Music for My Morning

That’s it. Done complaining for the month. Hopefully longer.

So… I’m going to take off the dark glasses that emphasize shadows and just take a few moments to celebrate. Eh. It’s a little less cerebral. Sure. But, one power of words that never escapes me is the value of appreciation. 

One of my most favorite quotes is from Voltaire. He wrote, “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is wonderful in others belong to us as well.” I believe that. Not the stealing of glory… but the deliciousness of art, of music, of a moment where the world is beautiful and full of possibility.

This morning I wanted to take the fury out of my attitude and set myself down at the computer with my iTunes. Emiliana Torrini popped up on the shuffle, so I resolved to just listen to her music this morning.

Who?

A few years back when myspace was still the occupation of idle time at the computer, I ‘discovered’ a whole new world of music. In fact, when anyone fluffs off the puerile nature of that social networking site, I argue that it really opened up my appreciation for a lot of bands and musical artists I would not have discovered on pop radio.

I found Emiliana on a lark. I have a slight obsession with movie soundtracks. A favorite is Howard Shore’s trilogy for LOTR. At the end of Two Towers, there is the soulful, heartbreaking Gollum’s Song. Not Andy Serkis. A strangely Italian name of Emiliana Torrini. So I did a search and found her myspace page and a bunch of songs that had nothing to do with a ring. And turns out she isn’t Italian, but Icelandic.

I haven’t seen her live. I regret I missed her stint at the Paradise last August. But I do have two of her albums, Fisherman’s Woman and Me and Armini. The former was a background to my 2007, whilst the latter was programmed into the various playlists for writing my novel. Mostly quiet, but definitely haunting.
 

I’ve heard some compare her to Bjork. Maybe… but I prefer to let you draw your own conclusion.