I live in Sierra Madre, a town of 10,000 people and a suburb of Los Angeles. The Angeles National Forest, a wild and mountainous area, borders the town on the north, and the sprawling metropolis of greater Los Angeles surrounds the rest of town. Sierra Madre is mostly a residential community; most people who live […]
I ran into this issue a lot when putting together the second issue of No Fidelity, this April: There is no good way to say anything about anything right now. Everything seems trite, nothing seems to do anything justice, all sense seems lost in this sort of primordial soup into which everything seems to have
They say the full moon makes lunatics of us all and I agree when I look at it, floating through the chlorine. I decide that it controls more than just the tides. My hair latches onto my skull when I kick myself upright and I agree when I look at him as I’m treading water
I leave Crimson Canyon with this intrepid group of newborn explorers – Xia Mei, Lili, and Mao Ping. As we make our way to Yellowstone, I begin to learn more about them through shared experiences in the ash dunes.
It’s the little pills behind thick bars, the hurling whites and blues, the sweet veins of consumption; It’s that hard plastic taste, those light strips, bright frost, this mundanity in bloom; It’s her rubberband cry, her satin march, her chorus of keening tongues; It’s walking home, breathing in, gilded heat.
Quarantine made me do it. Starting back in the fall, I found myself categorizing my music by theme. I compiled songs about leaving home, songs about love, songs about growing up. As the summer progressed, it became more specific: songs that included or consisted of spoken word over music, songs about rain, songs about birds,
Sunday While Sunday is technically the first day of the week, let’s be honest, it’s really the last, and some songs are all too aware of this fact. Etta James’s soulful “A Sunday Kind of Love”, No Doubt’s “Sunday Morning”, Lonely God’s “Sunday”, Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean’s “Sunday”, and The Strokes’ “Why Are Sundays
Saturday Saturday is, classically, the best day of the week. Surprisingly, not all Saturday songs are as upbeat as one might expect. Sure, there are a bunch of songs that frame Saturdays as celebrations. Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” off of his seminal record, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Khalid’s “Saturday Nights”, the 80’s
Friday The Friday songs are a riot. As we’ve been expecting, the dominant narrative about Friday is that it’s a day for fun, usually in the form of a party that lasts until Saturday. Not all songs mention parties, but most have the message of throwing away one’s inhibitions and very often, money. Here goes
by Maya Khesin I fell in love with the Lumineers’ music last summer, and this love and admiration only intensified when I was lucky enough to be able to go to their concert just a few weeks before the new strain of the coronavirus closed schools and businesses and certainly excluded the possibility of live
It scares me: asphalt taunting water (too close), a makeshift bridge (last week’s landslide), the wet-dark wood of a pit stop in the trees. And yet: as we’re raked back by gravel tides, as the damp outside slaps us around (a toy car on the mountain’s brim)— Morrissey still finds the time to whine and
The summer before sophomore year of high school, I applied to work at least a dozen shops and restaurants around my hometown, a small city on the coast of California. For weeks, I got no calls back. It was clear why I was an unappealing candidate: I had no work experience and was barely fifteen.
Thursday Thursday invites a mix of songs grounded in memory of the past or anticipation for the future. Many of the song lyrics profess a certain vulnerability. Mitski’s “Thursday Girl” and Jess Glynne’s “Thursday” both open up to listeners. The lyrics center around identity and a desire to break from conformity going forward. There are
Wednesday We’ve made it halfway! The songs for Wednesday are about change, both good and bad. The good is illustrated by Curtis Harding’s cry for a second chance at love on “Wednesday Morning Atonement”, “Wednesday Night Melody” by the girl band, Bleached, in which they enthusiastically shout, “Come on boy, dry your eyes / It’s
I officially graduated from high school last Thursday, and after the fact found myself becoming nostalgic for the place I’m so eager to leave behind: the putrid yellow walls, the underclassmen who often seemed to lack basic motor skills, even the classes that bored me. Recently, I looked through my school-sanctioned yearly planners from the
Tuesday There’s less of a consensus as to what constitutes a “Tuesday” mood. Songs such as Hippo Campus’ endearing “Tuesday”, A House in The Trees’s cryptic “Tuesday Afternoon”, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens’ expectedly groovy (think Peace Train), “Tuesday’s Dead” all focus inward on self-doubt or self-discovery. The best of the bunch, “Tuesday Feeling (Chose
Quarantine made me do it. Starting back in the fall, I found myself categorizing my music by theme. I compiled songs about leaving home, songs about love, songs about growing up. As the summer progressed, it became more specific: songs that included or consisted of spoken word over music, songs about rain, songs about birds,
Take a swig while you still can!
