the strange familiar / the familiar strange—assignment 23—emanuelle sippy

disclaimer: not sure this is cohesive at all, it's more like organized chaos.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7sco2z8JrdSnSLiOSVnsHb?si=LI813VzGSIeWwPOR-tF-uQ

matanot ktanot—rami kleinstein
the first song i chose for this playlist is one a crazy hebrew teacher introduced me to in fourth grade, after teaching us about an antisemitic attack in france. i think i remember that hour of that day in that classroom so clearly because it was one of the first times someone was so raw with me about a hate crime & the song, called "small gifts," is basically a love story with shabbat, a day of rest and pause and peace—exactly what we all needed in that moment. 

everything looks better (in hindsight)—the wild reeds

the next song is one i found listening to tiny desk concerts—yay!!! this is a common thread, you'll soon find out. i love tiny desks. a lot. as i've mentioned, in almost every single blog post ever, i overthink and doubt and question and am extremely indecisive. and that's a nice trait sometimes. other times it—well, let's not sugar coat it—sucks. for me, this song is about my relationship with uncertainty and overthinking, of often wishing i could go back and have a do-over. "my mind travels through memories."

sweet FA—peach pit

if i'm being real, i have nothing to say about "sweet FA." i just like it. my bro introduced me to it & i needed something to help with the flow of this playlist, which is basically non-existent soooo that's that. 

dogs laying around playing—my bubba

"dogs laying around playing" is another tiny desk find. i love this song because it speaks to time (and how annoying it is), it speaks to our expectations of ourselves and others, how they're often unrealistic, and it speaks to stuckness, to being lost, to creating and recreating. "my murder is never but my giving birth is all the time."

habib galbi—A-WA

"habib galbi" is just a jam. a prof at a summer program introduced it to me last year. he had us view the song as literature and as political and as both at the same time. the story of A-WA, three sisters whose grandmother immigrated to israel as a refugee from yemen is deeply moving and interesting to me as someone who cares about the region, about human rights, and about coexistence. 

being so normal—peach pit

"being so normal" is another random one i'll blame on zach. i wanted to be "normal" above all else when i was younger, had just moved here, and was more focused on "fitting in" in stereotypical ways. i like the idea, as that is not so present for me anymore, that i can make fun of it and that's what this song does so well. the same way we can't modify unique, we can't modify normal—at least that's how it feels to me. 

knitting—my bubba 

"knitting" is an exploration of the self. to me, it's what this idea—of making the strange and familiar and the familiar strange—is all about, along with culture and others and systems and stories—none of which we can truly experience without knowing ourselves. 

shampoo bottles—peach pit

"shampoo bottles" is the last one that's zach's fault. i appreciate it. in my mind, it's also about the thinking & overthinking—the hard work of distilling down what it is that we want vs. what others want for us. it's about embracing the "radio silence" in our lives and resenting it all at the same time. 

yedid nefesh—nava tehila

"yedid nefesh" brings us back to the jew crew. i heard this song sung by the people who wrote it in jerusalem, after a long day of wrestling with sexism & infighting among jews. this was the song i needed to keep wrestling. it's worth noting, this is one creative interpretation but "yedid nefesh" was originally written by jewish mystics centuries ago :) it means "beloved of the soul."