In Which WorldSpace Should Pay Me For Promoting Them...

"There's something to be said for music: it has the amazing ability to make people bond. Be it Aerosmith (my mother particularly likes re-enacting the "Dude Looks Like a Lady" dance with the vacuum cleaner, a la Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire), or Prodigy ( my sweet, 50-plus dad headbanging away to "Smack My Bitch Up") or even the Backstreet Boys (i've told my little brother I'll disown him if he tells anyone he listens to boybands and is related to me), music appeals to anyone and everyone, be they possessed of discerning taste or not. Me, I relax with the dulcet tones of Metallica and Switchfoot and Incubus and, when i'm lucky, Eminem. Or wait, actually, I think the only thing we bond over is yelling to each other: "Turn the bloody volume down!" Sheesh. Parents. Do they have to blast the Marilyn Manson quite so loud?

No, but blatant name-dropping aside, this WorldSpace thingy is a stroke of sheer unadulterated genius, and to everyone out there who does not possess one: what are you waiting for, you poor sod? Go get it! 40 channels of music to suit every palate. So one second you could be listening to "Kandukondain kandukondain,", the next it could be "Tanhayee" and then "Donde Quieras yo ire" and subsequently "Unbreak my heart." I totally lack pride in my country's contribution to the world of music, and I suffer little to no shame about it...I firmly stick to the 12 channels allocated to rock, hip-hop, r&b, country, electronica, pop, chartbusters and international hits (I can't help it..."I want to kiss your bellybutton" sounds a million times better in Spanish than in Malayalam).

And, okay, there are news channels too, but who needs gloom and doom when Beyonce's talking about being a naughty girl? Still, for those who feel the need to be well-informed at any given nanosecond ,there are umm...I think...six news channels, all droning on about world affairs, so enjoy being clued in! And yes, that includes up-to-the-minute scores for every concievable sport that's being played out there, so all you cricket/football/hockey/ice-hockey/baseball/volleyball/basketball/women's-beach-volleyball fans, go get your jollies.

And what's best about WorldSpace Radio? Entertainment value: at the end of a long tiring day, I come home to see my grouchy 110-kilo maid doing the ironing and blissfully wobbling and shaking her groove thang to Daft Punk. Ah, bless music."

So, I wrote the above piece of ass-kissing a few months ago. My maid has since left (tossed out by my mom for the 289th and final time), and the only one wobbling and shaking her groove thang is me.

I HATE ironing. Hmph.

Okay, so I know a lot of people out there aren't really into poetry in a major way (or at all, really)...but this is a poem I go around stumping to just about everyone. You know how it is...you come across something so beautiful, you just have to share it with people. It's Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII: Love.

I do not love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
Or arrow of carnations that propagate fire.
I love you as certain dark things are loved:
Secretly, between the shadow and the soul;
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom
And carries hidden within itself the light of those flowers...
And thanks to your love, darkly in my body
Lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where;
I love you simply, without problems or pride.
I love you in this way because I know no other way of loving

But this, in which there is no I or you:
So close, that your hand upon my chest is my hand;
So close, that when I fall asleep, it is your eyes that close.

God, I love this one. Actually, I love most of his stuff. They're all translations into English, though, since the originals were in Spanish, but it makes you wonder...if the translation can feel like such a kick to the gut, how beautiful must the original be? His "Body of a Woman" is amazing...this one line gets me everytime: "You look like a world, lying in surrender." Gah. Oh, and his "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines"...wow...just...wow.

It's amazing the power that words can carry...how immensely evocative they are...how, to someone with an imagination (and hoo boy, do I ever have one!), words can convey more than a picture ever could. And I've seen this power mostly in poetry and songs...Not just Neruda, but Frost, and Dylan Thomas, and Byron, and Shakespeare and...Metallica, and 3 Doors Down, and Deathcab for Cutie, and Bif Naked, and....okay, it could go on forever.

But seriously. Do yourself a favour. Read Neruda's "Sonnet XVII" and "Body of a Woman". And Ben Jonson's "Love Poem to Celia". And then listen to Metallica's "Turn the Pages". And Bif Naked's "Lucky". And Bush's "Out of This World". And Staind's "It's Been A While".

Actually, listen to just about anything that makes you smile and sit down and say "Oh." Do that once a day, and I think it'll be a whole lot better for you than any vitamin tonic or calcium tablet or iron pill.

Now if I could just sell that theory to my doctor. Sigh.