We are about halfway through the month, and my upper lip is giving strong “first mustache attempt at fifteen” vibes.
It’s November and with that, for me, it’s also Movember. For a number of years now, I have been joining men worldwide, who undergo a clean shave on November first, and then grow just their mustache throughout the month, raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer and other male ailments.
For those of you not willing or able to sport facial hair on the regular, I want to make a point of the sheer shock you experience upon excavating the youthful visage below once per year. It’s something easily forgotten over the year, but hits home each and every time.
So what I have found (or rather have now been harshly reminded of) is that a full shave is such an intense visual experience that I will usually do it once, realize my mistake, and for the coming two or three years start Movember shaving but keeping the mustache to give me a headstart – and, really, an anchor to myself when looking in the mirror – before forgetting again, going fully, facially nude, and reembarking on the same loop.
Either way, a good mustache is something special. Many a song and piece of art have drawn inspiration from or paid homage to them; not to mention their deep ingrain in history.
This week, I would like to point you to Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 album, Bridge over Troubled Water. The duo have made heaps of immortal music, and this final record might rank as their greatest, with song after song knocking it out of the park.
With Art (Garfunkel) engaged in work on the movie Catch-22 (1970), Paul (Simon) wrote the songs alone after having his initially promised part in the movie written out by the production team, putting additional strain on what was an already crumbling relationship.
Over the the decades since, the duo would come back together on occasion (among them, the infamous, free 1981 reunion concert in New York’s Central Park, to an audience of around 500.000 people), but found their differences too great to collaborate happily, and so their work together ceded, as did their friendship.
Earlier this month, however, news reported that Art, who had arguably been the cog in the machine of their partnership, had come to reflect and see himself as having been a fool, and that the two finally reconciled their friendship.
Now, how do we tie this all together? The album is a stellar work of art, the two of them just overcame their difference and found back together …
… and if you place your thumb on Paul’s face on the album cover, you’ll find a marvelous mustache appearing on Art’s face.
Have a lovely weekend, y’all!
Coryphe 
