Now that it's over, wish we never listened to them, forged up our hearts
Mixed up our souls, let's pretend that it didn't happen
Forbid (Forbid)
Forgive (Forgive)
Forget
Van Gogh painted this in one of the darkest years of his life, and it might be the most hopeful thing he ever made...
The painting is Almond Blossoms, made by Vincent in 1890. Branches of white blossom open against a clear blue sky, and there is nothing sad in it anywhere, which is remarkable, because of when he painted it.
His brother Theo, the person who had loved and supported him his whole life, had just had a son, and named the boy Vincent, after his struggling uncle. When the news reached Van Gogh, he started painting right away.
He chose almond blossom on purpose. In the south of France the almond is the first tree to flower, sometimes as early as February, breaking into blossom while winter is barely over. It is the tree that announces that life is starting again. For a new baby carrying his own name, Van Gogh painted the most beautiful symbol he knew for new life.
He was, at that very moment, seriously ill. This was the period of his breakdowns in the asylum at Saint-Rรฉmy, and not long after finishing the picture he suffered one of his worst attacks and could not paint for weeks. And yet what he made for his nephew has no shadow in it at all. He gathered whatever strength he had and poured all of it into something joyful, a gift for a child he wanted to welcome into the world.
Theo and his wife hung it above the piano in their home, and it stayed one of the most treasured paintings the family owned. The baby it was painted for, Vincent Willem van Gogh, grew up, kept it safe, and went on to found the museum in Amsterdam that holds most of his uncle's work to this day.
This, to me, is what makes the painting extraordinary: a man at the limits of his strength, who would be gone within months, looked at a new life just beginning and painted hope. He reached past everything that was breaking in him and made, for a baby, a picture that says the same thing the almond tree says every year: winter does not get the last word. Something is starting againโฆ
It's just so much fun, too much fun, oh, come on, how could you say no? (Don't say no)
To the fast and furious swan boat (Flamingo)
The excitement we mistake for love
Joga is beautiful and its place in the Greatest Hits is deserved! I wish i could experience it for the first time again. I remember when Luna decided to let me borrow their CD and to think of it i think that's when i Hear magic. Sounds from a goddess it is...
Mate, I've never seen someone else mention her right to me! Wouldn't you like to know that i am absolutely obsessed with her music?! I love Joga so much. all of her music is like something that pierces you gently and throbbing at times. Have you listened to Play Dead? it's my fav
Me... cute? ha,, too right! also, pretty nice drawing of me and neptune over there :) Thank you.. for loving us i s'pose? we appreciate it! I'll pass it onto neptune.