Month: October 2016

Come On, Eileen

If you asked me to pick a song that was the thread through all the different times and parts of my life, I would somewhat reluctantly have to pick this one. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s pretty great. It’s just sort of sexist (but only sort of because it’s also somewhat about true love). And extremely 80s (although also timeless in its own way).

But there you have it. Loved it as a kid. Listened to it reenvisioned by my friends in hardcore bands as a teenager. Danced to it, leg kicks and all, in a circle with the friends of a guy I barely knew at the end of year celebration on my junior year abroad. After a 20-year gap, it’s made its way back into our lives as a karaoke favorite of my partner and our friend who like to perform it complete with pogoing.

At this moment, you mean everything.

Beat It

[retroactive]

This week I had one of those serendipitous experiences that make me wonder whether there is something to this whole “being in the flow” thing: I went looking (online) for my best friend in 3rd grade whom I hadn’t thought of in years on the day that turned out (the internet informed me) to be her birthday. I didn’t find her. Well, I found her (because I have mad finding-people-online juju, a power I have sworn to use only for good) but she’s not on social media.

Despite the absence of a gushing reunion, I appreciated my dip into nostalgia. All those hours we spent in our backyards choreographing dances to pop songs, swinging as high as we could until the poles rattled while belting out the lyrics, and the times her dad came to visit with his van that was kitted out like a small apartment. The early 80s definitely had their moments.

So, old friend, this one’s for you.

Twin Peaks

In high school, I spent a fair amount of time riding around in cars with my friends. Some of us lived in the country, the good places to eat were far away, and there was nothing much else to do. In the car where I spent the most time in 1990, there were three tapes in constant rotation: Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Pure Poverty, and this one.

You could say we were eclectic in our musical tastes but for us the overweening appeal was anything that sounded different than the country and top 40 we’d been inundated with. Twin Peaks was all of that and more. In those days we watched the show (and called each other during the commercials) and taped each episode to rewatch over and over in our basement rec rooms.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I say, Welcome back, Agent Cooper. And, Happy birthday, Kathy.

Into You Like a Train

As just one example of how I am difficult to categorize, I love Jets to Brazil but not Jawbreaker. I do not see the appeal of John Hughes movies and have never seen The Breakfast Club. Luckily I never filed for my hipster card so no need to revoke it.

While also not being that into The Psychedelic Furs beyond the hits, this cover is one of my favorite songs. It makes me think of Watts, the first character I can remember both wanting to be and date. Despite what I just said about John Hughes, Some Kind of Wonderful is one of my favorite movies.

All Star

Neither of us is hip enough to have been into the comic, but Mystery Men remains one of the few movies my spouse and I both love. The older I get the more I can relate.

The years start coming and they don’t stop coming.

Sparrow

[retroactive]

October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I wish I didn’t know so much about how a family can lose a child, but maybe it’s impossible to get to 40 and have it be otherwise.

Today I am thinking of my friends whose children were taken by miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, prematurity, and SIDS. I remember each of them, very much wanted and still missed. We hold a space in the heart of our family for the children we were not able to know, that place in our lives where they should have been.