love jones

So I don't have a Valentine for the upcoming weekend, but it hasn't stopped me from feeling in a romantic and sentimental mood.

This film, love jones, is one of my all time favorites. Of all times. For real.

It's a classic black-on-black love story starring Nia Long and Larenz Tate, set in Chicago in the late 90s, and features upwardly mobile and artistic 20-something characters. Shades of Barack and Michelle in their early years, hmmm... Of course, what am I saying? We've all seen love jones like a dozen times or more.

One of my students asked me if I'd heard of love jones and if I had the soundtrack. I brought it in today and we all had a nice time reflecting... on love and romance. Those we've loved and those we've lost. OK... maybe that's a bit drama.

Besides all the spoken word pieces throughout the film, the music was just fabulous. Who still can't sing along to Dionne Farris' Hopeless, Lauryn Hill's Sweetest Thing, or hum along to Duke Ellington/John Coltrane In A Sentimental Mood?

Most romantic of all... that opening poem of Darius' that just makes Nina fall hard... A Blues For Nina.

Anyway, I'll be dusting off my copy of the film this week. And the soundtrack is already in high rotation again.

This is just the beginning... :-)
fs