Belinda - Ben Folds

A few months ago I had this conversation on MSN with a friend I met in London. She asked me about my whereabouts and my doings. I started by telling her about my teaching, my dates and finally, about my blogging. She became interested in this last topic and asked me a question I had asked myself before: Do you write in English, too?

The answer was –until this entry- No! I’m sorry I don’t write in English because I prefer to write to those friends of mine who don’t understand English quite well. However, I now believe that that was a stupid answer. I write in Spanish because that’s the language I feel more comfortable with, even though the songs I post and some quotes I include are in English, too. So here it is, my first entry fully in English.

I had this idea in my mind –the one of writing in English- for quite a long time, but it is until these books that I had it clear -I’d rather say author, instead.

The first time I came across this writer was in a spellbound movie, later I read the book, then I read a different book by the same author, then another, then I read his blog and then I downloaded a marvelous and honest text about his life, his music, his taste. NICK HORNBY. That’s his name. A Londoner who breathes music as he breathes air. Reading his 31 songs, a soundtrack of his life, is like taking a ride to all sorts of rock and roll, different rhythms that complement each other, that might work as a great mix-tape. How he tolerates guitar solos, how he praises some lyrics and despises others, the way he expresses his humbleness and honesty and others is nothing but an invitation to write about music.

I, like him and his characters, am a person who finds pleasure in discussing tracks and albums. I can easily sit around with my mates and have a long, detailed conversation about new songs, old songs, great songs, bad songs, pop songs, rock songs, any song. But we seldom find ourselves writing about those songs. We may sing them in karaoke parties, praise them for this thing, despise them for that thing, we even play them in Guitar Hero jams, but how difficult it is to theorize about them. Well, Nick Hornby does, and he masters the witty and beauty of talking about himself while talking about a song. Why do we like the songs we like? Why does this song make us want to run, or cry, or shout, or simply sit and enjoy? Why do I keep buying CDs when everyone I know doesn’t? The answer is in every book of his: High Fidelity, About a Boy, 31 songs, Juliet, Naked and How to be good.

The song to accompany this entry is taken from a great album Nick Hornby co-wrote with American singer Ben Folds. Lonely Avenue.