Evidently Chickentown

Smell is the most powerful of senses; it can convey the furthest or most hidden memories, just through a casual scent of a stranger on the bus. It is a sensual action, not an intellectual enterprise at first, it’s up to our intellect to recollect the memories and alert our feelings.

One could spend hours talking about the scent of the sea or the grass, the pleasant smell of a certain food or some peculiar fragrance and tell thousands of stories. But have you ever stopped thinking about the smell of special people? It’s not a specific scent, but a pleasant, nondescript perception, a feeling that wraps us like a soft cover when we’re with our special ones and also when we’re back with them in our memories.

My special person smells of random rides on the Tube, of the raisins from gluten free scones threw to squirrels, of vinyls, of salted caramel tea, of the Burberry fragrance he left to me so I could spray it on my pillow on those nights I can’t sleep.

All these things help me to bear the gap between stimulating debates about music, art and literature, and ordinary conversation with dreamless people who only talk about food processors, online shopping, teachers and lice. Olfactory memory also helps me to overcome the opinions of those who think I’m the weird, childish and not very concrete one.
The smell of special people is fundamental for me to move forward with a smile (even if it can’t save me from my carelessness: I daily risk to be invested because I still look on the wrong side and I keep on having confidence in drivers).

When I find myself in trouble, music or literature always assist me. Today they’re helping me to overcome the embarrassment of the first post and the awe of the white page.

I’ve always been fascinated by those lyricists who make literary references in their songs, that’s why I started a thread on Instagram called: “When music meets literature”. So let me break the ice talking about the similarities between

🎶Secret door-Arctic Monkeys 📖 The Diary of a young Girl-Anne Frank
Most of the people think that “Secret Door” is about Alex Turner and Alexa Chung’s love affair and about them hiding from paparazzi. Maybe. But if you read carefully, you might see many references about Anne Frank and her life in the hidden apartment. The fools on parade could be the Nazi troops marching. The secret door is the one that led to the rooms where Anne and her family and friends were hiding; it was behind a bookshelf (“And then, like a butler pushing a bookshelf, I’m unveiling the unexpected” Alex sings). The lines “How could such a creature survive in such a habitat” probably refer to young and vital Anne, forced to stay silent and still.
There also are references to Anne and Peter’s getting closer in such a static environment that had nothing to offer (“She swam out of tonight’s phantasm, grabbed my hand and made it very clear. There’s absolutely nothing for us here: it’s a magnolia celebration”). Apparently there’s no joy (magnolia celebration, so, a boring one), but the feeling is deep and sincere because, even if the foolish on parade find them, they wouldn’t notice, because the two lovers are too busy looking at each other.