Cheers to the mixololgist. Of course, today is my first day on his newest concoction. And there may be other contributing or causative factors responsible for this unseasonably good mood: an especially good night of sleep, sunshine, another Tigers' victory in the bottom of the ninth, a co-worker telling me today that I looked really pretty, beautiful even, which was both flattering and awkward when he repeated the compliment in a stage whisper from my doorway. Working theory--the mixologist's new brew is merely an enhancer and that the good mood and the hopefulness are genuine and harbingers of the good times to come.
On my morning commute, I heard "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye. On the radio. Actual radio that comes free with the car radio and is mostly, locally based. In addition to being a sexy, smooth vocal offering from the D, it immediately made me think of "Heathers." Which, undoubtedly, is Winona Ryder's greatest movie. Ever. Followed closely by "Mermaids" and "Reality Bites."* It's the scene where she (Veronica) agrees to accompany the taller, blonder, still-living Heather to a pasture with Ram and Kurt (the nerd-bashing, date-raping jocks and lords of the school) after the shorter-bitchier-BBQ-cornut-eating blonde Heather's funeral. Kurt approaches Veronica and drunkenly delivers possibly the worst sex pick-up line ever: "When I get that feeling, I need sexual healing."
In addition to Winona's pixie, dark-eyed charm, Heathers is a classic movie rife with all sorts of literary allusions and whose viewing should be a prerequisite for high school graduation. It is Ferris Bueller with a dark side and played a pivotal role in the development of the dark comedy. It depicts the high school condition, the implicit hierarchy that transcends time and technology and fashion changes and chillingly foreshadowed the school violence and chain effect of suicide that has permeated our contemporary society. (Heathers was released in 1988). Moby Dick, Robin Hood (the movie is set in Sherwood, Ohio), Mark Twain (Veronica "Sawyer", Bettie "Finn"), J.D. Salinger, and James Dean (the cool guy, outsider character played to great effect by Christian Slater is named James Dean and called J.D.)**references abound, and it is highly quotable. Who can ever forget "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw" or "My son's a homosexual. I love my dead, gay son" or "Mmm, I love to suck big dicks. I can't get enough" or "The extreme always makes an impression." And my personal favourites: "Our love is God. Let's get a slushie" and "You know what I want? Cool guys like you out of my life."
It's definitely a frame of reference movie for my generation--the generation that came of age in the 1980s. I recently loaned it to one of my colleagues who was born in the 80s. She is smart, funny, and has good taste. She deemed it grisly and did not appreciate its cultural significance or dark humour or literary references at all. Do kids still read the Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick, and Huck Finn in high school these days or have Salinger, Melville, and Twain gone the way of the pay phone and the Walkman?
My sexual-healing time machine also evoked other frames of reference that defined my generation, that continue to have enduring impact: the movies; the music (alternative, hair bands); the clothing (upturned collars, little alligators, leg warmers, slouchy sweatshirts, acid-washed jeans)***; the big hair aka mall hair (invented in my hometown according to our local paper); the invention of the cell phone, the computer, the remote control, MTV; the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion that some of us watched live at school (not me but I remember a student coming out of a classroom with a stunned, horrified look on his face after the bell rang, telling us about the explosion); the California Highway Patrol "chasing" O.J. Simpson's white, Ford Bronco in a surrealistic, low-speed chase as we sat, mesmerized before our televisions (I watched it while eating dinner at the bar at Chilis); listening to O.J. Simpson's Not Guilty verdict after the worst prosecution "fail" in history, where he was tried and acquitted for killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman (not to mention the worst hair style ever worn by a female prosecutor and the introduction of criminal trial as three-ring circus). We were the generation that led to the 24-hour news cycle, the nothing-is-out-of-bounds-for-public-consumption generation. You're welcome.
Time to walk off into the sunset, get a slurpee or a Diet Coke Big Gulp, and drive around with the windows down and the 80s music loud.****
Inspiration(s) of the Day: Marvin Gaye, the 1980s, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Lisa Loeb, John Hughes
Song(s )of the Day: Sexual Healing, Stay, If you leave, and too many more to list...
*Mermaids and Reality Bites are from the 1990s but early 90s and stemmed directly from the seeds sown in the 1980s and hence, still part of the 1980s. Mermaids also stars Cher and a young Christina Ricci and Jake Ryan (aka Michael Schoeffling from Sixteen Candles). It has a fabulous 50-60s du-wop soundtrack that includes such great hits as "Never make a pretty woman your wife" by Jimmy Soul and "You've really got a hold on me" by Smokey Robinson. Plus, Cher as the commitment-phobic, scandalous single-mother decked out in the great fashions of the day is to die for. Reality Bites was another frame of reference movie from my generation that guided us into the 1990s and featured Ethan Hawke as the cool-guy bad boy and Ben Stiller as the good-guy yuppie who was just not right for our soulful, outsider Winona. 7-11s Big Gulp (diet coke) also had a starring role. And ah, the soundtrack--so exceptional and partially to blame for my love of and addiction to the mix tape and its later incarnation--the compilation CD. It featured funky classics like "Tempted" by Squeeze and punk rock favourites like "Add it up" by the Violent Femmes and soulful Indie songs by smart, beautiful girls like "Stay" by Lisa Loeb (yes, I am listening to Stay as I write this. For the 10th time. "So, I turned the radio on, I turned the radio up. And this woman was singing my song....you try to tell me that I am clever but that won't take me anywhere or anyhow with you." Totally, singing my song. Then, now, always.)
**It's also features a young Christian Slater who defines the cool-guy, bad guy of the 1980s. One of his best movies, second only to Pump Up the Volume. Like Mermaids and Reality Bites, Pump Up the Volume has a great soundtrack featuring Concrete Blonde covering "Everybody Knows" and Henry Rollins and Black flag singing "Kick out the Jams, mother fuckers", which having on my Walkman (our bulkier version of the MP3 player and a whole other topic involving the art of the mix tape) made me feel like a bad ass. (Note to self--add "Kick out the Jams" to my trusty i-pod).
***Preppy is always "in style"--tailored, crisp, and classic. See Jen Lancaster's excellent-80s-generation-capturing and preppy-homage-paying memoirs for the definitive explanation. But, the leggings, the slouchy, off-the-shoulder sweatshirts popularized by Jennifer Beals (yes from that show about hot lesbians on Showtime) in Flashdance (I had one in red that actually said "Flashdance" on the front of it and one in neon blue that said "Awesome" in hot pink), and especially the acid-washed denim (clearly designed by someone on acid) need to remain buried, deeply, in the time capsule. Okay, I am sort of digging the jeggings update on the leggings but the rest, not so much. And big hair, less crunchy and stiff thanks to amazing advances in hair care products and technology and sans the curled under, non-blended bangs, always cool and classic too.
****For the record, I would have used Od-ing on nostalgia as part of my title or post, a paraphrase from Iona's (Annie Potts) quote in "Pretty in Pink" but for the fucking cowardly the Duck and my current hiatus from all things duck-related. Must. Not. Quote. Blaine's declaration of his cowardice and love and one of best fighting-for-you-passage-of-all-time. Just heard OMD's "If you leave" in my head and I cannot resist the pull of it: "You said you couldn't be with someone who didn't believe in you. Well I believed in you. I just didn't believe in me. I love you... always." John Hughes--the God of the what-it-meant-to-be-a-teenager-in-the-suburbs-in-the-80s, the Guru of the-frames-of-reference-movies-for-the-80s-generation, the King of the mix tape as soundtrack....may he rest in peace. Always.
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