for the past month or so, i've been having an ongoing e-correspondence with a friend i haven't seen in many many years. part and parcel of that are those big who-are-you questions - you know the kind: ten things you'd take to a desert island, favourite person (living or dead), books you're reading, top three movies. and then more personal ones based on the life you're living, affairs of the heart, a request for something more than the list, something that stands in for touch, for all the years you haven't spoken, for the intangible community that resides in the sound of the voice or a hug or just breathing in the same space in some pub in the same city.
one of the questions she asked me was about music. specifically, what songs make you cry? and of the list questions i've been asked, i like this one the most. i might as well admit it - i'm a sad sack. i love sad music. my ipod is full of it - the more melancholy the tune, the more i'm likely to fall in love with it. (i once tried to make an upbeat playlist from the songs on my pod, something to go to the gym with, and realized, there on the elliptical, that rufus wainwright does nothing to help get the heart pumping. and that was one of the happier tunes). and i don't know if identifying what songs make me cry says anything about me, and if it does, what exactly it says. but it's a question whose answer holds some emotional honesty, however inarticulate it might be.
dar williams - when i was a boy
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