What’s In a Name?

"She puts eggs in her orange juice/Coffee in her tea/
Puts olives in her jelly/Says that's the way it's gonna be"

For the past few weeks I’ve been working at a music supervision company in New York. I know what you’re thinking: “Cool.” But it’s actually even cooler than you thought when you were just thinking that a second ago. Not only am I working in The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, and The City So Nice They Named It Twice, but on a very special street in that very special town. Yeah, you guessed it – this Canal has been spending his days in the heart of Chinatown, on none other than Canal Street.

Now, we at The Canals don’t believe in fate, but we do believe in the cosmos – and this connection is cosmic to the extreme. You see, The Canals and Canal St. share more than a name – we share a story. Both had illustrious pasts, but were eventually destroyed by their very creator: Ambition. (To brush up on our history, see our first two posts: 1 and 2.)

Canal St. was not always paved with concrete and saturated with fake luxury goods. No, it was once a real, beautiful canal, a Manhattan oasis, bringing a bit of glory to China and a bit of China to Glory (the US of A). It was brimming with the purest water in any of the five boroughs. Dragons raced gleefully down the banks. The Irish sake bombed with the Italians. Palestinians danced with Israelis on the shores. People came from near and far to witness the spectacle and partake in the constant merriment. Every day was the Chinese New Year, and it was always the year of The Canal.

But such peace could not last. Eventually, people started to exploit beauty for profit. Fights broke out. Darkness set in. Over time, as hope evaporated, so did the canal. Just as Panama Lee was not ready to change the world with the music of his band, the world was not ready to be changed by the magic of Canal St. So what’s in a name? Only the remnants of a glorious past, and a constant reminder of a tragic downfall.

On a happier note, I’m thoroughly enjoying my time here. They have over 20,000 albums in the office, and I’m free to sample them all. Here are a few tracks I’ve discovered since I started working. They’re pretty good, but the best will be featured in a series of detailed posts over the next few weeks.

Andrew Bird – Dora Goes To Town
Emitt Rhodes – Somebody Made For Me
Blue Merle – If I Could
The Concretes – On The Radio
Nouvelle Vague – Just Can’t Get Enough
Pas/Cal – Bem, Please Come Home
Sandy Denny – Solo
Paul Westerberg – We May Be The Ones
Cary Brothers – Honestly

-danny