On Tuesday evenings I drive my daughter and three of her friends to choir practice. As they warm their voices up by talking fast or screaming simultaneously, four 12-year-old girls generate an unbelievable amount of noise, especially within the confines of a Passat. Once I’ve dropped them off, the drive home is a more relaxed, solitary affair, with no chorus of negative comment on my choice of music.
One of the traffic lights I stop at affords me a perfect view into the second floor headquarters of the Arthur Murray Dance Center in Bethesda. Between 7 and 8pm, it hosts what looks like a formal ballroom dancing class. Post-youth couples move gently around the room. This week they danced to Near Dark by Burial, at least from where I was sitting with my foot on the brake. The rhythm was slightly out of sync with the dancing, but that didn’t matter. For once in my day, I was not impatient for the light to turn green.
There are too many traffic lights, and way too few forms of entertainment to go with them.
One of the traffic lights I stop at affords me a perfect view into the second floor headquarters of the Arthur Murray Dance Center in Bethesda. Between 7 and 8pm, it hosts what looks like a formal ballroom dancing class. Post-youth couples move gently around the room. This week they danced to Near Dark by Burial, at least from where I was sitting with my foot on the brake. The rhythm was slightly out of sync with the dancing, but that didn’t matter. For once in my day, I was not impatient for the light to turn green.
There are too many traffic lights, and way too few forms of entertainment to go with them.
It sounds like a scene from a movie which sets in motion a life-altering sequence of events. Do you think it was some non-specific non-deity telling you to take up ballroom dancing?
ReplyDeleteIf I were forced to choose one artist and one artist only, it would be Burial. It is my opinion that he is a genuine genius. As an added bonus, my wife and children share my enthusiasm. My fourteen year old believes that Burial music sounds like night.
ReplyDeleteHalfhearted, ballroom dancing and I have a longstanding agreement that we remain separate entities until my leaden feet are both skeletal and safely entombed.
ReplyDeleteNathan, your son speaks musical truth. At first I thought Burial was empty, then I began to appreciate its stark quality. My own kids, though, let it pass without comment. And if they don't comment, I know it's wise not to ask.
The film scene in question may have been this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7axu6BPmeaI&feature=related
Can't get the full URL, boyo, but I thought of Indie-Pop being played by Richard Gere (in the American version).
ReplyDeleteI think Indie-Pop would like to be played by Richard Gere.
Sorry about the URL, Senor Dude. It still works for me. Or else search on "Vampyr; Carl Th. Dreyer; en el molino" on the YouTubes.
ReplyDeleteRichard Gere in the movie version of the Stay-At-Home Indie-Pop blog: there are some ideas you just know are too good to ever reach fruition.
ReplyDeleteI liked the film clip, boyo. I'm sure that the full version, like all silent black and white movies frothed upon by the culturally astute, is not for the faint-hearted.