G. took B. to a friend's house to watch the Patriots and the Sox play at the same time. He must be in heaven - especially since he thought he'd be missing the game because, as you know, our tv has been "broken" since the beginning of August.
Therefore, U and I are free to be silly girls. And when I am feeling like a silly girl, I start to take out old LPs that I've held onto since I was a silly girl (instead of, I suppose, the silly woman I am these days). I don't often take out my old or more quirky LPs because G can't help himself - he must make fun of my "pussy" music. Not that's it's all like that - I have most early Husker Du on LP, and I single handedly got most of my friends hooked on the Pixies seven years after they broke up. But should I put on The Smiths or The Feelies or anything that was used in a John Hughes movie... the gloves come off.
So when I am totally alone the LPs come out. About an hour ago I dug out one of my absolute favorites: The Mercy Seat EP from Ultra Vivid Scene. For me, the song itself is the wayback machine - moments after hearing the first hint of bells at the top of the song, I am instantly transported back to perhaps 1988 or 9. While I'd like to think I was somewhere in the original Ritz on 11th Street (where I saw The SugarCubes way back when) I was probably in what we called the New Ritz when I first heard Mercy Seat, and I was transfixed. Now, whenever I hear Mercy Seat I am a teenager again, in a smelly oversold club, waiting for Jane's Addiction to finally get on stage.
I've had the LP since I first heard the single:
If you follow the link to UVS, you'll see that the man behind it is now a visual/media artist. Interestingly, when we were at the MoMA in August I stood for a few minutes and watched the monitor display behind the cash registers in the lobby. I remember thinking that they were just the right balance of interesting without reminding you of the serious amount of cash you were forking over. And tonight I discover that they were partially created by Kurt Ralske, who was Ultra Vivid Scene.