Love is in the air...

Or at least friendslove.

valentinesecret, you rule.

This icon is so pretty, and it was such a sweet idea, it makes me all warm and happy.

Thank you.

*tries to think of suitable requital for anonymous valentine...*

Music and memory

Do you guys have those days where you just fall in love at first sight hearing with a particular song and can't stop listening to it? I have had The Highwayman by *ahem* The Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings) on permanent loop in my bedroom for the last seven and a half hours. My mother was most perplexed when she rang, asking, "Who is that screeching in the background?" I'm sure the neighbours are sick of it by now too, given that the doors to the verandah are open.

But I love it. And I can't explain why.

Waylon Jennings brings back many fond memories of The Dukes of Hazzard, my favourite of favourites when I was about five (that and original Battlestar Galactica; I was allowed to stay up an hour later two nights a week to watch). I got a poster of Bo and Luke sitting on the bonnet of the General Lee for my birthday that year that was the best gift *ever*.

And I've always loved Johnny Cash. Okay, no, that is a total lie. I have loved Johnny Cash ever since his cover of Hurt played over Lex in the asylum in Shattered, still to my mind the best ever episode of Smallville. I have *liked* him since my aunt married a dashing American Air Force officer. [Funnily enough, I was just thinking about him this morning when mecurtin was asking about McMurdo and whether pilots spend the winter in Christchurch.] It seemed a very strange wedding to me - eight years old, and already well on my way to Three Times a Bridesmaid Never a Bride, I'd been a flowergirl twice already. And instead of the very expensive silk and lace dresses I'd had at my *mother's* brother's and sister's weddings I had a simple blue and white checked cotton sundress, and Dad's sister, the bride, had no veil or train or anything. I didn't understand the significance of second weddings then. But my cousin had a *Dad* now, and he was very cool - he got married in his dress uniform - even if his family were all weird Texans (they totally aren't Texan, of course, they're from Dakota) who wore jeans, and red and white checked shirts, and cowboy hats to a *wedding*. And they had belt buckles the size of *rugby balls*. Very strange. But more strange, was the bride and groom breaking out their guitars at the reception and playing country songs while the in-laws sang along. Impossible to imagine anything more different to Mum's family weddings, which were never even in *English*, and were always horribly formal affairs, in evening dress.

I digress.

That flashback totally hijacked this post. I *meant* to say that I love narrative songs that tell a story instead of constantly repeating a chorus. And also that I'm somewhat perplexed that an otherwise very American song (dam builders on the wild Colorado, anyone?) should reference the highwayman, surely a very *English* folk hero. And then I was going to ask if anyone else even knows, let alone likes this song?