sample(d) III: nighthawks (into an empty street corner)
Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper
The sample(d) series continues with “nighthawks (into an empty street corner )”! This piece samples —not only song lyrics— but also Edward Hopper’s 1942 masterpiece: Nighthawks. Since its inception, the painting has evoked a deep sense of contemplation within its viewer — an insistence on silent self-reflection. The piece also samples On the Drive Home by Nicole Zefanya, The Exit by Conan Gray, august and White Horse (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Alison Swift, Keep Driving by Harry Styles, My Way by Frank Sinatra, and many many more songs. Particularly, my version of nighthawks (into an empty street corner) focuses on that ever-fleeting feeling of summer slipping away — reality brutally returning. It is always what it always is. enjoy <3
“ Somewhere in between broken and bitter ,
never looking back never looked lonelier ”
- the Piano
nighthawks (into an empty street corner) artwork: “how-not-to-drive”
nighthawks (into an empty street corner)
every other window is closed, except for the open-all-night diner
its fluorescent blue light spilling
into an empty street corner;
a man spreads spilled milk into the creases of curved wood
swiping back and forth by the lonesome customers:
four, strangers to one another
A man and his escort
A man and his job
A man and his little life
with his little back turned against the world
…
some hometown hero hums
over the radio static
over the sound of rain
on the drive home
cruising around the same old roads
we’ve always known
— no, will always know
our coming-of-age
remains reflected
in the rear view,
headlights spilling
into an empty street corner
— into an unforeseeable future
unknown to one another
“You know school starts again in september”
yes, I know, of course I remember
this — or any— summer can’t last forever
“October break, I swear we’ll see each other”
and the rain floods in, as if the windows
between me —and the world— never were
