Evolution

At last-- the One Night Stand is being phased out for the woeful demands that it makes on our time and living arrangements. Let us welcome in a new, and far more efficient model.

Let me help to introduce you to this more evolved love form through the popular song "Love in This Club Remix Part Two," as sung by Usher, and featuring Beyonce and L'il Wayne. I've enclosed the lyrics and a link to the video on YouTube for your reference.

A synopsis:

Setting: A nightclub

The male protagonist (the part of whom is sung by Usher) is in a night club and sees a woman (sung by Beyonce) whom he fees compelled to approach.

Usher: "Now baby girl there ain't nothing more that I can say. You know by now I want it more than anything. If I walk away and just let you leave, you'll be stuck in my head like a melody."

Our female lead character senses his desire, but reminds him that they are both in committed relationships.

Beyonce: "I know you want it, yeah, I'm hesitating. Why? You must be crazy, I got a man, you got a lady."

Usher persists, reasoning that it there are larger forces at work that brought them both together this evening.

Usher: "I know we here together, so this must be something special. Cause, you could be anywhere you wanna, but you decided to be here with me. No coincidence, it was meant to be. Don't be shy, gon' let ya boy in...In this club, in this club, ladies can I put this love up on you one time, if you ain't scared, say wassup. In this club, in this club, they can keep watching, I'm not stoppin, Baby, I don't give up...Imma make you feel insane."

Beyonce is swayed this romantic overture. Usher sensitively intuited the potential shyness and fear she could feel in the situation. He also impressed her with his spirited perseverance and promises of pleasure. She finds her resistance to his charms weakening and begins to analyze the logistics of their tryst.

Beyonce: "Baby, you know I'd be down, but we can't have all these people staring, standin' around. This right here is only for your eyes to see. But you are getting carried away saying we can do it wherever...I strongly doubt this velvet rope would hold me up, and I don't want security rollin' up on us... I'm not hesitating, I just don't wanna rush."

Helpful third party, L'il Wayne, offers encouragement to the young lovers.

L'il Wayne: "I said we could do it like a stack, I mean we could do it like a G, on the couch in V.I.P. Shorty, we can get it on... Meet me in the bathroom and you could be my secret lover girl. It started with a hug, but now we makin' love in this club and we're not going to stop just because the people in the crowd are watching us."

Usher reassures Beyonce of his discretion as a lover and urges her to remain open to the possibilities before them.

Usher: "Come a little closer, let daddy put it on ya. Need you to know, what happens here, stays here. Ain't nobody watching, don't worry they can't see us. I know I got you hot now let me in."

Beyonce, at last, surrenders to Usher's advances, with only the proviso that Usher make an attempt to conceal his excitement.

Beyonce: "And I'm ready and willing...but you're standing at attention, keep it on the low."

And it's as easy as that. No more rushing in to tidy your apartment ahead of the person you're bringing home for the night. In fact, no more need to actually have an apartment! With this new model for loving, people can embrace the squalor of their under-furnished bachelor apartments (or perhaps just never leave the comfortable nest of their parents' home!) and still lead active and fulfilling sex lives.

Best yet--there is no threat of seeing and/or talking with your new lover in the harsh light of morning. You can now just see them into a cab, never leaving the forgiving lights of strobes, street lamps and the moon.

I see this song taking on both a prescriptive and anthem-like role in clubs around the world. I also see someone, somewhere inventing disposable latex sheaths for velvet ropes.

The Video

The Lyrics

Fried Leeks

Just wanted to share that fried leeks are the perfect garnish for everything from soups and curries to sandwiches and fish. I just made a lentil and cauliflower curry and garnished with yogourt and fried leeks and it was delicious.

All you do is slice (julienne) the white/pale green portion of a few leeks into fine long slivers. Season them with some salt then dredge the leeks in a plate of corn starch. Heat an inch or so of oil in a pan and fry them in small batches gently, for about 30 seconds until light brown and crispy. Transfer them onto a plate lined with paper towel.

There they are above, in all their simple glory.

Working it

Marx wrote a great deal about alienation, estrangement and their unfortunate bed partner, the worker. To Marx, self-actualization (the realization of one's potential, unique gifts and capacities) should come about through an individual's working life.

Unfortunately, he observed, labour is what commonly robs a person of their right to individuality and the expression of their inner needs.

John Ruskin, (whose book Sesame and Lilies I owe the title of this blog to), felt similarly about the plight of the modern worker:

"You must either make a tool of the creature or a man of him. You cannot make both. Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. If you will have that precision out of them, and make their fingers measure degrees like cog wheels and their arms strike curves like compasses, you must unhumanize them. All the energy of their spirits must be given to make cogs and compasses of themselves. All their attention and strength must go to the accomplishment of the mean act. The eye of the soul must be bent upon the finger point, and the soul's force must fill all the invisible nerves that guide it, ten hours a day, that it may not err from its steely precision and so soul and sight be worn away, and the whole human being be lost at last-- a heap of sawdust so far as its intellectual work in this world is concerned; saved only by its Heart, which cannot go into the form of cogs and compasses...On the other hand, if you make a man of the working creature, you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out come all his roughness, all his dulness, all his incapaability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause: but out comes the whole majesty of him also; and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him. And, whether the clouds be bright or dark, there will be transfiguration behind them and within them." (Ruskin, Stones of Venice)

Having read both Marx and Ruskin at a young age, I don't think I am well-prepared for the work force. I thought I would launch into a beautiful career full of self-actualization but have found myself confused, doing some freelance work and searching for a full-time position that is of, at least, marginal interest to me. I'm not sure that my undergrad degree in Criticism and Curatorial Practice and frothy hatred of the Man are helping much either.