And it sure been a cold, cold winter...

The Rolling Stones album Goats Head Soup is perhaps not widely regarded as a masterpiece because it was the follow up to what is, at least in retrospect, a seminal and classic release, 1972's Exile On Main St. However, Goats Head Soup has moments of rich brilliance, from opening rocker "Dancing With Mr. D", the reflective, somewhat sad "100 Years Ago", the fierce "Heartbreaker", the painfully beautiful ode to Miz Pallenberg, "Angie", and another ballad often overlooked: a simple song called "Winter". The inclusion of "Winter" is peculiar, in that I have always considered GHS to be a very "summer" album. Maybe this is because I fell in love with it many summers ago, or that it opens and closes on high notes ("Star Star" being the coda), and maybe it has something to do with its recording in Jamacia (rather, my knowing it was recorded there). But "Winter" feels cold. It feels blustery and goosebump-inducing, candle-inspiring and fur-wearing. The lyrics themselves are quite simple, a love has burned out in the harsh wintery months and perhaps another love will bloom again in the hot summer, but it is delivered with pure elegance, longing and heartbreak. One of my favorite tracks.

Anyway, I love these pictures of Mick Jagger, and a couple of years ago, my roommate snapped an impromptu picture of me in a similar pose (inside of a Starbucks one early morning). Actually, the photo's resemblance to Mick's was completely coincidental, too. There's a vulnerability captured in these photos, and I love it. I think it is one of Mr. Jagger's most compelling characteristics, that he can be so delicate and fragile, so feminine really, and also prance around cocky and evil as the Midnight Rambler, a dichotomy that makes him fascinating.

Speaking of winter, it certainly feels like it today on the East Coast. Washington D.C. is positively freezing--it's going to drop to around 30 degrees tonight, with the possibility of a snow flurry. Winter, harsh and unwelcoming as it may seem to some, is one of my favorite seasons (second to fall). I love long coats and scarves and sweaters, sipping hot chocolate and sitting by the fire, going to bed under thick blankets. Utter romance.

Sadly, like the song I've gone on about in this post, I too feel like it may be a time that my love is burning out. I am hoping for the best, doing all that I can do, but it's not in my hands anymore and it is a very helpless, lost feeling. The absence of a love around the holiday season always stings a bit extra. I frighteningly anticipate a future blog soliciting cures for a broken heart...

I am going to start posting more, turned on to this whole Blogger thing by my soul mate, Krystal Jagger Simpson, a girl prettier than any Rolling Stones ballad. Her friendship over the past year and a half has been a blessing too wonderful to explain.

Till the next goodbye,

Leith