The City Is Blinking

Years ago I was a low down, pitiful sort. I had no love in my heart and couldn't dance for shit. Then I found R&B. Now I am a full human who enjoys all the benefits that entails. The Weeknd is my favourite person in R&B. He is the new Michael. The new Prince. The new R. Kelly. When I saw The Weeknd in 2013, it was like seeing Michael Jackson as a young man. When he asked the audience if he could "come down there and get sexy with you" I screamed as loud as any woman. The Weeknd took a largely stagnant genre and revitalized it into something relevant and inspiring. He created a myth around himself that is as powerful as the greats before him. Abel is just as adept at melding astonishing beauty with the dark things in life, as Prince was before him. Sex is not just a thing, it is something that alters and transforms. It is where the true things in life occur. This is the new Camille. This is The Black Album turned into a life long career. Yes, you can love me b...

I'm getting lost in your curls I'm drawing pictures on your skin So soft it twirls I like your looks when you get mean I know I shouldn't say so but when you claw me like a cat I'm beaming I like the way you squeeze my hand Pulling me into another dream A lucid dream I'm getting lost in your curls I'm getting crushed out on the things that only I should see And not for boys, they're just for me Hurry to talk from far away I can see you, you curl your fists and you pull your hair When we're alone I wanna say Let's just stay in No one's here in our apartment, babe Put on the dress that I like It makes me so crazy though I can't say why Keep on your stockings for a while Some kind of magic in the way you're lying there I'm getting lost in your curls I'm getting rushed back on a whim Our breaths get wind Back to the time when we were green I know we have changed but I still grin Cause I can't wait to...

"Love is a tired symphony To hum when you're awake Love is a crying baby Mama warned you not to shake Love is the best sensation Hiding in the lion's mane." There are some albums that can heal you. The Creek Drank The Cradle is one such album. Every time I feel stressed or anxious I put it on, and by the time the opening track Lion's Mane is over I am transported to a soft and peaceful place. It is not that I don't like the albums Sam Beam, better known as Iron & Wine, has made since 2002 but there is nothing anywhere near the level of dreamy atmosphere to be found on his debut. The first woman I loved was someone who didn't love me. Maybe she liked me as a friend, maybe she didn't. I'm not too sure on the details. She was nonetheless a perfect soul. She was kind as all hell and befriended me when I felt I didn't deserve friends. She was with a good friend of mine for many years and as ashamed as I am to say it, I hoped they wou...

"Don't dream it, be it." I don't believe that sexuality is a binary thing. I know it is popular to say you are straight or gay but much like gender, I don't believe that people can be so easily placed into a this or that box. I am (mostly) heterosexual. I have however found men to be beautiful, sexual and appealing. When I was younger I was very hung up by my sexuality. Two things help me make sense of it. The first was Prince. The second was The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is a common thing for people to admit of course. I am not saying that I am unique in this and as already mentioned, my (mostly) heterosexuality did not mark me out as being all that different from my peers. At least not in the sense of liking women. When the show started in 1973 it acted as confirmation of the fluidity of gender and sexuality for all of those at risk people, who had to suffer through years of bullying and harassment for being nothing more than themselves. It'...

I was a fan of Breaking Bad. It was a beautiful, thrilling machine. When that machine was going forward with Walter White's story, it was sublime. When that machine stalled to say explore Marie's kleptomania it was frustrating, sometimes bordering on bad. I can say with no hesitation that Better Call Saul is just as good as that show, with none of the problems. Let's start with Bob Odenkirk. He takes a character who is, while eminently likeable, a crook and a cheat and gives him emotional depth. Thank in some part the writing, which is always sharp, on point and full of subtle details that help take an entertaining supporting part and make it into a fully fledged lead role. It would however all fall flat on its face if Odenkirk wasn't such a marvel at playing with the expectations of the audience and making Jimmy McGill a tragic character. He wants to do the right thing and for much of the first season of the show, that is what he does. Every now and then opportuni...

" Love the Prophet, because he loves the sinner. Love the sinner, because he is you. Without the sinner, what need is there for a redeemer? Without sin, what grace has forgiveness?" I don't believe in God. I believe in Art. I believe that Art can save a life because it saved my life. A few years ago I had a nervous breakdown. I became convinced that my friends wanted me dead. I refused to leave the house. When my father asked me what I would love to do that I couldn't do, I said play Bioshock Infinite. He took me out and we bought a television so I could play my favourite game. At the time I did not find joy in anything. I didn't have the attention span to even watch a movie or TV show. Then Infinite, much like it had every time I played it, lifted me up. Two hands together. One holding onto another. Free falling. Booker DeWitt wants to be forgiven but he doesn't know how to ask. From the first refusal to wash his sins away to his forced baptism ...

Rap used to be obsessed with crime, misogyny, homophobia and worse. You could not call yourself a credible rapper if you were not a terrible human being. Some people suggest that the problems Drake talks about on his songs are not really problems. "He's rich! What does he have to whine about?" First, he doesn't whine, he combines beautiful singing with the best flow around. Second, Drake's problems are the kind of problems that everybody faces: love, depression and the struggle to get through life alive. Why isn't that enough? Why does a black man automatically have to live up to a stereotype of being God fearing, brutish and stupid? Why can't a black man be concerned with what everybody else is? Why does a black man have to sing about the ghetto and gun violence? That people disregard these issues as having no artistic merit says a lot for the fetish in Rap to prize the grimiest, dullest, most aggressive motherfuckers around. Let's compare Drake ...