Skip to main content

In Which Gary Kemp Reminds Me of Who the Hell I Am......

 This has been a lifelong habit of mine.....falling down rabbit holes.  I discover a subject, and I go all in.  I've watched it happen with a few various topics, and then for my own amusement, I traced back how it all happened.  

With Gary, it went like this.......


I had been listening to a lot of audiobooks on my Spotify.  After a weekend of listening to early 80's New Wave and British New Romantics, I decided to give Gary's book a listen.  And so it begins......

I'd always heard the term "New Romantics" but didn't really know much about who or what it referenced other than Duran Duran and maybe Culture Club, so I found an awesome doc online explaining the musical movement including London Club, The Blitz, the significance of Covent Garden, The Winter of Discontent, Saint Martin's School of Art and on and on and on.....


From there I learned that Spandau Ballet was basically decided to be THE band of the New Romantics/Blitz Kids scene.  And even though the bands clearly most famous song and seminal hit, True, broke out in 1983, most of us remember it so so vividly from the John Hughes hit, Sixteen Candles.


And John was like that, you know?  He introduced us to cool music all the time without us even knowing it.  Just look how he snuck the Rave-Ups in on us......


(There's another Easter Egg of the band in Sixteen Candles, but I'll leave that for you to find!)

But anyhow.  Back to Spandau.  I loved Tony Hadley before I even knew who Tony Hadley was.  I loved his voice, his look, his larger-than-life stature. He was Don Draper before there was Don Draper (another rabbit hole).  There was always something mysterious and exotic about British and other European bands to me, probably mainly due to their videos which were always shot in exotic locales like Hong Kong and various Caribbean islands. 


Just like Simon Le Bon and Michael Hutchence, these guys were distinctly NOT American, and man did I dig that!  And sadly, the more I learned about Spandau, Tony, Gary and the history of the band and the school boy mates it was made up of, the more I loved Tony and the less I loved Gary!



I also couldn't help but realize how disrespectful it must have been to have a club called THE BLITZ in post-war London.  True, The War had ended years before, but it was still extremely visible in the surroundings and had many survivors, veterans and civilians that remembered it well.  Imagine a youth culture deciding to revel in the looks and music of cultures that had tried so hard to destroy their parents' generation AND playing their industrial-sounding music behind it!


It would have almost been like having a rock club in San Fran or Austin, Texas and calling it My Lai and wearing soldiers' fatigues! 


But after all the history, the deep dives, the online research and online documentary watches, and remembering I should call my friend, Hugh, I ultimately went back to the music.  I went back to Duran Duran, The Cure, The Cult, Depeche Mode, The Smiths.......and on and on and on.....and another rabbit hole begins.

And I remembered my other rabbit holes from over the course of my life:

1) The Titanic/World Word I/The Russian Revolution/The Gilded Age/The Astors/The Robber Barons/The Vanderbilts/Biltmore House/George W. Vanderbilt library & book collection/trip to Biltmore House to stand in library and simply think about George and his book collection

2)Robert Mapplethorpe & Patti Smith love affair/Just Kids/The Summer of Love/Late 60's NYC/Andy Warhol/Max's Kansas City/Sam Shepherd/Chelsea Hotel/Leonard Cohen/Janis Joplin/The Brill Building/Tin Pan Alley/NYC artists/Keith Harring/Jean Michel Basquiat/NYC club music/Madonna/The Breakfast Club/everything 80's/Nile Rodgers/did you know that Chic actually played ALL the music on Madonna's "Like a Virgin" record????

3)The Pillars of the Earth/all Ken Follet novels ever/medieval era/Renaissance Festivals/cosplay/wenches/The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries/art/art in literature/decorating my house with art from literature and tapestries/Tracy Chevalier/everything ever written by Tracy Chevalier

4)Nan Goldin/Provincetown/Cookie Mueller/the Opioid crisis/The Sacklers/The AIDS crisis/Act Up/Gay Men's Health Crisis/what is a die-in?

5)Under the Big Black Sun/John Doe/L.A. punk/The Go-Go's/D.C. Punk/London Punk/NYC Punk/CBGB/The Clash/ex-husband's band(s)/do I really like any punk besides The Clash?

6) This could go on a long time, you know.

I couldn't help but wonder if I had taken the path that I originally thought to be my calling back when I was a grade school girl: journalist. I wanted to be friggin Lois Lane or Kurt Vonnegut.  Maybe a little bit of both. Then I remembered my own rabbit hole:

Journalism major/pre-law major/social work graduate/public health social worker/mother/AIDS hospice volunteer/autism mother and advocate/secretary/construction technology marketing/construction technology yellow iron branch administrator/50 YEAR OLD WOMAN/MOTHER/WRITER/HUMAN!

So at the end of this long tirade, I guess I have to say thanks to Gary for reminding me of that.  And Tony too,  I suppose.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reclaiming Your Childhood: Priceless

 This story might take a minute to tell. Bear with me. When my sister and I were little girls, my mother took us to a large baptist church in town. Even as a child, I never remember feeling welcome there.  But I do remember the lovely older couple that kept my Sunday School class. They gave us saltines and kool-aid, and I remember thinking they would be nice grandparents to have. At Christmastime, the Sunday School class was set to have a random gift exchange. Every child was supposed to bring a gift that could be exchanged with any other child.....no specific gift designations.  I received the gift of an Avon 7 bead necklace which was very popular at the time.  I loved it so much and was thrilled to have it!  I was somewhere between 5 and 7 at the time. (Back in the 1970's and 80's, Avon was a cosmetic company that was also known for it's inexpensive jewelry.  I couldn't find a price on what this necklace would have cost back then, but apparently there is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Week with Rumor

 My dog Rumor was an experiment.  A trial offer.  And all parties knew that going in.  Except for maybe Rumor. Rumor was an outdoor country dog.  His given name was Ruger (named after a firearm if you don't know, I didn't) which made sense for a dog raised in hunting country.  He was a stray that came to live with a loving family at about the age of 1.  He lived outdoors, slept in a garage crate at night, frolicked with an older dog pack and had a lovely life. We think he was about 4 years old.  He had been neutered, had vet care and was by no means a "rescue". His dad offered Ruger to me on a give-it-a-try basis.  He knew I wanted a dog. He told me Ruger would be sweet to me and also be my protector.  He was right on both counts.  He told me if it didn't work out, I could bring Ruger back to him and his wife.  I could tell they were a little sad when they dropped him off.  It made me glad to see that Ruger came from such ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NYE for $200, Alex

 Can we all just agree that New Year's Eve is the worst of the string of winter holidays?  I would even go so far as saying it's THE WORST of all the holidays.  I loved when Stanford Blatch defined a party as feeling very "forced festive".  To me, most NYE parties feel that way.  The idea that this is a big year-end blow-out and we'd all damn well better make it awesome! The reason I hate NYE is because it combines two of things I most hate about celebrations: cold weather and crowds.  Plus it's during a time of year when everyone has already spent all their money.  AND you usually have to the leave the house.  ADDITIONALLY, you have to stay up late.  It's a big F.U. from me on all this.   I would dare say that some of my happiest New Year's memories have been spent at home in my pajamas with either my child, an S.O. or happily alone.  I remember one unforgettable year of moving into a 3rd floor apartment on NYE.  I rememb...
Post a Comment
Read more