October: Anthems
Artwork: I Come From a Long Line of House Cleaners, by Denise Higginson
About the song…
I often feel like a bit of an inactive activist. The sentiment is there, but not necessarily the follow through. I tell myself that it is not for lack of passion, but rather for lack of an organized and meaningful movement to become involved with. I understand that this is a poor excuse and a self fulfilling prophecy, but, nevertheless, I am more often than not saddled with feelings of apathy in matters of political engagement.
I think it has a lot to do with growing older and realizing that the things you wanted so desperately and fought so hard for when you were younger may not ever come to be, or, and perhaps even more disconcerting, may not be things you really want anymore anyway. It is a disorienting realization and one that I see happening more and more in myself and in my friends. In our personal, political and romantic lives, we seem to not really know what to do next.
And so this is our anthem. We may not know what comes next, but we’ll keep what’s left of the fire in our hearts burning until we figure it out. In the meantime, we’ve got each other.
This song is a Wartime Lovesong outake, that I ended up giving to Pan Pan, an a capella trio that existed for about 10 months in 2007/2008. Pan Pan was Lyndsay Poaps, Melisa Devost, and myself. We reunited to record Anthems for A Year In Song.
Pan Pan is dead. Long live Pan Pan!
About the artwork…
Denise Higginson is a visual artist and designer from Vancouver. A graduate from Emily Carr, Denise currently works with me at The Vancouver East Cultural Centre as the design and web coordinator.
Her triptych, I Come From a Long Line of House Cleaners, is, somehow, the perfect complement to Anthems. For me, it is a breathtakingly beautiful illustration of the parts of our lives that we choose to overlook. It is the backdrop to our daydreamings. It is the things that we occupy ourselves with while we wait to make good on the promises we’ve made to ourselves.
To listen to the other A Year in Song tracks, click on the image at the top of the post or on the navigation arrows (< >) .
