Love is our resistance

Couldn't help it. Heard this song yesterday on the radio. Hadn't heard it in years. It flooded me with emotion.

This morning, I woke up and had to try and nail down the piano intro on my electronic piano. Not sure if I succeeded, but it's about as simple a piano melody as it gets, and I think I came pretty close.

If we live a life in fear
I'll wait a thousand years
Just to see you smile again
Kill your prayers for love and peace
You'll wake the thought police
We can't hide the truth inside

 

-Muse

Short entry for today's Song of the Day.

La mer ne m'englouttira pas

C'est pas l'homme qui prend la mer, c'est la mer qui prend l'homme

It's not man who takes to the sea, it's the sea who takes man

Dès que le vent soufflera, je repartira Dès que les vents tourneront, nous nous en allerons

As soon as the wind blows, I'll return home; As soon as the winds turn, we shall take our leave

-Renaud

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Une chanson différente pour la chanson de la journée aujourd'hui. Je me suis réveillé avec ce tube des années 80s pogné dans ma tête, et je n'hésite pas de la partager avec vous. J'ai découvert Renaud à mon dernier emploi, où j'avais la chance d'écouter des playlists Spotify à la journée longue. Il en avait une de ces playlists qui était nommée quelque chose comme "French singer-songwriters", ce qui laisse la place à beaucoup de chanteurs.

A different song for the Song of the Day today. I woke up with this 80s hit stuck in my head, and I do not hesitate to share it with you. I discovered Renaud at my last job, where I was able to listen to Spotify playlists all day long. One of these playlists was named something like "French singer-songwriters", which encompasses quite a few singers.

J'ai essayé de traduire mes deux lignes favorites de la chanson en haut.

I tried to translate my two favourite lines up above.

Et voici la chanson en question:

Here is the song in question:

Constant improvement with the Y

I signed up for a YMCA membership last week. One of the best financial and physical decisions I've made this decade! It's money I'm investing into myself, my body, my mind. I get to play badminton, do yoga, and use the weight machines - and these are only the things I've done so far in the last two weeks. I get access to all the YCMA centres in Canada (I know because when I was in Halifax 11 years ago, I was still able to use the family membership!), and that feels like a safety net somehow.

Importantly, I get access to swimming pools, which although they're filled with chlorine (I'd much prefer salt because it's way healthier for the skin), allows me to ease back into spending time submerged underwater. I used to swim a lot as a kid, and I barely swam at all into adulthood. I really miss it.

I like to wander a lot in Toronto, and so the Y gives me a place to get my bearings if I don't feel like being at home. Now, building community post-Covid is important, and it's not going to be easy, but I might be able to make new friends with all these new activities that the Y offers me.

I ain't gay (I identify as genderqueer and I'm pretty straight), but I think you can guess what today's song of the day is gonna be. Here it is in all its glory:

Illuminating lights shine brightly in the dark

I was a knife

in the gunfight

and I fought so madly

you were a wolf in the daylight

and you almost had me

Can a slave preach freedom?

Can a captive take hold of what they believe in?

-LIGHTS

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Another one of those days where I wake up with a song in my head. I'm not surprised it's a LIGHTS song again. Last month, she came came out with a new album, PEP, and as is customary, I'm lagging behind because this song is from her previous album, Skin & Earth. I've only listened to one song from PEP, and I couldn't tell you what it was - only that I left a comment on the fresh YouTube video to remind myself that, well, I was there. I'll listen to all of it eventually.

I have some thoughts on this Song of the Day, though. Can you imagine being a knife in a gunfight? The only times where I've had the chance to feel like that is in my Counter-Strike games. So I guess I'm taking it pretty literally, this song, which by the way is called Almost Had Me.

Another interpretation that I take as my own (because, honestly, I don't know THAT much about LIGHTS, even though I've seen her twice in concert) is that the odds are stacked against you in society. Uh, more specifically, let's say you're fighting demons like pharmaceutical drugs (thankfully not my case anymore), well, you're a knife, because drugs are guns to your homeostasis. And the wolves that run the show use this leverage to keep power, control, and money.

What I love about LIGHTS is that her lyrics are always powerful. Doesn't matter what album, there are nuggets of wisdom hidden everywhere and always backed up by catchy electronica, or, if you're into acoustic, gentle guitar melodies that (usually) calm the soul.

Okay I'm getting kinda creative with just a short burst of the lyrics that I cited above, here's the Song of the Day: