Lush Life

Sometimes when you feel like crap, it helps to listen to happy songs. And sometimes you have to listen to something that makes you feel sad. This is one of the classics of jazz, and one of the saddest songs I know. Sung by Johnny Hartman, sax by John Coltrane, and composed, of course, by Billy Strayhorn (I got mine from this page). Heartbreaking, sad, somehow hopeless but pretty anyway, like cut roses dying in normal air. (And by the way, the “gay” mentioned in the song is early enough to be understood as “happy” though this could easily be …

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The Cut Between the Chapters

If it’s not romanticizing it to say so (or maybe even if it is) I shall deem this post a document of the moment where the Iksan chapter(s) of my life ended (though not the presence of Iksan and her children in my story), and where the chapter(s) of my life began. Woo Jin My last night in Iksan, I visited with a couple of old friends. First, I met with Woo Jin, as I mentioned before. I found we could actually be friends, which made me happy. She and I talked about some very important things and once again …

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