Nuptial Favors: Assorted Scenarios

After a close reading of the imagery of Song of Songs in its ancient Near Eastern context Bazyn reveals the ins and outs of love via a series of startling metaphors. His language is strong and direct commemorating intense emotions exposing varied vulnerabilities. You hear tales of a music box a keepsake a valentine a love potion a romantic boat ride--wistful longings punctuated by profound regrets. The beloved is compared to a rugged outcropping urban architecture a bounding gazelle. We encounter teasing and laughter nudity and deepened communion misunderstandings and tears. There are bold entreaties at the beloveds door tongue-in-cheek conquests forbidden rendezvous everyday marital squabbles dream premonitions adolescent intrigues and heartrending partings. Bazyns lyrics run the gamut from Proust-like sensory associations to consoling lullaby from frenetic mania to soulful self-admonition. He revisits Greco-Roman classics (e.g. the judgment of Paris the sorrowing nymph Echo Odysseuss faithful wife Penelope the revenge of Medea) and reinterprets Scripture (the sensual beauty of Sarah Hoseas marriage to a whore Jesuss parable of the foolish virgins). Bazyns imagery dances in your head. The unretouched black-and-white photos help sear his ideas into your imagination. You begin to reminisce about the vicissitudes of your own relationships.