the cult - fire woman

This song was my introduction to the Cult. During my teen years, I would hear this song on the radio or see the video on MTV or VH-1. Seeing Ian Astbury’s long, straight black hair flowing behind him when he ran around the stage made my heart beat faster I was mesmerized. I’ve read articles about raw sexual energy of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant or The Doors’ Jim Morrison and the way women in the crowd would go crazy. I never understood this until I heard this song and saw the video. There was just something animalistic about Ian’s voice the way he moved that awakened ‘the woman in me.’
Those feelings associated with the song didn’t make much sense until I graduated college and was living in my first apartment and discovering all what Cambridge, MA had to offer. One of my roommates was a music critic for The Weekly Dig, a local alternative weekly. When he came to look over our love of music and our obsession with buying CD’s and accumulating and expanding our pop culture knowledge. With his access to local music clubs and knowledge of the Boston music scene, I got into a lot of shows, met a lot of musicians, and even had a couple of crushes on some on the musicians.
One night while out with my roommate we were leaving TT the Bears, a local rock club in Cambridge and not too far from our apartment and decided to stop and get a something to eat at Hi-Fi Pizza, one of the few places in our Central Square neighborhood that was open. While eating a slice one of the musicians I had met walked by the Hi-Fi storefront window, saw me and walked into the pizza place. I was sitting at the table with my roommate and M walked in and sat across from me. He told he was at the Middle East, which was right next door to TT’s. At first, I didn’t realize he was flirting with me. It wasn’t until a young, gay couple fresh from a night of clubbing complimented me on my high cheekbones and beautiful smile and told M and my roommate I was ‘the prettiest thing in here.’ M agreed and asked for my phone number.
Later on that week, M and I spent the night discussing music in my apartment. We proceeded to my bedroom and on my bed was a bunch of CD’s. I was in the middle of alphbatizing them before M came over.
“Wow, you like the Cult.” He said. He picked the CD up as I gathered the rest of them and put them on the floor.
We had a great time that night discussing music and how it applies to our life and became good friends. We even went to see the Cult in concert. Every time I hear the song it reminds me of that night at Hi-Fi pizza when M made me realize that I am very sexy woman, a firewoman. Whenever I feel down or have a bad body image day I listen to that sond to lift my spirits. To hear Ian growl, “Firewoman, you’re to blame’ reminds me that sexiness comes in many forms and you never know what form of sexiness will overpower someone.

Chai Tea Latte-Angel Taylor

I read about Angel Taylor on one of my favorite blogs Black Girls Like Us. One of the writers of the blog saw Angel Taylor opened up for Adele, a British soul singer, and raved about her. I downloaded Angel Taylor’s EP after reading the post and I’ve been listening to one song over and over again.

            Chai Tea Latte is about having a first date with a man who ‘blown my mind in two hours time’ and in waiting for him to ask her out again. The song has made me think of two things. The first thing is when Ben and I started dating again and every moment just felt amazing. I miss that, I miss looking at him, I miss hearing him tell me how much he loves me, how happy he was to have a second chance. It brings me back to those moments. The second thing is going back out there and dating again knowing I will be waiting for some guy to call me and ask me out, that nervous/exciting waiting for him to take me out for a ‘chai tea latte.

            Now that I am no longer with Ben I miss those moments in the beginning. When I hear this song it takes me back to the three-hour phone call where we both confessed still being attracted to each other and his sincere apology that opened my heart and allowed him back in. It makes me think of him picking me up from work opening the car door to the biggest bouquet of sunflowers. The ride home with the dark clouds rolling alone as we drove  down Mass. Ave to Somerville seemed like a movie. As he asked me about my day lightning flashed across the sky and a loud crash of thunder followed. I squeezed his hand tightly and shared with him my long-standing fear of thunderstorms. In my driveway the drops of rain pummeled the car and he suggested we wait until the storm passed. Before I could respond he kissed me. That moment was perfect. Although the relationship was far from it I am open and ready for more ‘Chai Tea Latte’ moments.