Get Me in the Expresso Lane

From the : Touring America Collection by OPI Collection

           What is it about nail polish that makes it so great? Is it the shininess, the shimmer, or perhaps the plethora of colors in which it is available. To say I like nail polish is an understatement. I'm in  love with it, especially OPI. Not only because it is a great quality nail polish, and that really does make a huge difference, but because of their creative names. I pride myself in being able to identify what color OPI someone is wearing. Being able to tell the difference between Shoot out at the OK Coral and Cajun shrimp is a great skill that will totally get me far in life, right? Have no fear, this is not some airy blog telling you what shade of nail polish is hot right now in Vogue (but if you are interested accent nails, painting your ring finger nail in all glitter while the rest are matte,  is all the rage). The real point of this blog is to give more depth and meaning to a beautiful bottle of nail polish. So sit back, get some acetone and cotton balls, and enjoy a history lesson with your new shade of nail polish. 
         This color comes to us from Clarksdale, Mississippi. The town is famous for the cross roads between highways 61 & 49. The meeting of the expressways inspired Robert Johnson’s famous blues song Cross Road Blues. Johnson's supposedly sold his soul to the devil in order to receive his musical genius. Clarksdale also inspired the OPI designer’s creation of Get in the Expresso Lane, and no dark magic was used in the process. Clarksdale is famous for being the birthplace of the Blues. (But don't worry this shade of nail polish is not blue, that is much too obvious and there is no fun in the obvious. ) There are countless blue’s festivals here every year and it is the birthplace of blue’s legends Muddy Waters and Son House. The Delta Blue’s Museum, which became famous because of the rock band ZZ Top, is in Clarksdale, as well as Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blue’s Club.

            I don't know about you, but I don't really know what blues music is. My version of blues is probably Billy Joel, which is sad, to say the least. Well it turns out that blue’s music has deep roots in the African American culture and has origins from the music slaves sang while working. Guitars, basses, pianos, harmonicas, drums, saxophones and trombones are all typical blues instruments. Think those smoky little bars, with the dim lighting, and some guy sitting on a stool playing the harmonica. Blues melodies are identified by notes that are a semitone lower than major scales. This gives the note a sad and more expressive sound. Blues music uses flattened thirds, flattened fifths and flattened sevenths. Though these chords are found in a variety of music they are usually used over minor scales. So the sad tonality of the chords matches that of the scale. However in blues the chords are put over major scales producing a dissonance in the sound, which is what people identify to the blues style.

           Get me in the Expresso lane is a muted dark espresso brown, (expresso… express way of Clarksdale and espresso… get it?). The color goes on opaque and definitely needs more than one coat. It is reminiscent of Here Today… Aragon Tomorrow, though that has more of a green base while Get me in the Expresso Lane is, obviously, based with brown. It is a great dark color that’s bold yet neutral enough for everyday. It would look at home at any blues music festival in Clarksdale. Enjoy your music/history lesson and your new OPI shade of the week!

http://www.visitthedelta.com/explore_our_region/clarksdale/

http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Overview/1269/ground-zero-blues-club

http://blog-mademoisellec.net/?p=2101&lang=en