Sound.Track.It

Leathan Milne - Washington

There’s this thing that happens every August, and this place I go where life is stripped clean of every weight, every worry, every expectation, and every obligation.  Where I can exist in my most sensitive state and say a big hello to myself for five straight days. 

It’s been a month since I was there, at Doe Bay Fest, and I find myself missing it and the state that plays host to one of my favourite salvations.  And so a song to soothe we who miss that place and that state … footsteps made the quiet tones that sang to me of Washington, it was easy there not to think of you.

Oh No! Yoko

I am two minutes into the first song of this album, having never heard it before. I’m going out on a limb here and posting this before I’ve even listened to the whole thing, because sometimes you meet something and you just know.  Or do you?

Pretty Broken Things - 40 Seasons

I was just stepping off the bus on the way to my beach front apartment thinking about how cold it got today after starting off so mild.  How I went to a movie in a white sundress and I emerged to have to make my way home in the rain, umbrellaless.  Vancouver in June.  Typical. 

But it felt like home, like on the prairies when the temperature dives before a storm comes.  And I thought how it smelled like home.  Smelled like imminent lightening.  And as I crossed the street, I looked at the car that was stopped to let me cross and it had a Manitoba license plate.  And I thought to myself, “silly little coincidences, making things make sense.  I hope everyone sees them like I do and is calmed too.”  Then I got home and found an email send just minutes earlier from my buddy.  It contained this video.……  I grew up on the bank of the Red River… the mention of the smell of rivers, the smell of home … home.  Nice timing.  I love having telepathic friends.

I cannot wait for Doe Bay Fest.  DDBDB.

Said the Whale - Loveless

This is beyond cute, and cute never hurt anyone.

LMFAO - I’m Sexy and I Know It

Some Sundays feel like this.  Living beside Kits Beach with the sun shining might have something to do with it.

And might I add, we’ve come a long way since the days of not filming Elvis from the waist down because there was too much junk movement… a long long way.

Happy struttin’… Hey Ocean! - Sprawl II Cover

For the last three weeks I have been growing increasingly cranky… and then last night it was suddenly gone. Why was it all of sudden gone? Because three weeks ago I twisted my knee skiing and in the time since I have progressed from limping, to surrendering to crutches, to getting rid of the crutches, to limping, to surrendering to using a cane, to getting rid of the cane, to limping, to hobbling, to looking nearly normal, and then to, finally last night, happy strutting.

Happy strutting, that thing that happens when your happiness decides to sneakily infest your walk. Your rhythm settles into a peppy pace. Your butt decides to increase its side to side travel. And your feet decide to do a little flick upwards when your foot hits the front edge of your stride and makes the decision to change direction without fear of what’s below, without any hesitation to change direction. Happy strutting.

And then you smile, and someone catches your genuine show of happiness and responds instinctively in kind. The happy strut, initially fueled by happy is now fueling more happy.  So you smile bigger, and the next guy sees that and gives you a wink.  So you giggle and the 80 year old grandma behind him crouches a bit, turns to look at you from the corner of her eye, smiles with half her mouth and gives you the double gun hands. And then you end up in the grocery store dancing in the aisles and questioning whether an 80 year old grandma actually just double gun smiled at you. And then you realize that you haven’t felt the joy of the happy strut in three weeks and life just wasn’t complete without it.

My knee healed, and I couldn’t be more thankful for my immune system. And to be reminded of this in such a happy way, that makes me thankful I hurt my knee and lost my ability to experience the happy machine that is the happy strut.  I love you happy strut.

So I happy strutted back to my apartment and as I got to the bottom of the hill and saw the ocean, I thought the thing I always think when I see the ocean…. Hey Ocean!  Here’s some beautiful Hey Ocean! and Aiden Knight covering Arcade Fire to close out this foolish weekend.  (Thanks Ethan).

There’s something about the still of the Downtown Eastside on a crisp, damp, wintery Saturday morning that lights my soul on fire. The seagulls cawing. The weary souls milling about. The ominous alleys and their chaotically draped power lines.  And finding refuge from the cold in a local coffee shop’s mosaic floors, exposed brick, ornate ceiling, and comfy couches with a steamy cup of hot cocoa and a little Bob Dylan gently warming my mind for some sweet, sweet idea sharing… bliss.

Bob Dylan - It Ain’t Me Babe

Live life shoes off, pants rolled up, and spontaneously in a creek.  
Seek supportive, respectful, and inspirational surroundings; the effortless beauty that follows will astound you and be worth every challenge of the change.  
Embrace love… it’s the refreshing, cool water flowing through the spaces between your toes.

Dan Mangan - Rows of Houses / Leaves, Trees, Forest