Oh, how the hours pass. We blink, and the day is gone. Blink twice, that’s the month. Shut your eyes for more than a few minutes, and you’re another year older. Sara Curtin’s “Blame Time” is an homage to the passing seconds that we too often fault for our own inactions and misgivings.
Oh, I’ve been meaning to call you
Swear I meant to
Been so long I forgot I meant to call you
Blame time, blame time,
blame time for flying
Watch: “Blame Time” – Sara Curtin
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the music video for “Blame Time,” off Sara Curtin’s recently-released album Or So It Seemed (out 10/6/2017 via Local Woman Records). Based in Washington, DC, alt/folk singer/songwriter Sara Curtin (The Sweater Set) takes a step back from the daily grind to recognize life’s elusiveness. It’s magical: One day you’re a young budding so-and-so, the next you’re thirty years old with a corporate job, etc etc. That special friend moves out of town… next thing you know, it’s been ten years and you’ve lost touch.
Whatever it is, time is and is not to blame. We are responsible for our own actions and inactions. Curtin delivers a series of pointed observations through a backdrop of colorful, lilting melodies. It’s easy listening at its finest, with a bone to pick.
Oh, I’ve been meaning to get a real job
Swear I meant to
Write your emails, screen your phone calls
Swear I meant to
Blame time, blame time
blame time for flying
“For the ‘Blame Time’ video, I was lucky enough to work with my oldest friend. Beth Geglia is an anthropologist/documentarian, and we met in kindergarten,” Curtin shares. “The song is a reflection on the importance of female friendships and the things that keep us from maintaining them as we grow older. It’s about grudges we never intended to hold onto, and of course the biggest excuse which we let get in the way: “I’m so busy.” Like plants, bicycles, and instruments, friendships also need to be tended to. Practiced. Nurtured.”
Sydicated memories of running wild in Brooklyn.
Thought we knew what love was
We wedged the hurt so deep in.
Curtin depicts her vision through various women of import. “The video features women of different ages who are close in my life. The two younger girls (ages 7 and 9) are the daughters of a good friend and musician. The other two women in the video have known me since I was 5 years old. One of them is the mother of the videographer. While we were filming, the woman who rides the bike in the video told me that learning the lyrics and preparing for the shoot inspired her to call a friend she’d lost touch with and they recently reconnected. I hope that this video prompts everyone who watches it to do the same. Technology allows us to easily keep tabs on each other, but nothing replaces the impact of taking the time to really reach out and show someone how much they mean to you.”
The daily grind; the doldrums; the long hours spent wasting away. That’s the bulk of life, when you think about it: We spend the majority of our time in-between other things. That’s no way to live; that’s no way to be. Take a note from Sara Curtin and focus on the important people, places, and things that matter most to you: It’s a sure-fire way to have nothing to blame, and few regrets.
Or So It Seemed is out now on Bandcamp.
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photo © Amanda Reynolds
