To launch us into the holiday weekend (well, here in the states it's a holiday--you Canadian gals feel free to have a barbeque and light sparklers and wave them around for us), I wanted to share this video of a song by my favorite band. Now, Elbow (from Manchester, England) is known for eclectic, gorgeous music that ranges from moody and spare to enormous wall-of-sound rock, and their lyrics are generally poignant and clever and wryly funny — and often very romantic without being cloying. They're passionately loved in much of the world but only really becoming known here. And I can't say this song is representative of their sound, because it's hard to really say WHICH of their songs really represent it —"beautiful" is the word that comes up a lot, often in reference to Guy Garvey's voice. But I love this song for a number of reasons: it's a song about waking up and realizing you're in love, and it has the world's best lyric, especially given how clever or poetic Elbow's lyrics generally are: "Holy cow, I love your eyes!" LOL. Who hasn't felt that about someone they're mad about? I mean, what else can you say? The song is joyous and big and anthemic—absolutely captures the sound of realizing you're in love, that feeling of light pouring into your life—and the video is very simple, but fabulous and funny on a number of levels. In which an ordinary guy turns a potentially mundane and onerous job into a sort of joyous ballet. You'll see what I mean.
So may your weekend be exactly this joyous, no matter what you're doing. :) Since California remains pretty much a tinderbox, there are only a few fireworks shows in the Bay Area this year (most of them have been canceled), including the annual big one in San Francisco. Hopefully the fog will cooperate by parting by the time the show rolls around, and I'm going to go up to a high hill to watch it. :) I love fireworks...from a safe distance. LOL.