A streak of waking in the middle of the night — yesterday 4:30 or so — has seemingly been good creatively, but I can't be sure. For as much gets done then, there's a Memento effect when I fall back asleep, on the blue couch, in the bed. How bad has this gotten? Even as I heard the song over and over on radio last week, I'd forgotten I'd seen the new Shakira video. I'm gonna pay the price when I open the closet.
A Sun-Times reporter other than Derogatis reviews the Shakira show in Chicago: "When Shakira at last surfaced around 9:20 p.m., to the strains of the Who's Teenage Wasteland…."
A year and change ago, I wondered where Shakira was. Pop needed a woman with originality, and the Colombian was painfully absent.
In Sunday's New York Times, Kelefa Sanneh — a music writer, a man — reports on the unonymous singer's impending return. "She is to return in June with a new Spanish-language album, Fijacion Oral 1 (Sony), to be followed in November by its English-language counterpart — or is it a sequel? — to be called, Oral Fixation 2 (Sony)."
Why the title? Her Web site explains.
As spoken language plays a fundamental role in Shakira's life, it's no surprise that she chose the title Fijacion Oral/Oral Fixation, "I always end up saying everything I think about." The concept also reaches beyond this, "The stage at which human beings are the most orally fixated is the first stage of our lives, which is the most elementary, the most instinctive, and the most primitive. I think I am still in that stage, especially at this moment because I feel the most in touch with that animalistic aspect within me."
This moment … right now. I guess. The single is La Tortura, a back and forth with Alejandro Sanz, and there's a couple 30-second clips (the original and the remix) streaming on her site. I can't judge much by them. You can sign up for her mailing list to hear the full versions, but I get enough mail.
The single's lyrics are also posted, and there's more than few intriguing lines around.
I can't ask winter to spare a rose bush
I can't ask an elm tree to bear pears
I can't ask the eternal of a mere mortal
And go about casting thousands of pearls before swine
Mrs. Lachey, your turn.
