Liner Notes

Soundscape #84: “…You Roller-skate Down Your Halls Together” — Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

In a world populated by 6 billion people and counting, it’s difficult not to think that there’s someone out there for you. But for the same reason, how on earth will you find him/her? Sheer logistical reasons aside, the One True Love© concept is a romantic one at best. The idea that there’s someone out there who would complete you is not only insulting but also erroneous. First, the implication that one is incomplete without another simplifies things too much. We are all different people to different others in yet different situations. One behaves differently at home than at work, for example, no?

Hughes Leglise. Shining Love, 2006

Second, the idea of romantic love reserved for one person alone is impossible to conceive. We all have different people we thought we were in love with at different stages of our lives. Who among us is still together with their first love? At whichever point in our lives where we are with person x, we would want to believe that he/she is the one. Regardless, real life gets in the way of our romantic projections of course and we begin to see the other in a different light.

It is not so much my intention to diss the notion of the One True Love© than to show that the idea is at best outdated or at worst, irrelevant. That said, we do need to keep our fire, our search, our pursuit of it, if only to feel alive. Even if you already have a special someone in your life, it doesn’t hurt to daydream of a white knight who will one day sweep you off your feet and into a magical kingdom. The trick, of course, is not to expose that illusion for what it really is — an illusion, a mirage — if we do pursue it. It’s a beautiful thought in which we can take refuge and we need it if only for that reason.

Sure, they tell us to live our dreams, to go for it with all we’ve got but noone warns us or tells us what to do when that illusion falls to pieces.

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Playlist:
1. (0:00) Wilco - I’m The Man Who Loves You (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
2. (3:54) Crooked Fingers - Call To Love (Dignity And Shame)
3. (7:19) The Magnetic Fields - The Night You Can’t Remember (69 Love Songs Vol 3)
4. (9:36) Headlights - Put Us Back Together Right (Kill Them With Kindness)
5. (13:50) Yo La Tengo - Deeper Into Movies (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)
6. (19:16) Idlewild - I’m Happy To Be Here Tonight (Hope Is Important)
7. (22:28) David Gray - This Year’s Love (White Ladder)
8. (26:33) Bloc Party - This Modern Love (Silent Alarm)
9. (31:02) Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Set Yourself On Fire)
10. (35:19) Okkervil River - Love To A Monster (The Stage Names)
11. (40:16) Portishead - The Rip (Third)