(no subject)

One of my customers yesterday asked me if I've been saved. (Shortly followed by, "you're so sweet, it makes me cry to think you're going to Hell." For some reason I find that hilarious.)

I didn't give her a straight answer - I thanked her for her caring and changed the subject back to her car.

The answer, though? "Yes, many times, but not in the way you mean." I haven't found Jesus or any other incarnation of any other deity, but I've been saved a lot of times, by human beings and by my own stubbornness. I'm not going to Hell. I've been there, and clawed my way out kicking and screaming, with the help of people who loved me. Who needs metaphysics?

(Oh, and Nicki, I've found us a hotel for Sunday night, but lo! They need a credit card to reserve a spot. Watch your email for details.)

(no subject)

This makes me happy. "The Age of Plastic" LP is currently sitting somewhere in my parents' house - I'm not sure where Dad keeps his LPs in this digital age. It's one of the first albums I ever fell in love with sufficiently to play over and over again. "Video Killed the Radio Star" is not, to my mind, the best track on there - that would be "Elstree", IMO, though I also very much dig "Kid Dynamo" - , but it's the one most people think of when they think of the Buggles.

I'm not sure why I love the songs so much. They're all very upbeat, and I think it may have something to do with the fact that I discovered the LP when I was just getting into science fiction, and they feel very space-agy. "Johnny and the Monorail" is a prime example.

Anyhoo. I must find out if it's available on CD. That's a big piece of my childhood wrapped up in those songs.

(Sidenote - I wonder how much that LP would go for on eBay?)

The stage is set. The band is playing. Suddenly, your heart is pounding...

The Buggles have gotten me all nostalgic now. After exhausting the stock of YouTube videos for them, I ran a search on Styx.

Styx, you see, were my first rock concert - on Ile Ste-Helene, in the summer of 1997. (Wow. Ten years ago. The mind boggles.)

I'd been to see Celine Dion previously, but that's not rock :p It was still awesome to my young mind, though.

Styx, though, ah, Styx. I had heard their songs, of course, but didn't know them. I didn't know a single word beyond the opening verse of "Lorelei". And then the opening acts (also somewhat spectacular - I can't remember who they were, but there's a big possibility of Eric Lapointe and Alannah Myles.), and then there they were, my first rockstars, all long-haired and disreputable-looking, and my Dad was next to me, every bit as excited as I was, and they blew me away.

I have no idea which songs they played, except for "Lorelei", and "Suite Madame Blue" (Dad's favourite). I think they may have opened with "Crystal Ball".

The next day, I ransacked Dad's LP and CD collection and listened to every song he had - from breakfast to supper, I laid on the floor of the front room with headphones on, soaking it in. The day after that, I took my bike down to the second-hand bookstore where I knew there were records for fifty cents, and brought home "Paradise Theatere", "Pieces of Eight", and "Kilroy Was Here", because Dad didn't have them and I was hooked. (Note to self - when one has a house of one's own and will not be moving a few times a year, one should gently remind Dad that those albums are in fact, not his, and organise to have them mailed up.)

In high school, I used one of their songs to close a presentation in Moral Ed in which I argued for the decriminilisation of marijuana (I failed Moral Ed. that year. Go figure.) and annoyed the poppy hip-hop DJs at the dances by asking for "Renegade". The result was always a "sorry, honey, we don't have that." and they'd play "Babe" instead.

I've loved other bands that deeply - Great Big Sea, Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis (Hm. One of these things is not like the others!). Styx will always be the first, though, and the first I fell in love with outside, under the stars, surrounded by a heaving mass of people whose hearts were all beating the same way mine was. It is in no small way that they are responsible for my love of live music.