Elizabeth Anka Vajagic - Where You Wonder [mp3]
Two days ago I was preparing to shop for a Halloween costume, packing my bag with Borges and a notepad and pens, packing my wallet with Josephine’s money, affixing the U-Lock to the rack on the back of the Univega and her and I talked about the great bargains I should shop for at the costume store and that I should keep my eyes peeled for sales on pearl necklaces made of plastic made to resemble pearls and zombie makeup kits to make believe a biker zombie whose head was smashed and whose spine was smashed unceremoniously upon the hood of a large automobile traveling above the speed limit on Sunset Road right at the intersection of Avondale Drive where I was attempting to turn left and hanging out in the middle, little, gray section of the road, a ghost in the middle of the road, unknown in the center of it all, the only spot of cement along the cathedraled, tree-lined stretch of Sunset Road open to the sunlight and looking death in the face with each passing vehicle waiting patiently for a turn to turn, vehicles quickly moving in front and behind and really you can’t ask for a better costume especially if you get a good deal on the makeup.
I told Josephine before I left that she should listen to Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, that Vajagic is part of that Godspeed school of music and that she’d like Vajagic’s voice and the drawn out nature of the tunes. She loaded Lala and after convincing her that she should listen to Elizabeth Anka Vajagic before the new Devendra Banhart album which advertised itself at the top of Lala, she played the first song and I deliberately elongated my preparations so that I could gauge her reaction to the first song or two. I attached the pump to the front tire of the Mercx and inflated it to 100 PSI, then the back tire and then I also inflated the tires on the Univega even though I wasn’t going to ride that bicycle. I made myself a large glass of water, sipping irregularly with my bicycle helmet unsecured and wobbling each time I tilted my head back. I washed my hands and heard from the living room Elizabeth Anka Vajagic wailing, “Let it go now, before your hopes get lost. Let it go now, they’ll hate you more.” Josephine was reading about the vast and complicated nature of hurricanes on Wikipedia because the PowerPoint presentation about the vast and complicated nature of hurricanes which Professor Subra supplied was useless. I noticed that Josephine had a pained expression on her face as Elizabeth Anka Vajagic sang and that it couldn’t possibly be because of a Wikipedia article. I asked her what she thought of Vajagic and she said her voice was very deep. I agreed and told her the third song was best and then I left with “Where You Wonder” in my head.
Later that night, “Where You Wonder” again began looping in my head as I sat with Emily on the back porch of a house where a Halloween party was occurring. The zombie makeup kits were sold out so I sat as Jerry Seinfeld in a puffy shirt explaining to Emily the wonder of a red lantern illuminating softly the cheeks and bodies of those people standing in the backyard conversing. The porch was screened in and through the infinitesimal tiny gray windows, a grainy red scene was unfolding before us in the most asinine fashion. Nevertheless, the gathered ones were dead and hungry for something else in this cinematic rendering of the standard back and forth, Emily saw it and I said it for the benefit of the two of us, the people on the backyard nodded unwittingly and Emily and I just had to laugh. We laughed and laughed, even after death flashed across our faces. A slight slip slapped across our faces. And we just had to laugh.
Elizabeth Anka Vajagic is a rhythm and blues band from Montreal. The featured song is from the album Stand with the Stillness of this Day. Purchase the music at Amazon | Insound | eMusic.
