So Sylvie

Vashti Bunyan: Train Song

It's mournful monday again. Time for another beautiful sad song. This ones parfait for the day as I'll be traveling north. Vashti Bunyan is a 60s singer/songwriter ~ a 'discovery' (like Marianne Faithfull) of Andrew Loog Oldham (Rolling Stones manager, etc.). Devendra Banhart and Andy Cabic (Vetiver) are fans and collaborators of Vashti's...and you know they have good taste.

 

 

 

 

Traveling north, traveling north to find you
Train wheels beating, the wind in my eyes
Don't even know what I'll say when I find you
Call out your name love, don't be surprised

It's so many miles and so long since I've left you
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
But suddenly now I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

Nothing at all in my head to say to you
Only the beat of the train I'm on
Nothing I've learnt all my life on my way to you
One day our love it's over and gone

It's so many miles and so long since I've met you
Don't even know what I'll find when I get to you
But suddenly now I know where I belong
It's many hundred miles and it won't be long

 

This Will End In Tears

I love sad music. It makes me so happy. I will endeavor to share a sad song every Monday, to kick off the week  (we'll see if a gemini gypsy gal can be that disciplined). This week I am in love with this song by The National and the ancien film footage brilliantly fused by omnisciencia ficción.

 

 

 

J'ai descendu l'escalier de la tour eiffel...once upon a time, in another time. A happy time.

This was parked outside of my flat in the 16th Arrondissement in Paris:

Blue music for a blue car :)

The Romance Language of Dots: French Braille

I'm suddenly absorbed by studying French Braille. "Why?", you ask. Simple short answer: Marcel brought home a copy of Marvin Gaye's record album "What's Goin' On?" and it had a Braille label on each side of the jacket, made with one of the early personal label makers. It took me back to when I was young and had a Dymo. I felt so powerful, "I can personalize anything!" I proudly punched out my name on blue plastic tape and stuck it on my Beatles White Album.

 

 

So I was curious, what did the labels on the album cover say? One label had more writing than the other, so they didn't both say "Marvin Gaye" for instance. It seemed like every couple of characters I could translate using the English Braille alphabet, but it was spotty. Some I couldn't figure out. So I tried the French alphabet with the additional accented letters. That seemed to help, but only to a point. It wasn't consistent with either. Some letters from the English alphabet worked and some from the French, but not all. Then it dawned on me: maybe the labels are on "upside down". That was it! I then translated one side of the cover to read "Marvi Gay" and the other side "M. Gaye - Ûat's Go". I'm still learning the codes for contractions, but it appears that the French "U" with a circumflex accent is substituted for "Wh" in English. Now I'm fascinated.