I’ve been moving around a lot this past month. I left New York a couple days before Christmas, walked through still-dark early morning Brooklyn streets to catch a train to a bus that carried me through cold swamps and strip-mall suburbs. I went through Baltimore and D.C. and down through Virginia, watching all the upturned dirt outside turn black to brown to red as I got further South.
I stopped for a while in North Carolina, outside of Charlotte, visiting family and eating, drinking moonshine, and standing around a bonfire. Drove in a car back to D.C. for a few days before flying to St. Louis, via Chicago. I stayed in the house I had lived in during high school, so it was warm and comfortable and as nice to see as an old friend. I saw a few of those in St. Louis, too.
I flew from St. Louis to Cleveland and back to D.C., and danced without getting drunk. From there my wife and I took a bus to Philadelphia to see two people sincerely and passionately in love get married.
The point of all this isn’t just to say “what a whirlwind,” but to recommend a podcast. BBC 4’s Desert Island Discs is, if you’ve never heard it, a great collection of mostly British, but also (especially in the archives) generally interesting people of all walks and backgrounds and nationalities talking about what music, book, and luxury they would bring on a desert island with them. My favorites so far have been Brian Eno and Hugh Laurie, but the archives are really extensive and new episodes are being made all the time, so there’s a lot to explore.
Traveling, especially long periods of being in the wind, can feel something like a desert island experience. The isolation of being so physically close to a bunch of strangers. The monotony of manufactured seats and two-dimensional landscapes going past the window. The waiting.
And so I compiled my own desert island disc compilation, based solely upon my most recent traveling, and of course expected to change next year, week, tomorrow. What’s your music? Maybe a more interesting question, what’s your island?
Billie Holiday – Them There Eyes
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