Another Likely Story

It always amazes me the things our memories tend to link together.

For instance, every time I drink a Sprite, it reminds me of Knoxville Mexican restaurant El Charro's. Is this merely a coincidence, a conspiracy between Coca-Cola and Mexican food, or just a sign of my devotion to the restaurant's bean burritos? I'll most likely never know the answer, nor do I even really care, but I will forever associate Sprite with El Charro's.

This brings me to the band Au Revoir Simone. Earlier this summer, I was introduced to their album: Still Night, Still Light and immediately latched on to the eerie female harmonies and heavily looped keyboards. The album became a staple throughout the first months of my summer, and then, as always is the case, fell into the woodwork.

Then came St. Petersburg, Russia.

My family took a trip along the Baltic Sea through Eastern Europe in late July that lead us to St. Petersburg. One of the few unfortunate aspects of traveling with my family is that we inevitably embark on some sort of a cheesy tour at least once in every country that we visit. In the case of St. Petersburg, it was a canal tour. Of course, the scenery the tour highlighted was breathtaking, most notably the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood. It reminded me of Candyland.

While on the Canal, our guide distributed earphones that (imagine this) guided us along the tour. As luck would it, my earphones turned out to be shitty and broken and, seeing as though I hated to spend the next hour in silence, I brought out my iPod. The first track that happened to play on shuffle was a track by Au Revoir Simone. The music, coupled with the scenery, blended perfectly and the tour ended up being one of my favorites on our journey.

Thus, the other morning, when I put on the album it immediately brought back vivid images of Russia and, more than likely, it always will.

I still find it ironic that a band with a French name will forever inspire memories of Russia.