March 25, 2003

I started writing this Sunday evening but I didn’t get to finish until now.

What a strange day. Well, maybe not strange but… I don’t know. We’ll see if I can think of a word for it by the time I’m done with this.

While there’s a war raging 6000 miles away, I spent half the day cleaning out my garage. See, there’s a brush and crap pickup tomorrow. So today was our last opportunity to clean out the garage before we move. You should see the incredible mountain of shit that’s sitting out on my curb right now. And most of it really is just shit. We ended up saving just a few things that we had forgotten were out there: old photos, the last of our albums and 45’s, and some of my journals and sketchbooks.

So I spent the afternoon going through some of the things I found out there. I dusted off and cleaned about 80 albums and 40 45’s that I decided to keep. Rebecca and I used to have hundreds (probably 750) of records. About 10 years ago we sold about 500 of them and since we’ve gotten rid of others through garage sales. From what was left I just kept the essentials.

The Beatles – White Album
Kate Bush
Echo and the Bunnymen
The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys, 17 Seconds, and Faith. These were three of my absolute favorites.
The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
The Butthole Surfers – I saw them finally in 1986 at the Cameo Theater. It was a great show – about 200 people – Gibby got naked. Then the following year I joined the Navy and I was telling someone about that concert and Brent Coldiron overheard. He’s the biggest Butthole Surfers fan ever. He kept asking me about that show all the time – in the chow line – in the shower – everywhere. Coldiron and I became friends and I still talk to him every once in a while. He lives in Toledo where he grew up.
Talking Heads
Eurythmics - their fantastic soundtrack for the movie 1984. The book 1984 seems to have slipped off the required reading list for high school students. I can’t think of another book that could be more relevant today than this. If you haven’t read this classic, please do. You’ll be surprised how much of it you’ve already heard coming out of Bush’s mouth. It’s doubleplusgood!
Brian Eno
The Pretenders first album
The Smiths
U2
Aztec Camera
Siouxsie and the Banshees – my favorite band of the 80’s. When I was a senior in high school I met Sharon Hawkins who was from England and looked like Siouxsie with blonde hair. We became instant friends. I still have a picture of us playing in the snow from 1985. It’s in my autobiography.
Bauhaus
New Order – the original Blue Monday single in the “floppy disk” cover
Duran Duran – their first album and singles – their best stuff. My parents owned a hair salon when I was in high school. During my junior year I got into coloring my hair. My first attempt was to look like someone from Duran Duran – it got me kicked out of Catholic school.
Simple Minds – New Gold Dream. This is the coolest piece of vinyl ever. It’s translucent gold with purple swirls!
X – More Fun In The New World. I loved this album. I also found a picture of me from the newspaper because I had worked on painting some Christmas mural. In the picture I was wearing one of my hand-decorated shirts that had little X’s on it like the cover of that album.
The Style Council
Roxy Music – on of the most inventive bands of the 70’s
The B-52’s – My friend Andy and I started listening to them in 1982 because of the cool retro yellow cover of their first album. We thought they had to be good because of the design so we bought the album without having heard it.
The Sex Pistols – everyone has to have this in their collection.
Violent Femmes
The Psychedelic Furs – “Love My Way” was in the movie Valley Girl. Remember Valley Girls? Man, I thought Nicholas Cage was so cool in that movie.
Laurie Anderson – my first exposure to performance art – before I knew what it was. In 1989 I bought a book about performance art because it talked about artists like Laurie Anderson and Salvador Dali doing things I’d never heard of. I was intrigued and then later that year when I was out of the Navy and back home, Rebecca found an ad for a performance art class given by Steve Bailey and Glenna Park of Jump-Start. We took that class and that’s how I got involved with Jump-Start, which led to performing and video, which led to graphic design, which led to teaching, which led to SAY Sí, which led to filmmaking and writing.
John Cage – genius.
Colourbox
David Sylvian
Soft Cell
R.E.M.
Frank Zappa – Sheik Yerbouti. I got this album for my 12th birthday because of the single “Dancing Fool”. I can’t believe my Mom let me listen to that record. Actually, I can. Both of my parents were really good about letting me explore what I was interested in even if it was something intended for adults. I think it really helped make me someone who’s not afraid to try new things and someone who expects to be able do things.
Gary Numan
The Police
The Chameleons UK
INXS
Ministry – their first album when they sounded like new wave disco, not the screeching, grunting, industrial sound of their later albums.
Altered Images – Happy Birthday. We were listening to this album the day Rebecca, Eva, and I we’re driving around in my car and it was raining really hard. I drove (my ’74 Gremlin) through some high water and it must have got the distributor wet. When we tried to leave Eva’s house the car wouldn’t start. So we hung out there all night. I remember that we drank all of Eva’s Mom’s vodka and Eva fell asleep somewhere on the floor. Rebecca and I stayed up talking for hours. Then later, while I was watching her sleep and the sky was just starting to light up, I fell in love.

Whoa! Back to 2003. “Shock and Awe” is starting to wear off as Americans start dying.

Next I went down to Jump-Start because I’d promised to tape the show that was running: These Women: Sugar & Spice & Everythang! So I’m setting up the camera and the mic and I’m not really paying attention to the pre-show music until this kind of funny puck-rock song comes on and I think, “What did she say? Get away from my hole?” “Hey, that’s Annelle!” Very cool, and funny.

Then I get home and I’ve just missed Michael Moore accepting his Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Here’s what I’ve got to say about that. People are now asking if it’s appropriate to protest or speak out against the war now that we’re already in it. You bet your ass it is! Right now most of the people in the United States have finally started to get that it’s the way we’ve treated the rest of the world that led to 9/11. Of course, those of us who we’re saying that on September 12, 2001 were unpatriotic trouble makers. 18 months later we’re starting to make sense. Too bad we’ve got a President who basically said, “Fuck all this peace talk, it’s time to kick some A-rab ass!” I think we’ve got to keep talking about it until it’s impossible for an American President to hold his own country (and the rest of the world) hostage.

An hour later we’re celebrating a filmmaker who drugged a 13-year-old girl and forced her to have sex with him – pleaded guilty and then fled the country.

Then I watched one of the best episodes of Six Feet Under. It was just an all around great show. The story that really got me was the one of Clair and her friend from Art School. He obviously loves her and she thinks he’s gay. Welcome to my life. Thankfully Rebecca finally got it.

So now it’s midnight and I’m ready for bed and I think to myself, “what a weird freakin’ day.”