ONCE, Again

Working theory: the word “delightful” was waiting for ONCE to come along to define it.

Revisited it this weekend – for the first time in more than a decade – and found it to be even more delightful the second time around, an intimate fairy tale speaking volumes of the artistic dream, of hope, of love found and unrequited in long walks along city sidewalks, hoover in tow.

When I saw The Swell Season live in the late naughties, Hansard spoke of green light days and red light days, that particular day being a green light day, a day where everything just sort of worked, from coffee to haircuts: ONCE, then, is the story of what happens when a life of red lights finally starts to turn green – in spite of self-inflicted efforts to turn those same lights red again.