Lovefest blog

The Ancient Greeks had several words that can be translated as "love," but three were most commonly used. Eros refers to the romantic love celebrated February 14 and found in 97 percent of all popular music. Agape is the New Testament word Jesus used when he said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." That leaves the much-overlooked phileo, which can mean both, "I love the way my son refers to the dawn as ‘when the world started over'" and "I love way Arcade Fire begins 'Wake Up.'" It connotes a sense of cherishing a person or object deeply. For our 50th edition of Paste magazine, it was all phileo, all the time. Proving that she has a cultural curiosity to match her talent, Neko Case shared 17 of her favorite things, and folks like Michael Stipe, Dave Bazan and Notorious star Jamal Woolard chimed in on everything from Fugazi to Asian Punk Boy. We're extending the Lovefest online with a new blog for our readers. Submit a short paragraph on something you've been loving lately. It can be a song, a website, a gadget, a bottle of wine, a TV show, a film, a book, a video game, a board game, an actor, a comic strip, a trend—anything, old or new, that you think the world should know about.

Just send a photo and brief paragraph about that thing you love, along with a photo and sentence about yourself, to lovefest@pastemagazine.com. We'll select the best entries from our readers, along with entries from our staff and some of the artists we love to share with you each day. To kick things off here's our first entry from Antony:


Photo by Nick Marino

The Air
I love the air. The air, because it cradles me as I move through. I always take it for granted, the air around me, the space around me. I always think there’s nothing in it, but actually it’s always cradling me on every side. Does that seem crazy?



Antony Hegarty is the lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, whose third album, The Crying Light, was released Jan. 19.