The stress of COVID-19 makes me think about smoking. Venturing into the kitchen for lunch break — my wife trying to broker a compromise between the quarreling kids — I have this thought of going out to the back porch and cooking a butt. I’d look off into the distance in a knowing, cynical way. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Just enjoyed a video of Amy Winehouse singing “Valerie” while someone plays acoustic guitar. Collectively, we’ve never faced a crisis like this, but individuals have been facing crises more dire than this. Amy was one, a magnificent artist who could sing with such soul and write tunes that were so retro and new at the same time, while fighting a losing battle with addiction.
With her beehive hair, tattoos and mile-long eyelashes, she was the unvarnished truth. Amy brazenly sang about skipping rehab and cheating. She sang about being no good, but none of us are good. We’re human. Amy burned with so much passion, she was more than a torch singer. She was a torch.
– Claude Iosso
