Remember those days when you could go to school, work a job, and still be ready to go out until 2 am on a Friday night? I do. I distinctly remember going to class, taking the commuter rail into Boston, working my job at Structure and then taking ten minutes to freshen up for a night out on the town. Those days are gone but the memory still feels fresh, especially when this song comes on.
GOODBYE TO THE SUMMER
SOLD DOWN THE RIVER
UNHAPPY EVER AFTER
WELL DID YOU EVER?
DID YOU EVER REACH FOR THE
GLUED-DOWN PENNY?
SAME OLD JOKE AND IT’S NOT FUNNY
BURNS ARE RED BRUISES BLUE
OUT WITH THE OLD CHEATED BY THE NEW
DO YOU SUFFER FROM LONG TERM
MEMORY LOSS?
I DON’T REMEMBER
It was fall. The chill in the night air was welcome after a few weeks of stifling conditions on the subway platforms. The magical preparatory period before an evening out was at hand, and I was at the condo playing Chumbawumba because my taste was always questionable and it was the 90’s. We were going to meet up at the Tar Bar, where everybody once met. Nuns, drag queens, bikers, college kids and elderly locals converged under the darkened ceiling and came together without judgment or conflict because once upon a time we could do that.
The splendor of a weekend sprawled out before us – what happy luxury in that, and how it seemed as if it might last forever. Candles flickered in the condo, while a window or two let in the night breeze. This song kept pumping, and as silly as it was it provided the perfect motivational music for a night out.
YOU SING THE SAME OLD VERSE
STICK LIKE GLUE FOR BETTER OR WORSE
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN
The all-important decision had yet to be made: what to wear? Every day, and every night, hinged on what was decided at that pivotal moment. Would we blend into the crowd or would we make them bow down before us? Our youth was its own invincibility, our innocence its own formidable power. Illusions and delusions were equally grand and we trafficked in the cultivation of both. How lucky and wonderful that those were the only decisions that had to be made.
THIS HEART PULLED APART
HYDRA FIGHTING HEAD TO HEAD
BURNS ARE RED BRUISES BLUE
OUT WITH THE OLD CHEATED BY THE NEW
DO YOU SUFFER FROM LONG-TERM
MEMORY LOSS?
I DON’T REMEMBER.
I had to let it happen… I had to change… A jacket of black leather, studded with metal accents and lined with extra zippers, replaced my basic Structure uniform of khakis and sweaters, along with a pair of jeans and a simple white t-shirt. It was the 90’s for God’s sake. It was all wrong, and all right. ‘Amnesia’ continued to play on the stereo in the bedroom, spilling out into the rest of the space. Iris Apfel once remarked that she enjoyed getting ready for the party much more than the party itself. I understood that way back then. The little gatherings before the main event were always where the good stuff happened. They were also where one’s real friends were, the squads we each assembled to help get us through this thing called life. They empowered simply by being present – the best people do that.
Find your tribe, then hold onto them.
AMNESIA
DO YOU SUFFER FROM LONG-TERM
MEMORY LOSS?
I DON’T REMEMBER.
