Medium Pleasure

I saw the Valentine special You8217;ve Got Mail last week, writer-director Nora Ephron8217;s re-casting of an old tale in cyber terms. She left traces of her hallmark style in this Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romance as well, perhaps it was all a little bit too familiar after films like When Harry Met Sally as writer and Sleepless in Seattle as writer and director. But what did work for me was Greg Kinnear8217;s character who is Ryan8217;s leftist columnist boyfriend. He is a fashionable technophobe columnist who abhors computers and loves to collect typewriters. At one point he complains about TV while being interviewed on TV, and says, 8220;Now radio is a medium I can get behind.8221;

I thought about this the next day as I was driving to work, and almost as an epiphany, Kinnear8217;s words came to life. The most incredible, eclectic playlist unfolded as I cruised through to Khar. At Kemps Corner the journey began with Lulu8217;s rendition of To Sir With Love. At Haji Ali, the DJ upped the ante with thehelp of Jerry Mungo, and the original version of Summertime. I was distracted from the traffic at Prabhadevi by the beautiful twisted soul of Ricky Valenz, trying to Tell Laura I Love Her. Then at Shivaji Park, just when I thought it couldn8217;t get any better, it did. And it came in the unexpected form of Jimmy Buffet, and his delectable If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me? among all these still my favorite, if only for sheer lyrical value, plus on principle you just have to love a man who has done Margaritaville. Then we cooled down in Mahim with Roy Orbison, but it was the track Windsurfer, not the standard Pretty Woman that has been destroyed by overplay, which I somewhere blame subconsciously on Julia Roberts. And just before reaching Bandra, to make sure I didn8217;t chill all the way down, I was treated to the punchy Mitch Ryder single Sock it to me!

And so by the time I finally reached, I was reluctant to leave the car. Sixclassics reeled out one after another, all old favorites. I remember a school teacher likening music to fly paper, a substance that has the property of attracting memories to it. Radio is wonderful at throwing up those memories at random, so when that song plays, you remember where you were when you first heard it, who you were with, and probably what you were trying to do although sometimes that part you might want to forget. That is true enough, but what about the time when you first heard that song? When there were no memories to associate with it? At those times music textures our experiences, amplifying emotional notes.

It is funny how often I find myself describing these moments as cinematic, 8220;it8217;s just like in a movie!8221; when these are the instances that are the most real. Where you are in the moment, not living or working towards some goal, but there inescapably.

Music cinematicises our world. It almost gives us license to do, to feel, what we might have otherwise have suppressed. To emulateour heroes, to live life-size and not have to justify it. I guess I think of these interludes as cinematic because they tend to be so rare in our lives. As Graham Swift observed in Waterland, 8220;Life is one tenth Here and Now, nine tenths a history lesson.8221; So the rest of the time we listen to old songs and remember, we re-tell our stories. And so to modify Kinnear8217;s endorsement, 8220;For that nine-tenths, radio is a medium I can get behind.8221;