Jr. Walker & The All Stars “What Does It Take” (To Win Your Love). Ahh, the sweet sounds of #Motown and the late 60’s. It continues to rain here in L.A. and this plus Shuggie Otis, well, you get a taste of my current playlist. kisses -haven

Shuggie Otis “Strawberry Letter 23.” It’s a rainy, moody day in Los Angeles, and this Shuggie here is the mood I’m in: Sweet, tender, loving, care, but no one with whom (I want) to share…. shucks - haven

(Art from photography.nationalgeographic.com via cordisre

Today’s “Haven Happenstance” #song - “The Storyteller Series:” “Sometime Around Midnight” by The #Airborne Toxic Event.

It’s nice to say that one of my favorite ‘indie-though-now-well-established’ bands is local from L.A., Los Feliz to be exact. I’ve yet to see these guys live, but I love their sound and lyrics. Sometime Around Midnight tells the story of a guy who still longs for his ex and happens to run into her at a bar, he - a bit drunk - becomes mesmerized, and those feelings of wanting come right back. Sing it boys!

“And it starts
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that’s when you lose yourself
For a minute or two

As you stand
Under the bar lights
And the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano’s this melancholy soundtrack to her smile
And that white dress she’s wearing, you haven’t seen her
For a while

But you know
That she’s watching
She’s laughing, she’s turning
She’s holding her tonic like a cross
The room suddenly spinning, she walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms

And so there’s a change
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies, like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homeless, and lost in the haze of the wine

And she leaves
With someone you don’t know
But she makes sure you saw her, she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling, your stomach in ropes
And then your friends say “What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

And you walk
Under the streetlights
And you’re too drunk to notice that everyone’s staring at you
You don’t care what you look like
The world is falling around you

You just have to see her
You know that she’ll break you in two”

“Haven’s Happenstance: The Storyteller Series:” This week I profile songs that tell stories of love, death, crime, luck. What does this have to do with love, which I normally write about, you ask? Well, everything: The quickest way to my heart is through a good story.