31 Days, 31 Memories - Day 29

[bironic]

Was hanging out at a former co-worker's house tonight with a group of people several years older than I am, and ended up watching half a DVD of Guns 'n' Roses music videos. Hence:

29. Elementary School

One of our regular babysitters when we still lived at our old house was M., the eldest daughter of my mother's best friend, who lived around the corner. One afternoon M. and her sister were over watching us, and after playing outside we came in and sat in the living room and M. put on VH1 or MTV. I remember two music videos from that afternoon: "Wild Night" by John Cougar Mellencamp (back when he went with the middle name) and Me'Shell NdegéOcello -- M. announced that she was in love with John Cougar, an artist I'd never heard of till then and a sentiment I wasn't yet old enough to really understand -- and "Hole Hearted" by Extreme, a song that hovered in the back of my mind for the better part of a decade until Napster came along and I found and downloaded it.



Okay, bedtime with the hope that I'll wake up without the sneezy wheezy Ivanka-has-two-cats-and-I-spent-six-hours-in-her-apartment fun-filled reactions.

Comments

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

The first song I ever saw on MTV (the first music channel I ever saw) was "Groove is in the heart" by Dee-lite. It was on a visit to Copenhagen with the school choir - an exchange visit. One of the few very fun times in the years I spent at the school in Tommerup (the one from 6th to 9th grade).

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hm... I don't know if I can remember the first music video I saw.

What made your school hard to enjoy?

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

I remember, when my father was writing a lecture about the similarities between modern rap and the rhythmic intonation of classical Greek poetry, he ordered a copy of a Beastie Boys tape. He was incredibly self-conscious about actually possessing such a thing, and the fact that I found it hilarious didn't help.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

What did he do with the tape when he was finished with his lecture -- stuff it in the back of a drawer somewhere, or throw it away in shame?

With all the work on the journal I've been coming across lots of articles about the tension between highbrow academia and pop culture studies, not just as two fields in opposition to each another but from people who are merging both (or deconstructing the idea that there is or should be a "highbrow" subject to study).

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

I think I only remember because I was so 'old' at the time...

Lousy school. Lousy class-mates who bullied me, lousy teachers who helped them and couldn't teach. Horrible time, altogether.

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

The fusion of highbrow and lowbrow IS very interesting, as is, I think, the difference between cultures and times in what constitutes popular entertainment. I find the division frustrating a lot of the time, as I feel like I'm always trying to convince people that I don't choose to like the things I do just to be posh, so I'm always fascinated by what makes, say, theatre a very highbrow entertainment in modern America, but pop art in other cultures.

He just stashed the tape away; I think it ended up in some Salvation Army donation eventually.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Sounds lousy. Blecch. I'm glad you turned out okay. :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Or theater being highbrow in Europe today whereas in the Middle Ages (going on the rock-solid grounding of things like "The Seventh Seal" here, grain of salt) actors were among the lowest of the low.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

Thanks :-) Took me a while, though.