Lemon Patrol Vol. 2 - Ode to a Lemon

I recently saw the Italian film Il Postino, a story of how a simple man's world opens up and changes upon meeting Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet.  It is a film about friendship, love and poetry.     I must confess that I am no fan of poetry and that I practically have zero knowledge on Neruda.    Seeing how Neruda touched so many lives in the film, I did a little research on Neruda and I stumbled upon this.

I thought it is apt that I share this poem by Neruda, a perfect tribute to the fruit we love:

Ode to a Lemon by Pablo Neruda

From those lemon flowers 

Set free 

By the light of the moon 

From that 

Odor of a love 

Frustrated, 

Sunken in fragrance, 

There came 

From the Lemon tree its yellow, 

From its planetary system 

The lemons came down to the earth.

Tender merchandise! 

Our shores filled up with it, 

The markets 

Of light, of gold 

From a tree, 

And we open up 

The two halves 

Of a miracle, 

Congealed acid 

Which ran 

From the hemispheres 

Of a star 

And the most profound liquor 

In nature, 

Unchanging, alive, 

Indestructible, 

Born from the freshness 

Of the lemon, 

From its fragrant house, 

From its acid, secret symmetry.

Inside the lemon the knives 

Cut 

A small 

Cathedral, 

The window hidden behind the altars 

Opened to the light its glassy acids, 

And in drops 

Like topazes they were dripped 

Onto the altars 

By the architecture of freshness.

So when your hand 

Squeezes the hemisphere 

Of the cut 

Lemon onto your plate, 

A universe of gold, 

You have poured out 

One  

Yellow cup 

Full of miracles 

One of the sweet-smelling nipples 

Of the breast of the earth, 

A ray of light that became a fruit, 

The diminutive fire of a planet.

I just love how Neruda praised the lemon using all sensory faculties.  It is very refreshing to see the lemon celebrated and glorified, quite a turnaround from the bad reputation the lemon gets for the sourness and bitterness it symbolically represents in our lives.

Lemon Patrol vol. 1 - The Lemonheads

For the maiden issue of my Lemon Patrol, I would like to feature the band called The Lemonheads.  I guess I simply did not outgrow the music of the 90's.  I remember my college days when I would save up money so I could buy an audio cassette tape weekly. Yep, cassette tapes!  CDs were either very new then or I simply couldn't afford them.  One of the first few tapes I saved up for was "Come on Feel the Lemonheads".  

My favorite track was "Into Your Arms".  I loved it so much (along with a few other songs by other bands) that I tried to learn how to play the guitar.  I remember that a college friend, Lea, even tried to teach me the chords.   She told me Into Your Arms was very easy, like I just needed to learn 3 chords.  After several attempts in vain, I ditched the dream of ever playing.  My fingers are just way too short.  That and I have no sense of rhythm to strum.  Boohoo!

For those who do not know the Lemonheads, let me give a brief bio.  From what I read in Last.fm and Wikipedia, The Lemonheads is an indie/ alternative/punk band based in the US fronted by Evan Dando.   The band formed in 1986 but only achieved mainstream success in the early 90's with the release of the album "It's a Shame about Ray".  Their most popular single is the cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson".  (See video below). Evan Dando named the band as Lemonheads "after a candy which Dando noted was sweet on the outside, and sour on the inside, possibly a metaphor for the band's sound."

Although The Lemonheads were never as popular as the 90's grunge bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, The Lemonheads are still largely considered as one of the more important (albeit not defining) bands of the 90's.   The music of the Lemonheads can arguably be classified as pop-punk with their simple, catchy melodies that made them very accessible especially to the teens (like me back then), along with their strong 80's punk influences.

I cannot close a topic on the Lemonheads without touching on Evan Dando, the vocals and the only permanent member of the band.   As you can probably tell from the video above, that Evan Dando guy is darn good looking, so good looking in fact that he made it to People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1993.  Dando's fame has made him a poster boy for the 90's alternative rock music scene.  He had rumored romances with Juliana Hatfield and Courtney Love, not to mention a long arduous affair with drugs.   I have never seen the band perform live (and will probably never do), but they were criticized for having terrible, shambolic live performances, some critics even reducing Evan Dando to just eye candy.   But I don't care.  I love candies... lemon candies more so. 

Photo courtesy of Evan Dando and The Lemonheads website

Evan Dando has since moved on, rehabilitated, married, released a solo album (Baby I'm Bored), then reformed The Lemonheads, and released the band's self-titled album in 2005.   But I have not listened to this new album.  That being said, you could say that I am still stuck in the 90's.  

Lemon Patrol

Ever since I started this blog, friends and family have been suggesting that I feature persons, events, things and what have yous related to lemons, i.e. lemons in the literal sense (the fruit) and not the figurative sense (defective stuff, imperfections)

In keeping with the theme and name of this blog, I shall now embark on my journey towards blogging about things related to lemons.  I shall aptly call this Lemon Patrol.   Of course I will not write about every lemon(y) thing I come across with, lest I bore you to tears.  Like when I did a quick google search, I found out there is a band called Lemon based in Belgium.  They may be big in Belgium, but not here in our country (or "kawntri" to some of us).   I will try to be as discerning as I possibly can and endeavor to feature only interesting or helpful things. Henceforth, I shall be a lemon patroller.

If you come across anything noteworthy about lemons (e.g. lemon flavored desserts, healing powers of lemons, lemons in art, movies, etc.) do drop me a line at vicarious.shopper@gmail.com.  I would love to blog about these things.  On with the patrol!