Jukebox

“Sarah Victoria” — Acoustic Alchemy
“Black Water” — Doobie Brothers
“The Cloud Room” — Laura Veirs

The theme today is dreaming.

I have all kinds of dreams about what I want to do with my work or with myself. And I also, particularly when I’m in need of rest, have dreams about places I’d like to be. I don’t see travel as excitement and froth and doing seven museums before breakfast; for me, the best travel is to go to a beautiful place and find rest, find stillness in myself, be taken care of so that I may step back and simply be in the world. Be free of care and responsibility so that I have the bandwidth to see the world through fresh eyes and remember that it’s bigger than me. To find particular small joys of food and wine and conversation with strangers. To stand in spaces that I may only see once in my life but can carry inside me always. That kind of travel gives me a particular sense of freedom and safety combined.

“Sarah Victoria” is for The Inn of the Five Graces in Santa Fe. Wow. So much color and texture, and yet it looks so peaceful to me. I’m not a minimalist by any means: the appeal of a white room with a single black chair eludes me. But it’s not easy to mix color and comfort; and yet, I see these photos, the small table in the shade of a private courtyard, the sun on stone, tile and textile from markets a half a world away, and I want to be there.

I’ve talked before about “Black Water” and my South. It’s here today because it’s always been a touchstone for me. It doesn’t take me back to the Tampa of my childhood, but rather to the idealized South that I took with me when I left the real one behind. This song is for floating on slow rivers through places where I belong down to my DNA, watching clouds and drinking iced tea. I miss Spanish moss and Florida sunsets and men in gimme caps with grease-stained overalls who will open up their auto repair shops on a Sunday morning to repair the radiator of a stranger and her teenage daughter for free because they are 500 miles from home with only $16 in their pockets.

And then there is “The Cloud Room,” which speaks to one of my oldest dreams of escape. I had some bad years in grammar school and was always escaping through books, and later through music. And when I was still small enough, 9 or 10, I would escape from class to the women’s bathroom — not the busy bathroom in the long hall where we had most of our classes, but the one down a flight of stairs in a quiet nook of the administrative section. It had a small window with a broad tile sill set high in the wall. I would climb up the radiator and wedge myself into the sill, so I could sit with my knees up and look up into the sky. I would imagine that I was a seagull flying over sea cliffs in Spain. Why Spain? I have no idea. I doubt I’d even seen pictures of it. But it was always Spain, and the cliffs were golden and beautiful, the sky was forever big and blue over a deserted white beach and a calm sea, the wind just right. And I could really feel it. For those moments, I soared.

Enjoy.

Edited to add: I’m sorry to say that I don’t have enough server space for all my audio, so most jukebox playlists become inactive after a few months. This is one. Very sorry. But the music is worth seeking out, it’s great!