No food. Please.

I was doing so well. All things come to an end, however, and I too succumbed--utterly and completely--to stomach flu. Ha. What a mild mouse of a name. The French know what to call it: la gastro. Gives it an ominous sound more in keeping with the kind of havoc it raises (ahem). And raises, and raises. It had to happen eventually, and I'll take my turn if nothing can be done about it, but boy, this was what caps, italics and bold were invented for; j'ai une GASTRO. I was already dealing with basic flu-like symptoms, managing to fight them reasonably well--but I was just flattened by this. The headaches, wracking body aches and pains, dizziness and nausea (I stopped eating for over 24 hours. Me!) are gone, thank the heavens. Next step in the recovery process: a little comfort of the non-edible sort. Ears seemed a safer point of entry (for the love of Michel, don't even suggest an infection there). Feeling out of sorts and craggy, I was longing for some vintage something or other, the kind of wistfulness in Willie's "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground," or something from his jazz-inflected Stardust album. That or else some go to hell, red-eyed "Whiskey River" or "Bloody Mary Morning."

Instead I went for something Swedish, female, and young.
Known as First Aid Kit, the duo is covering a Fleet Foxes song (devoted reader that you are, I am sure you know I've already earlier posted about them) but First Aid Kit has also produced some fine work of its own. If you want to be impressed, just try listening to their "Tangerine" or "I met the King," among other little First Aid Kit gems, on You Tube. The two songs I mentioned just now might even be better examples than what I chose to post, but I so liked the forest they're sitting in above, the background noises and, well, I just couldn't decide in this weakened state.

Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg are just 15 and 17. At Vimeo, their music is described as "hardly young...The emphasis is on narrative lyrics accompanying playful melodies with intense, thick harmonies." If you want to follow your curiosity a bit further, as I did, have a listen to an 8th grade Klara in the school auditorium belting out a shockingly profound and mature cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Amen, is all you can say following such a virtuoso go--even with the miserably shoddy mobile phone camera footage. After which you blow your nose to evict some of the last of la gastro and trudge back to bed.

Happy listening.