Sunday, July 11, 2010

Day 24 - Mother & Child Reunion

This morning I woke up and Granny Shirley picked me up after breakfast. We prepared a little bit for an afternoon family party at her place, did some shopping and then we took a walk at the RBG to see the gardens and some new installations. Around 3:30, we were back at Shirley's house and people started arriving for the party. I enjoyed visiting with Sarah, Ray, and their new baby boy, Bryan. Later on Courtney, Paul, Luke, Dean, Jean arrived, followed by Rita and Nana.


Around 7:30pm Rita and Nana and I headed off to the airport to pick up Bonnie who was arriving from Seoul.

Today's musical selection is a beautiful song called The Mother & Child Reunion by Paul Simon. Growing up in Jamaica we were fortunate enough to have the musical gifts of people who would come to visit and bring us cassette tapes of new or popular music from Canada. Christine and I could get Michael Jackson, Billy Ocean, Whitney Houston and Madona at the local mixed music cassette recording shops, but it was people like Maxine who brought us The Proclaimers, David Linley and Paul Simon. We listened to the album Graceland a lot! In the MGB, at the Pink Cottage, at the White House, on the Stephanie Jane, at Martin's house, etc.

It turns out Paul Simon's influence on Jamaicans and Jamaican music wasn't limited to the Cahusac's and their visitors or friends listening to Graceland in their free time. Not quite. Check out this version of Mother & Child Reunion sung by Ziggy Marley and interestingly introduced by Chevy Chase... What a weird connection that is! Reminds me of the You Can Call Me Al video.

In my last year of living in Colombia, in the apartment in El Ingenio, I started listening to Paul Simon again quite a bit. It summoned a strong sense of nostalgia for me and I also began to explore a better appreciation for the African beats and rhythms. In the last 3 years I've continued to listen to Paul regularly and even reminded a few people I've met along the way just how much his music means to them. The song Slip Sliding Away became one of my top favorites during my OEE year and I think may have rubbed off on a couple people.

While more recently in Hong Kong, I have been listening to tracks like The Obvious Child and Bernadette more often. There really are, just so many, great songs by Paul Simon. It seems as though he can almost always be included in any playlist for any occasion.

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