I used to hang with Claudia every sunday in 2002. Our definition of “hanging out” was: meet at Metro Sevilla, walk to Cine Diana, see what looks good, and the grab some food afterwards. Usually Burger King. It’s a simple life.

The Others, Eight Legged Freaks, Ice Age, Panic Room. A few of the flicks we enjoyed back then, on nearly empty cinemas, the way it should be. No messy floors, no kids running around, and thankfully back then no “second screen” syndrome, meaning dialogue in films wasn’t about explaining what was happening on screen.

Andrew Kevin Walker jumped to fame with David Fincher’s gritty Seven, so it seemed logical to join forces again for Panic Room, a lesser discussed but quite enjoyable Fincher romp. Jodie Foster’s character, Meg, asks Ann Magnuson if she ever has read Poe. Ann replies “no, but I loved her last album.”

We chuckled, but maybe the joke flew over many people over here. The few that knew of Poe were due to either the perfect soundtrack for Great Expectations, or from being the jewel missing on The Blair Witch Project 2: Book of shadows OST.

After Forest Whitaker got busted for being a thief with a heart of gold, we left the cinema and moseyed down to a record store near Insurgentes. I went for the listening station that had Poe’s sophomore album, which took five years to come out -commercial suicide in some circles-. As I listened to the album, I wondered “why the fuck is this album not on everyone’s stereo?”

Sample heavy, crisp, gorgeous. A well crafted collection of high density pop that hits both as a personal journey and as something you can bob your head to.

I can’t remember what was the last movie I saw with Claudia in 2002, but I remember the last time we saw each other before I went to Nottingham. We went for tacos at a place called “Osama Bin Tacos” (I’m not making it up!), we held hands for a few minutes and we embraced. We would continue to hang out after I returned from Nottingham in 2004, but those lazy Sundays in 2002 will always live in Poe’s Haunted.

-Sam J. Valdés López