Last night I was the emcee for The Basement Series, a quarterly reading series in San Francisco that raises funds for Dave Eggers ScholarMatch and Lit Camp. The theme for the night? The Morning After. One of the things I love about writing is that you can give the same prompt to ten different writers who will take it in ten different directions. No one who reads a blog called “Midlife Mixtape” should be surprised where I took my two-minute intro.
Back in the ‘80s when MTV and I were coming of age together, lots of popular song lyrics sailed straight over my teenage head and into the blue unknown. From a distance of thirty years, it occurs to me that perhaps it wasn’t that I was unripe, or that the lyrics were nonsense. It was that their real meaning wouldn’t be revealed until society and technology caught up in 2016. Let me give you a few examples.
- Too shy shy, hush hush, eye to eye. When Kajagoogoo sang this in 1983, I thought it referred to the gurgle in your throat when you saw someone super duper cute across 10th grade chemistry class. But in 2016 it’s obvious: it’s the string of emojis you’d text to someone at a Silent Disco, inviting them to meet up with you later.
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- That point is probably moot. What point? In Rick Springfield’s 80’s magnum opus, it was whether Jessie’s best friend was a douchebag. Of course he was. This guy was not only writing love songs to his friend’s girlfriend, he was leaning far too hard on his rhyming dictionary to come up with the word “moot.” You know what point is definitely moot in 2016? Whether Jessie’s girl chose wrong. Do a Google Image Search of Rick Springfield and you’ll see what I mean.
- Push it real good. If I need to explain the original interpretation to you, you shouldn’t be here at a reading series that gives out free beer. In 2016? Advice to the Bay Area commuter about how to fit onto BART during rush hour. Next.
- When doves cry. Back in 1984, I liked to think those doves cried the tears that filled the bathtub in the opening scene of the Prince music video that would change music forever. But as his untimely death has prompted us to dig for deeper meaning, I have to think that he was giving us forewarning about what scientists are calling the Sixth Mass Extinction.
- We don’t have the time for psychological romance. At the time, Cameo’s “Word Up” spoke to the pretty ladies around the world about prioritizing the dance floor, and the waving of hands in the air thereupon, over a deeper, psychological commitment. In other words: Cameo invented Tindr.
- And finally: Save a prayer for The Morning After. I’d like to think that Duran Duran knew we’d be here tonight, that you’re all saying a prayer of thanks for literature and these talented readers. Or maybe you’re saying a prayer of supplication, as you consider what you’ll submit when you apply for the life-changing event that is LitCamp.
But I think we all know this song refers to November 9th.
