Dengue Fever

The other night I think I made the right choice
I listened to the singer with the high-pitched voice

She made music that takes you to another place
Singing about long, lost loves with grace

It flows in your ears and you are taken away
to a beach in the Sixties in Asia or L.A.

The synth drones, guitars wail, drums drop
Surf rock meets Cambodian Pop.

Asked you to sign my CD. You wrote, “Thank you”
And I simply said “Thank you” back to you.

You put the innocence in things dangerous
like making carrot cake for a terrorist

It took a singer from Phnom Phen
But now I feel new again.

"We should hang out"

So you know how you sometimes run into someone from high school/college at Trader Joes? You see her looking for peanut butter the same time as you and she raises her eyebrows and opens her mouth real big and screams "Oh my God!" and throws her arms around you like you are best friends and insists that you exchange numbers and/or email addresses and then says "we should hang out?"

And as you are walking out the store carrying your bags you think "that (fill in name) was ok. maybe we really did have a connection and maybe I really was a big part of her life." And then you call her a week later and leave a message after she possibly side-buttoned you. She doesn't call you back. And then you reflect back and remember that you never even had a deep conversation with her and maybe the only bonding you did was bitching about the same professor while running into each other at the library.

Well, that always happens to me. I don't know why people do that. The whole exchanging contact information thing.... if they dont ever intend to contact the person.

I guess people have a hard time saying, "It was good running into you. Enjoy your peanut butter. Bye."

Disco Comfortably Numb

This post goes out to Bangalore transplant...

So the other weekend I took my teenage cousin out to a suburban mall. Out of the many stores to browse, she settled on one of those that make cheaply-made, yet expensive clothing. So this is what I have figured out about teenagers.... they don't care about the quality of clothes.... as long as its sold in a store with sexy lighting and sexy music. Music that makes you think of future parties you will be going to the next few months. Another thing I learned about teenagers is that they don't just TRY ON their clothes, they also DANCE in the clothes in the fitting room so they can see what they look like in it when doing "the wu tang".... and thats why there is always a long line coming out of the fitting room.

When I was a teenager, I told myself , "When I become an adult, I will be accepting of 'teenager' music." Now I am an adult and I take it back. Music that kids listen to these days suck. It was proven that one afternoon at the mall.... so I'm waiting for my cousin in the fitting room and this horrible disco song that I never heard comes on and I'm mouthing the words. It turns out that some disco group did a cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

Imagine Comfortably Numb the way you remember it. Now take away Floyd's darkly subtle, atmospheric and melancholy vibes. Replace it with a fast-paced clubby beat. Now take away Roger Water's deep and haunting voice and replace it with some high-pitched-Bee-Gees-sounding shit.

The group that does it is called "The Scissor Sisters." They should be shot.