and I've been thinking, I've got my reasons

I’ve had this Dali print for a long time, maybe over a decade. I’m not a rabid Dali fan by any stretch, although I did check out the Dali museum situated in his birthplace just outside of Barcelona back in May, which now seems like a lifetime ago. But when I saw this work, titled Table Sun, I had an immediate reaction to it.

So I’ve had it all this time, but it never quite fit with any place I was living. It is bleak and spare, which you generally avoid evoking in your residence. Still, I held onto it. I would like to say it was deliberate, but really I just held onto a lot. The past week has been a series of discoveries and reconsiderations, scrutinizing belongings on their worth, their utility, their meaning.

I have thrown a lot away (thank you, once again, GoodWill!). But I got to this ancient print, and it hit me anew. Not only that, but the unrelenting heat here actually makes the print apropos in a way that it never was before. And finally, over a decade later, it has found its place to belong.

I think, I hope this will be the last meditation on moving in a while. This is a fairly momentous day for me, but what I really want to write about is a song. And the reason I’m compelled to write of it is: I could really use your help.

The radio stations here, like pretty much everywhere these days, are for crap, but the local hip hop station has a daily show at noon called the Throwback Mixx (why, by the way, has that second X become so prevalent?). The first time I heard it, mostly silly retro rap was played, like that song Mentirosa by Mellow Man Ace (right? I think it’s by him). Of course, I like silly so this was still plenty welcome.

But towards the end of the week, I was driving and thus decided to kick out the jams, and my brain basically proceeded to break. First, Arrested Development’s People Everday came on, and whatever Mr. Wendell, but I love me some Arrested Development. So I was already quite pleased.

But that did not prepare me for the next track on the rotation. When it came on, I kind of wrinkled my nose for a moment- is this song really a throwback? Sh*t, time flies and I am getting old. It wasn’t just that though: the song doesn’t sound like it has aged, not even slightly. Mostly, while hearing it, I wondered why stations aren’t throwing it into the rotation all the time.

The song, as by now you likely know, is Talib Kweli’s Get By. Now, undoubtedly, everyone knows this feeling- you’re driving and the radio is playing its usual tired, generic setlist and then, bam, unexpectedly, you hear a song that reminds you that damn, there is some good music out there. For me, with Get By, it’s that the song has the whole package- it is musically fantastic, it has that catchiness je ne sais quoi, but it also has just stunning lyrics. Even the video is kind of perfect.

It got me to thinking. And that, of course, is usually where I require outside assistance. Let’s just say I am making a mix CD, and Kweli’s Get By is the first track. It sets the stage, it dictates that which follows. What other songs make the cut onto the mix? I could really use tips… there might even be a small musical reward involved.