Today's '80s Flashback: Out of Mind, Out of Sight

For some strange reason, I woke up with this earwig, "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" by Models, an Australian group from the '80s, stuck in my head quite insistently.

It's a song that pops to the surface of my memory every now and again. Funnily enough, I never owned the single or the album (neither of which are available in the U.S. version of iTunes at the moment) but always liked them. Very INXS in some ways, I guess. And real brass! When's the last time you heard that in a pop song? Other than a sample of real brass, I mean.

I don't know much about the group, but the song makes me nostalgic for, yes, the '80s, specifically '80s music. At least as far as pop radio is concerned, it was so much better then--and, yes, I'm sure I could quantify that statement with very little effort. You had to be there, and I was, but it all went by so quickly. In fact, I'd say in 1985, when this song was released, the golden era was severely tarnished by then.

The song also makes me nostalgic for another, older life--being in my mid-20s, living on my own in Washington, D.C., and trying to learn as much about life as I could in as short a time as possible. Traveling to Leningrad (yes, when it was still known as Leningrad, not Petersburg, Petrograd, or whatever it's being called this month), Moscow, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, New York (for the first time), and Melbourne, Sydney, Alice Springs, and Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia, all within the space of . . . two years.

Really, two years?! Is that even possible? That's amazing. Spring/summer 1985 to the USSR and Northern Europe. Fall 1987 to Australia. Come to think of it, I did indeed do so much in such a little amount of time, without even realizing it. Now I'm lucky if I get to Chicago or Canada every couple of years.

Here's some proof of two of my destinations--

Montag at the Hermitage, Leningrad, 1985

Montag at Uluru (Ayers Rock), 1987

So file Models' Out of Mind, Out of Sight under "One of those albums (yes, albums) I meant to buy but never got around to."

And file this time in my life under "Better than I remembered" and perhaps also "If only."

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Whenever I'm feeling melancholic about the road(s) less traveled, there is always (thank heaven) my Mom to cheer me up. Today's memorable quote from Vivien Leigh:  "Whenever you're feeling bad about your life, just watch an episode of Hillbilly Handfishin' on Animal Planet, and I'll guarantee you'll feel better about how things turned out."

If you're unfamiliar with this latest example of non-elitist American excellence, I refer you to this Wikipedia article. However, apparently it fails to relate some of the nuances of the presentation--such as, the winner of said contest being referred to as the "Big Dog," donning a coonskin cap, and howling his or her success before a roaring campfire.

Now that you mention it, I do feel better.