Immigration (part II)
by Dan
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Elton John - "Bitch is Back"

Miguel hadn't made love since Rosa. With Rosa it was quiet and intense and there was a lot of "okay?" and "are you sure?" but it was warm and it always went on for a nice long time. With Abby it was much louder, and much faster, and there was even laughing. It was over quickly so there was room for a lot of things around the love-making that they could do.

"I'm studying Occult history right now," said Abby, out of breath and her bangs stuck to her forehead with sweat. She lay her head on Miguel's chest. "Do you know about Sir James Fite?"

Miguel kissed the top of her head and thought about Rosa, who always talked about food right after sex, "No."

"Lemme read you this," she flung herself to the far side of the bed and reached desperately for the thin brown book on the night table, smacking her hand on it as if it were a 6am alarm.

Miguel laughed and put on his underwear, feeling suddenly naked and a bit odorous now in the cold light of the room.

"Fite then made his way through the Orient to find new spices for his dark magick, staying in small villages along the way. At every stop, he would take a local girl as his mistress during his stay, testing his magicks and improving his craft on these young women."

Abby hadn't made love since Kevin, almost a year ago, and she was elated to find it was like riding a bike. "Can you believe that? 'He would take a local girl..' as if it were that simple, he must have left a wake of broken hearts." She said, folding the book back and placing it on the night table. Miguel was now up and looking at the framed photos on her desk. One of them had her and Kevin in it.

"Is that what you're doing with me?" she asked, smiling, naked, happy and proud. Miguel looked back at her and smiled, "Maybe."

Sparks - "Tryouts for the Human Race"

In the Nature of Science Museum, Abby was visiting her friend Laura. Laura is a 6th grade teacher, and was on a field trip to the museum with her kids. Laura is so busy with her job that field trips are often the only times her and Abby are able to see each other. Abby has tagged along on so many field trips now, that a kid one time asked "are you sisters?"

In the Undersea Bubble, they were looking at coral life and shallows-dwellers and were bathed in blue light. "So have you said 'boyfriend' yet?" asked Laura. Abby laughed, curling her hair behind her ear and stooping her head under the leg of a giant crab, "No. It's not there yet."

Laura used her teacher voice on some kids, don't bang on the glass, and language. "What does he look like?"

Abby paused. "Like Elvis. Like a Colombian Elvis." She thought he might be disappointed to hear her say that.

"Woah," said Laura, "not your usual type."

"I know," said Abby, and they moved slowly through to the Steam Engine section. The front of a big iron train loomed before them.

"What do you want from this?" Laura looked through her purse for lip balm as they entered the train, following the red cordoned path. She caught a couple of her kids with their hands in each other's back pockets, hey you two, knock it off.

"I guess I want to be someone else," said Abby, she looked at the switches and dials and the little chair for the conductor. People were much shorter back then. Or at least they could fit into much smaller places. "I'm sick of falling into the same patterns in relationships, I want to be the person I want to be and not the person that I usually am, you know?"

Laura nodded, "Yeah, I know," and they came out the back of the train engine, headed next to Water Purification. "It's a shame I don't think I'll get to meet him." Laura had been offered a job in the States and would be leaving at the end of her semester.

"You're leaving that soon?" asked Abby, and suddenly started doing the ranking of her friends in the city, and imagining who would take Laura's place. A kid about twenty yards ahead, suddenly spun around, earphone in one ear. "You're leaving, Ms. Decker?"

Laura's face dropped, "Uh, no, nothing's certain." The kid was satisfied with that and turned back around. Abby bowed her head. Laura, now softer, "Oops. Yeah, I'll be leaving right away as soon as school's over. James is so anxious to get out of here."

Abby, "Sure yeah. Well, be careful down there, don't get killed by any of those Jesus gangs." Laura laughed, at once dismissive and cautious, "Yeah, maybe I'll just join one."

They mixed desalinization chemicals, and pushed water through thick filters, in lukewarm silence. Abby wondered absently, since Laura was leaving, maybe she could put that time into her thesis. She also wanted lunch.

[Buy Caribou]
[Buy No. 1 in Heaven]

Posted by Dan at April 13, 2010 2:01 AM
Comments

Pleeeeaaaase keep this going, even just one more entry! I'm loving how the Jesus-cults are only just a backdrop for the little everyday moments, so well-picked and packed-tight. Lots in these two but my favourite so far is still the shower/tap blunder...

Posted by Ryan at April 13, 2010 7:06 PM

great songs to set against the story! please keep this going

Posted by alyssa at April 13, 2010 9:13 PM

so so so glad you guys are liking it. I hope others are too. All week, all week. Sean's away.

Posted by Dan at April 14, 2010 3:14 AM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX