Love is the only thing that shuts me up

"Irgendwo da draussen wartet die Liebe. Und auch wenn ich sie nicht finde, findet sie vielleicht mich". Tom Tykwer, "Lola corre Lola" (y otras grandes pelis).  "En algún lugar ahí fuera espera el amor. Y si yo no lo encuentro, quizás me encuentre él a mí". 

Ciao My Shining Star- Mark Mulcahy nunca te pidió que fueras su fan.

Algunos buzones de correo son como la cáscada del Niágara, sólo que salpican palabras en lugar de agua. Las mañanas son semáforos en rojo, verde y ámbar... y van acompañados de unos cuantos impactos publicitarios. Algunos almuerzos son tostadas envueltas en mensajes, -marchando tres por el mailbox de Facebook-. Otros días es un sms, que llega para quedarse. "¿Vas a venir, sí, no... o quizás sí pero en realidad no?" Los martes van precedidos de una actualización de lo que pasa en Linked-In. Un desconocido te pide ser tu amigo. Alguien más is following you on Twitter. Volvemos en 4 anuncios. Tienes una petición para ser fan de mi marca. Hay días que el teléfono suena mucho... o no suena nada, y entonces es peor. Stop: ¡Viva la era de la comunicación post-moderna (y moderada)!

Viernes por la tarde. Por fin, el CD. Las manos no consiguen rasgar el plástico, y es la tijera de la dependienta quien ayuda a abrir el "Ciao My Shining Star". ¿Si le dieran a Bimbo el packaging de los CD's, harían un envoltorio tan pro-consumidor como el suyo? Han pasado dos meses, tres semanas, cinco días y unas horas. Una espera esperada. El viaje de vuelta a casa lo pasa envuelta en una pasmina color canela y una historia de amor que suena así:

"Melissa Rich was my wife. She died last year. We were in love and happy. We had become one thing, our own secret inside the world we invented. We knew that we were lucky.

We met at the Baystate Hotel. She was sitting under a painting of a clown. I felt a little tug on my sleeve and turned and looked down at her, and everything in the room blurred except her face. She was an unexpected, beautiful surprise, wearing orange high-waters, a white shirt, a black velvet jacket and a big black clowny boots. We fell in love right then and there. We went on a picnic a week later and were together from then on.

We used to go all over in the old Miracle Legion van - Cape Cod, the Jersey shore, Baltimore, anywhere. Just drive and explore. Listen to music, go to diners, drive-ins stay in a motel or sleep in the van. Breakfast was important. We'd hang out in Atlantic City and always got dressed up for the casino. One Valentine's Day we got a nice room high up over the ocean, stayed two days and then went to Jerry's in Philly to start recording my first record. It was her birthday, and she was happy to hang around the studio and sleep on the couch and eat Chinese food. Dreamboat. She loved the wild ponies at Chincoteague. She was Misty.

We got an apartment. She had a great garden there. We had some great parties. We started the Mezzotint record label there so I could put out music. Melissa would walk around the club selling CDs. She ran the whole thing. She made me try. Once, I locked myself in a room, trying to write the first opera I did with Benjamin. It was... difficult. She slid a note under the door- "You can do it". She was a good friend like that. She rooted for people.

Melissa lived in Los Angeles for a few years. She believed in Hollywood. We'd go out there, stay at the Rooselvet Hotel, have breakfast at the 101, go to the movies, hang around the pool and spend the night at Canter's, drinking coffeee in the Chuck E. Weiss booth. Sometimes we'd drive out to Joshua Tree or Tucson. The dessert. She liked being warm. She was warm. Warm and charming. She liked being called charming. 

She spent a lot of time with flowers, knew all their names. She liked the Oscars, Orson Wells, Tom Waits, Shelley Duvall, Robert Smith, Bessie Smith, Twin Peaks, Bono, Mingus, Monk and Little House on the Prairie. She made homemade jam, drank champagne, liked Frida Kahlo, stray anything, X, the Tournament of Roses, Guns N' Roses, hated spiders and twisters, wished she could knit, loved nonpareils and Bill Murray. We were not clowns, but some people thought we were, and we took it as a compliment. One year we gave each other the same painting of a clown for Christmas, and once we had drinks with three clowns adn the Human Cannonball. We loved the circus. 

Melissa was a good listener, has great friends and is sorely and sadly missed by so many. I am one of them. We had planned to be together always, but always has come early. I am still here, with our girls, wanting and empty, but formed by what she left behind.

It has been astonishing to realize how many people cared for her and us and want to help. It's overwhelming to have so much love and compassion rushing in to ease the hurt.

Melissa would be flabbergasted to see what has happened. Never in all of her most fantastic imaginings would she believe that a record with her picture on the cover, made in her honor by such an amazing group of lovely people, would be a reality. Never in a million years, lady. Ciao".

El último número de Monocle recoge un interesante artículo sobre el futuro del negocio musical, que ahora vive a vueltas y revueltas con su reinvención. Estos son, resumidos, los consejos que la estupenda revista da para convertirse en una gran banda (que no un gran bandido), en el 2010:

1. Busca tu propio sonido. 
2. Constrúyete una imagen en el mundo on-line. 
3. Sé bueno de verdad: sal de gira. 
4. Búscate un manager. 
5. Firma un contrato con una discográfica. 
6. Rodéate de un equipo de profesionales. 
7. Déjate sponsorizar. 
8. Sal de Gira, sal de gira, sal de gira... 
9. Comercializa tu primer album. 
10. Disfruta del éxito... 

Ya no solemos practicar el arte de comprar Cd's. La música es Itunes... o es LimeWire. Y aunque el recopilatorio de 21 canciones guarda más de un regalo digno de replay-replay-replay... (como este tema, el número 4), la verdadera razón de la compra fué la historia. Fué su autenticidad. Fué por los nombres de los que cantaron para Mulcahy, colaborando en este proyecto-homenaje. La verdadera historia es que compré el Cd para poder ser la fan número x que homenajea a una "Shining Star" como Melissa.

Mark Mulcahy no me lo pidió. ¿Fué tal vez por eso, que me hice fan sin saberlo?, ¿Fué tal vez por eso, porque un fan no se hace, un fan...¡nace!? *

Got it? 

Ciao My Shining Star- the songs of mark mulcahy- num. 4. "Love is the only thing that shuts me up" David Berkeley, directed by Emile Peyroux and her friend Christopher Kontoes.

*Dedicado a Sil. Gracias-muchas por el año de risas que hemos pasado, compartiendo este ático con vistas al Golf. Para que brillen muchas estrellas en tu nueva casa, y coincidas por la mañana con algún vecino guapo que te diga "hola" al salir de la urba... ;)