other sister is bossy–demanding a lot from the nurses. So much so that the narrator fears that the nurses might do something to her father out of spite.
The bossy sister commandeers a FaceTime meeting trying to connect all three of them, but the technology is a little wonky.
It’s hard talking to him. He is not always lucid, and he doesn’t understand the technology at all. Sometimes he thinks she is her mother. He does talk about voting for Biden in November–something to look forward to.
The next day, the hospital doesn’t call her at the appointed time. It’s not until several hours later. He is sleeping peacefully so she can’t talk to him anyway.
The following day there is again no call at the appointed time.
This brief story really captures the feeling of loneliness and of being cut off from those we love.
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