Sad Songs

In an echo of this summer, my schoolwork has been getting me down some lately. This is to be expected, I guess, when I'm essentially taking three classes on genocide and writing a thesis about war in Angola and Mozambique, but something has been cutting deeper lately. Having already watched movies about genocide in Darfur, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda already this semester, I wound up taking a break from working last night and watched The Constant Gardener with some friends. It's alright as a movie--it has a good message and ideas, but not necessarily the best execution. What I took away from it in the end, though, is that life in Africa (and the underdeveloped world more generally) is cheap. Human lives wind up being just pawns on a chessboard, or, more accurately, numbers on a spreadsheet. Globalization is supposed to bring us together, but when it's filtered through cold-hearted capitalism, it can dehumanize people instead.

Sometimes I want to listen to happy music to cheer me up, but other times I'd rather have something that matches my mood, which these songs do. The first is a remix of Brooklyn-based Au Revoir Simone by Pacific! and then a remix of Fredo Viola by the amazing Prins Thomas.

Au Revoir Simone - Sad Song (Pacific! remix) [divshare]
Fredo Viola - The Sad Song (Prins Thomas remix) [divshare]

Au Revoir Simone on Amazon
Fredo Viola's official site (awesome design)