Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Dany Horovitz.
Produced around an infectious riff reminiscent of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” “Way About You” hooks listeners from the start with its joyful banjo, catchy melody, and beautiful harmonies at the chorus. The song began as a casual “throwaway” piece but soon became a standout track thanks to the fresh ears of Dany‘s producer, Calvin Hartwick. After a college engineering session where the track was played live, Calvin insisted it had to be recorded and brought in composer Matthew O’Halloran as a co-producer.. Now, it’s one of Dany‘s favorite songs.
Collaborators on “Way About You” include Sean Royle, a celebrated Toronto studio musician and arranger, and Eric Vanier, whose stellar drumming brought energy to the track. The banjo, played by Sean Royle, added a unique and irresistible layer that completed the song’s sound.
Stream + share Way About You in full now:
I consider myself a storyteller first and foremost, and in this song, I explore the mysterious “Way About You” through endless, cosmic metaphors. From the first note, this track puts a smile on my face, and I hope it does the same for listeners. – Dany Horovitz
Honey Vanilla Chamomile
I love herbal tea when I read in the evenings, and I love to read in the evenings. I don’t usually go for anything fancy, anything store bought works great, though I usually like gravitate to teas with mint, citrus, or honey in the name. Tonight I’ve chosen a honey vanilla chamomile. I keep it in longer then it should be in there – some people are just rebels that way. And I’m thinking about love, specifically the work that goes into finding it and keeping it.
Speaking of reading, I’m examining one of my most treasured possessions and perhaps the only true piece of art that I own. Certainly the only true piece of history. Some years ago I was in a local Toronto production of William Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost, and not long after came upon a rare book dealer who was selling single leafs of a second folio (essentially a page from a 1632 second edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare), encased in museum quality glass. Normally you’re not supposed to take apart a folio but the original book was apparently in tatters and the sale was for charity. Anyway I own the thing and it’s the part of the play with this long speech, with a great line: “But love, first learned in a lady’s eyes, Lives not alone immured in the brain.”
The speaker is basically saying that you can’t study about love the way you can other subjects. You can only learn about love by experiencing it.
Which brings me to a beautiful song by an independent artist I love named Emily Gray. Like Shakespeare, Emily is British. I have gotten to know her and her music through New Artist Spotlight, an online community of independent artists. Her new song is called “The Curse of Eternal Contentment”. And the message is basically that endless happiness breeds contempt: you can’t enjoy the sunshine without rain. It has a simple but infectious guitar and Emily’s beautiful voice harmonizing with herself. Clever lyrics too.
This is a front picture and back picture of the leaf. It is from the end of the fourth act and beginning of the fifth of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Because it is from the second folio, there are some interesting facts. The names of the characters are spelled differently than they were in later editions, and there are some other errors (for example you’ll see “actual quartus” on the first page, the fourth act even though it is actually the beginning of the fifth act”. And you’ll see the old-style “S” that looks like a lower case “f” in “lost”). The lengthy speech is also the longest speech in all of the Shakespeare canon. 200 of these leafs were made, to raise money for the Atlanta Shakespeare Company.
I love this for its history and for my personal connection to having performed the show. I also deeply connect with the message of the main quote, which is that you need to experience love to learn about it. We may as well replace love with life, and the message stays the same.
Taken together I’m tasting the sweetness of my tea, and remarking on how part of the pursuit of love requires some risk and the potential for heartache. But, and this is where both pieces of art align: the pursuit is worth it, wherever it leads. Reviewing the message in this historical artifact, and listening to the message in this new artwork, I feel satisfied. I’m also feeling calm, relaxed, and a little tired from the tea warming me up. I go to sleep a little happier than I was a few moments before.
Tea + Me 