Dubai Airport

I'm in Dubai airport with no bloody idea as to which gate I'm supposed to be at. It's like an infinite maze of glass, chrome and duty free. My eyelids have turned to lead and every time I manage to drop to sleep I wake up with a jolt, surrounded by people in varying cultural attire. At one point a group of men scooted past in what looked like a golf buggy, all dressed head to toe in a singular piece of white cloth. Very intriguing. Burkas for men.Travelling is one of the few real blessings that the modern era has brought forth amongst all it's belching petrol factories and children addicted to video games. I can never get rid of that insatiable excitement of bursting into a new airport, surrounded by fellow travellers, all the while trying so hard to look cool and worldly yet in reality looking forlorn and confused.

Being in Dubai airport has been an experience in itself, never mind volunteering in South Africa! Its hard not to be astounded by an airport that houses, within its chic monochrome walls, an entire Hilton Hotel. Having said that, although it's ergonomic achievements may be the best, it's cultural developments may have proved themselves to be not so great. I went into the duty free and 'Cosmo' caught my eye. The '28 mind blowing sex moves' section sounded like an interesting way to waste a few minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't get my chic sex education in the end, because someone had taken the liberty of ripping that section out of every single Cosmo in the store. At first I couldn't believe my eyes and literally looked at all of them to determine that, yes my suspicions were correct, there was a villain on the loose. Someone wishing to deprive the good citizens of Dubai airport (because it might as well have been a country) of the invaluable advice from the nymphomaniac behind the Cosmo sex columns. I looked around me horrified, all of the store staff appeared harmless, I still can't fathom who the culprit might have been.

I don't wish to sound stereotypical but after some thought I realised that I am in what I would call a fairly religious area, and can't help but think that this was an attempt to rid the world of unholy alliances with our sexual selves. On the other hand, Dubai could be housing a serious sexual maniac who is probably in the toilets at this very moment utilising the treasures that he/she stole from the magazine. Who knows.

A Musical Nugget.

So there are a few musical people that I'm listening to at the moment that really have caught my attention.

First of all, Lykke Li. At first I didn't like her, she wrote "Possibility" for the Twilight soundtrack (the first movie I think) which immediately put her in my STAY WELL AWAY FROM list. Well I was wrong, this girl is amazing. She's swedish, a singer-songwriter and she combines strange indie style drums/guitar with electro keyboard/bass-y riffs. The slightly odd, ethereal ambiance of her music and her high vocal range (she's a soprano I believe) make it perfect for those folks who enjoy "out of body" music. Her most recent album "I never learn" is has a more indie feel to it in my opinion, she's toned down on the Kate Bush 'fairy lady floating in air' style. An all-time favourite of mine is "I Follow Rivers" because it is a song that quite literally changed me, it was a winner of the Festival Anthem of the Year, at the European Festival Awards, 2012. Surely that says it all? One of her songs, "Get Some", contains the lyric 'I'm your prostitute and you gon' get some'. Now, for me, that just says it all.

The next wee snippet of musical love comes from an up-and-coming musician called Joy Mumford. She is from Nottingham and is part of the incredible unsigned music scene there. I've had the chance to meet this lovely lady, she is just so beautiful inside and out. I couldn't even find it within my dark and shrivelled soul to hate her for being so great, she's just too lovely. Joy has the most soulful, amazing voice. Her acoustic skill and vocal clarity just brings goosebumps to my skin. I would reccommend that anyone who is interested in music click here to watch one of her "Tea and Cake" Acoustic sessions. Joy also scored a live session with Nottingham's new music people Nusic. If you can't be bothered to listen all the way to the end, skip to 4:15 on the video and listen to 'The Fall', it's worth it. I just love her. She's like an angel.

Now comes a confession. I am in love. With a man. And his name is... his name is... Bill Lawrence. I can't begin to describe the stalkerish, addictive sense of love that I feel for this man. As the chief piano/keyboard guy for Snarky Puppy I think he may have been overlooked in the past, although Snarky Puppy are also incredible musicians. 

There is a story behind this insane, imaginary love affair. It goes like this.

My boyfriend and I went to see Snarky Puppy at a tiny venue called Band on the Wall in Manchester. We panicked on the way to the gig, thinking we were going to be late and wouldn't get a good position. Well more fool us. We arrived, went into the gig 'arena' and I promise you, with no exaggeration, that I thought we had accidentally walked into the venue's private storage cupboard, a staff room or some other equally small, miscellaneous place. The band had to walk through the crowd to get to the stage, that's how small and relaxed it was. Anyway, they came on and were undoubtedly shit your pants great. There is no other way to describe their performance. In the first 50 minute set they only managed to play 3 songs because there was so much impromptu improvising and other demonstrations of amazing musical talent. 

Anyway, less of that, more of the romance. There came a point, when Bill was doing his funky stuff on the keyboards, that he looked over the crowd and our eyes locked. For about five to ten seconds, I had Bill Lawrence staring impassively into my eyes. After a few brief seconds, he smiled the most ambrosial, contented smile (whilst still staring into my eyes) that I have ever seen in my life. He then looked away and continuing jigging away in that special way that all musicians do when they're concentrating on an instrument that they love. I felt like I had been kissed by a Death Eater, except he had quite literally sucked all ofthe death and sadness out of me, leaving nothing but a shell filled with ambiguous golden light. He saw my soul. Bill Lawrence looked into my eyes and he knew me.

So because of that I am now incomprehensibly in love with him. Without a shadow of a doubt. This is not helped by that fact that he is currently in the process of releasing a new solo album called Flint which is also a show of his mind-boggling talent. Jazzy, sexy and suave. This album is the ultimate sex-bomb of contemporary jazz.

Those are the musical nuggets aforementioned in the title of this post. I hope it has been insightful. The moral of the story is that you should never stare for too long into the eyes of a sexy, jazz pianist. It will change you.