"Kids" by MGMT

Up on Magic Mountain, I split a shake with a cutie little English chick. We both wanted to see what it would do.

She had arrived on the island on vacation with her boyfriend over a year earlier, as an accountant. When her boyfriend dumped her in the middle of their trip, she decided to just stick around and make a living as a novelty act singing Thai pop songs.

"Steal My Kisses" by Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals

It was a hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon. We lay in bed together, napping, listening to my most recent mix CD. She rested her head on my shoulder and I brushed her hair from her face. We weren't supposed to be together, which I had tried to explain to her. I was supposed to be (at least, in my own mind) the image of proper behaviour, a model of moral rightousness for the others. But she refused to give up and I always found her waiting for me in my bed. That tenacity, combined with her coy, demure demeanor, not to mention those freckles, made her very hard to resist. But somehow I did. In the end, my sense of duty won out over my desire for her, although it was far from a flawless victory. When that song came on, she sang the chorus softly in my ear and drove me crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkSaK4zXPzs&feature=related

"They Don't Know / Corrupt" by Bounty Killer

Montego Bay, Jamaica. July 2009. Reggae Sumfest.

In Ocho Rios, I had picked up tickets for two of the music festival's three nights: Thursday (Dancehall Night) and Saturday (International Night 2).

Dancehall Night was a rapid immersion into a culture totally foreign to me. The music as aggressive, as vulgar, as violent as anything. One performer after another, all sex and murder and rivalries, all night long. The fans flashed hand signals, twirled towels, fired blowtorches (blowtorches!), made pistols with their fingers and shot them into the air "brrrup brrrup brrrup!" And on this night, there was a ceremony to officially crown Beenie Man the king of all this. But it was Bounty Killer who stole the show.

"Denial, Revisited" by The Offspring

I'm sorry. I don't have a good break-up story for you. I have lots of stories of unfulfilled longing and desire, and many more about missed opportunities and regret. I have a few tales of relationships that simply ran their course and of others that unceremoniously fizzled out. There may have been a couple of break-ups that seemed bad at the time. But I have to say that I have no stories of truly ugly, messy splits, of love turned rancid, of nights spent alone crying, of broken vows and crushed dreams and possessions to be divvied up. Not yet, anyway. So, in the meantime, this one is for a friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8GzCoB6EHs