Thanks to a Bad Movie Remake, I Fell in Love with Nina Simone

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Our pitbull is snoring. It’s a lazy Sunday morning and our couch potato dog, Zoey, sounds like a jackhammer at the foot of the bed.

“Oh well,” I think. “I guess it’s a good time to get up anyways.” (Often times, getting a rescue dog even makes little annoyances, like being woken up, adorable.)

After kissing Mr. Gnome and Zoey on their respective heads, I pad downstairs. Clumsily preparing my cereal and soy milk, I clink bowls and close and open cabinet and refrigerator doors.  Sinking down into the engulfing sofa, I open my latest bookand settle in.

After an hour passes, the heavy-eyed pair I left snoozing groggily stumble down the stairs to cosy in beside me on the couch. Zoey yawns. Mr. Gnome yawns.  As per our custom, one of us (today, me) gets up to pick out some vinyl to play on our record player. Smelling all the dusty jackets and holding the weight of the LPs themselves just makes the music seem even more palpable.

Today, I pull Nina Simone’s Emergency Ward  LP from its sleeve and settle back, eyes closed, to let her preach the gospel according to Nina. 

The first time I heard Nina Simone I felt like my jumbled thoughts and emotions were all of a sudden articulated, laid out for the world by a mysterious androgynous voice. She was magnificent, her music incredibly unique, nuanced and raw, beyond genre or analysis.

We had an auspicious beginning, Nina and me. I sat in a London hotel room, feeling lazy after seeing, the previous evening, Paul McCartney rock the house on his Back to the World tour. The pillows were so soft, my feet were sore from standing for hours at the concert, and the tv remote called my name.

I flipped through the unfamiliar channels (British tv never ceases to confuse me) and paused on the movie, Point of No Return, a really bad remake of La Femme Nikita. The karmic moment: the main character, played by Bridget Fonda, is obsessed with Nina Simone. She continually listens to her music on headphones and asks for her albums while imprisoned.

The use of Nina’s music in the film kept me glued in till the end of the movie. And upon my return to Amsterdam, where I was living at the time, I promptly purchased her anthology, listening to it for days on end through little foam-covered headphones.

And now, thanks to her increasing popularity and our household’s record player, my obsession is expanding in the form of new LPs and CDs. As “Emergency Ward” finishes up we talk about our plans for the rest of the day. Coffee? Lunch? Walk in the park with Zoey?

The words of Nina’s rendition of “Isn’t it a Pity” ring in the air, a sermon-of-sorts on this Sunday afternoon, inspiring us on the week ahead:

“We just forget to give back, because we’re moving too fast…Until we concentrate on giving…Mankind don’t stand a chance.”

text: Nancy Harder/photo: anonymous