"Dearly beloved We are gathered here today to get through this thing called "life." Electric word, life. It means forever, and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you, there's something else: The afterworld. A world of never ending happiness. You can always see the sun, day or night." -Prince (Let's Go Crazy) Purple Rain was the first record (yes, vinyl) that I owned, and I played it incessantly. From that album to Hit n Run Phase Two, the last of his released

Within an hour of arriving in Porto — on foot through the Ribeira waterfront district, past the azulejo-tiled facades and the granite churches and the wine lodges stacked above the Douro River — you understand that this city operates at its own frequency. Smaller than Lisbon, more compact, more emphatically itself. Porto has never particularly cared what the capital thinks of it, and its food reflects that independence completely. The francesinha arrived within hours of my la