during the school year I usually go to bed at 10:30 or earlier. I get up at 6. school officially starts at 7:45 but if you're not there at 7:25 you're in deep shit. just so my bedtime makes sense here. during the summer, though, I usually end up going to bed at 11 or 11:30 or so. this is acceptable for my mother. but in the last week or so, I haven't been following that. it looks like this:
sunday: go to bed at midnight
monday: go to bed at 11; have to work tomorrow
tuesday: DON'T HAVE TO WORK UNTIL FRIDAY; STAY UP 'TIL 1 AM
wednesday: 1 AM IS GOOD!
thursday: have to work tomorrow, supposed to go to bed at 10.
that's where our story starts. I have to be awake and ready before 9:40 on tuesdays and fridays to go to the library. this time my mother thought it would be an excellent idea to pull me right out of the cycle of staying up until 1, and expected me to crash right at 10.
so I went upstairs [my computer's in the basement] at 10. I paced around the living room until the cat bit me. then, excitingly, I finished the book I was reading! by then, it was 11 or so.
I got all excited because I hadn't yet crossed the magical threshold that is 11:30. there are so many songs I've banned myself from listening to after 11:30 because they make me freak out and panic. however, I also need to realize that maybe 11:00 is a good tipping point too. I start to lose some, uh, lucidity after 11.
at that time I looked around my room and though, "man, I should go to bed." but then... I saw them. my beloved highlighter collection.
I WAS SO EXCITED. I love highlighters so fucking much. [if it doesn't look like a lot, consider most people own maybe two highlighters at a time and that they're both yellow.] I decided immediately that I needed to do something with them. preferably tying into what I happened to be listening to at the time.
A Brief History of Me and the Cure
age 11: we hear "just like heaven" on the radio. my dad is like "this is my favorite song!!!" and turns it up so loud that my ears bleed. I decide I must find this song again because it's the best thing ever to my 11-year-old ears.
age 12: I encounter a sketchy caseless disc entitled cure - greatest hits in my dad's handwriting hidden in our cd collection. I promptly steal it.
age 14: the cure show up in my graduation-from-middle-school present. I know that sounds weird. my present was 6 cds.
age 15-16: my dad basically ties me to a chair and makes me listen to mixed up.
thursday night:
I know. it's completely inappropriate for being one of the three bands that people who feel sorry for themselves listen to. but unlike the two implosions of self-hatred in that trio [the smiths and joy division] some cure songs are kinda happy. and this is probably the best love song ever.
that was my rationale. yeah, it's a fucking cloud made out of a page of my driver's ed handbook... so sue me.
when I looked up at my clock it was 11:29. imagine how happy I was that it wasn't 11:30. I swear.
me at 11:29: can still withstand creepy punk!
me at 11:30: I NEED TO LISTEN TO THE B-52S RIGHT NOW.
so that was exactly what I did. I sat there and listened to the b-52s and suddenly everything made sense. kate piersen's hair was understandable. fred schneider seemed like an awesome person. "love shack" made loads of sense that it really doesn't during the day. I thought "hell, I'm never going to bed. I don't need to. I- AM- LIVING- ON- CHANNEL ZEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" yeah. I was having a great time.
then I made the mistake of going off to new order land and listening to this. I realized I had no idea what the hell was going on.
it was then that I made myself go to bed. I fell asleep at 1 AM as usual. my mother's plan failed. but at least I got a little-kiddish thing I've dubbed Cure Cloud out of it.
ps: I will probably have a smiths-y post like this sometime in the future. as much as I love the cure, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smiths. /socialoutcastteenager I'm not depressed. how could I be depressed when I'm going to see matt & kim in november?
AHH! It ate my comment. I'll resum. This brought back memories of the night my Mom decided to "see what all this newfangled music" I was listening to was all about and stayed up watching 120 minutes with me. It was the night Never Enough premired. Afterward she turned to me and said, "I'm worried about you listening to such negative music." I then wasted the next hour trying to explain to her that Robert Smith singing about feeling frustrated in a relationship where he's giving his all and still falling short isn't all that much different than the Country songs she liked where the singer laments the loss of their spouse to someone better. (eyeroll)
ReplyDeleteI just want to add that I am happy to see that your Dad has ensured you have had teh proper musical education. :-)
ReplyDeletehah, oh my god. we had a project last year that involved choosing a "piece of artwork" and demonstrating its "intrinsic value", and there were so many country songs. it was pretty bad. & I've had to do the same thing with my mother. "why do you listen to that mopey band [the smiths] so much? are you depressed?" "no mom, I just..." "ARE YOU ON DRUGS? oh, but I like that one song, that How Soon Is Now one." sense, it makes none.
ReplyDeletemy dad and I have pretty similar musical tastes. I have a lot of the records he bought while he was in college in my room.