Tag Archive: hugs


I HEART HUGS

Valentine’s Day and getting spammed for offers of penis enlargement -erm, no thanks.  (Do the market researchers tell these people that today is the day when size matters most?!)

Feeling the weight of the postaday challenge as I have no great insights to offer to the Blogosphere aside from the fact that today should really be a day for making connections with loved ones and, perhaps even more urgently for those who feel nobody loves them.

The free hugs campaign was established with this in mind. My daughter went to an event a few weeks back which we as concerned parents were worried about (free gropes is what we imagined).

It turned out to be a really positive experience and the spirit is captured in this video by another group in Sondrio, Italy :

The warmth of Jens Lekman

Jens Lekman album cover

The music of charming Swede, Jens Lekman, is like a warm reassuring hug. You may think you’re hard and independent enough to live without it but, if you snub it, your day will be all the poorer .

If, on the other hand, if you open your heart to his quirky romantic vision, his tales of kisses, heartaches and hairdressers will put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

His new album (Night Falls Over Kortedala) begins with an orchestral swell of ‘And I Remember Every Kiss’ which is so over the top it makes Neil Young’s ‘A Man Needs A Maid’ sound understated.

The 11 breezy, melodic songs that follow reveal that ,when it comes to love, Lens (pronounced Yens) is a hard man to please: “I would never kiss anyone, who doesn’t burn me like the sun” he pronounces on the opening track and later he declares “I am leaving you because I don’t love you enough”. He is not one for half measures.

His voice gives the impression that he is permanently on the brink of tears and these melo-dramatized autobiographical tales have the faux-naif quality that calls to mind the likes of Jonathan Richman and Herman Dune. Up to a point he is as serious as your life but then again you suspect there’s a tongue in cheek there too.

If you can switch your cynical side to standby there’s plenty here to delight in.