August 31, 2012

Feelings Ghost

A couple of months ago I read a paragraph length review on Tumblr of Lykke Li's cover of Fleetwood Mac's Silver Springs that I really liked.

I really like the song too.  It's beautiful.  You should listen to it... here.

But this part of the review really got to me:

“Let’s take the best shy girl singing about being a shy girl in 2k12 and make her sing this fucking classic song about being bad at love and turning into a feelings ghost,” they said.


Something about that phrase 'feelings ghost'  really hit home for me.  

As a person who loves to write, is in love with language, and collects words and phrases the way others collect porcelain figurines, I love finding a phrase that really manages to encapsulate an entire state of being in a succinct, perfect way.

I would struggle to explain to you what 'feelings ghost' means to me because it would be hard to define it without using the phrase 'feelings ghost'.  Sometimes a writer finds such a perfect way to describe something you don't know how to explain it without just repeating the phrase back, but with slightly different emphasis.  Like repeating the same word over and over in a slightly louder voice to a person that doesn't speak English, as if volume was the key to making them understand what you meant.

So instead of shouting the phrase 'FEELINGS GHOST' at you over and over, I thought I would share some music that make me feel like a feelings ghost in the hopes that you might understand some glimmer of what I'm struggling to say.

Björk - Hyperballad


"I go through this before you wake up so I can be happier to be safe up here with you."

Sarah Jaffe - Clementine


Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan


"Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole. Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound. But while you debate half empty or half full, it slowly rises. Your love is going to drown."

New Order - Temptation


Van Morrison - Sweet Thing


"And I will walk in gardens all wet with rain, and I will never, ever, ever, ever grow so old again."

6 comments:

  1. That is a beautiful phrase. Sometimes I'll be reading a book and I'll stumble over a phrase in there that makes me stop and re-read it and then sit there and ponder.

    The one that immediately comes to mind is this:
    "The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain".

    I read that when I first moved to NC away from all my friends in AL and was really struggling to settle in and had just started to make new friends. It soothed me in a way, it made me realize I wasn't betraying my friends in AL when I was making new friends here, while at the same time letting me know that no one will ever replace them. It was a turning point for me.

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    1. PS- that's from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

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    2. Okay that totally reminds me of one of my favorite lines from a movie ever.

      In 'Stand By Me' (which was a very traumatic movie experience for me as a child, but that's an entirely different story for an entirely different day) the narrator (played by Richard Dreyfus) says:

      "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

      I really love that.

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    3. God how I love Stand By Me. *Chest pound* Wil Wheaton in his skivvies. And such a good quote too.

      I'm intrigued as to how this movie was traumatic and I sincerely hope one day you share your movie watching experience.

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  2. So, Jess. I've been creeping around your blog for the better part of the last hour (the "imaginary boyfriend" tag is particularly spectacular)and I just wanted to tell you that you are amazing and hilarious and wonderful and have great taste in all things and I am totally crushing on your blog and I really hope you haven't abandoned this page because you NEED to keep blogging okay? Okay.

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    1. Wow... what an incredibly nice comment to wake up to. I haven't totally abandoned the blog at all and maybe I just needed a little encouragement to start plugging away at it again. So, fait accompli... consider Imaginary Boyfriend Thursday revived as of tomorrow.

      Thanks again for crazy nice comment, stranger!!

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