Another early '90s tune, a barely remembered classic (at least to my ear)--Kym Sims, "Too Blind to See It," which tiptoed into the US Top 40 way back in in 1992 but which stomped its foot on position 5 in the UK charts.
Funny that. I was once again more tuned into what was going on in music in Britain way back when (rave, Kylie Minogue, The Shamen, Q magazine), even when it was essentially American music playing on BBC Radio One. Wrong country, wrong time.
I made my first trip to the UK in 1993, when I probably should have gone in 1983 or before, being more new wave than rave. Nevertheless, it was fun being there in the summer of '93, INXS playing a concert in some pub, videos for The Shamen on giant screens on Oxford or some other high street, the secret wish that I'd see Kylie in some random shop. The best I managed was Eric Bogosian, Annie Lenox (sort of--she regularly had lunch in Crouch End, where I was staying), and some unknown Brit actor that I recognized from American TV, forgotten to me now.
I just wish I could have stayed longer. But, really, balding at the ripe old age of 32 and decidedly not stylish like perhaps I was for one brief, well-put-together moment in the '80s, I already felt out of shape and out of place in any sort of under-25, G.A.Y.-oriented environment. Alas and alack. The amount of time I have spent in my life worrying that I was too old, too ugly, or too unhip. What a waste.
Anyway, Kym Sims. This is a great song and an alright video, so evocative of the era, musically, stylistically, and crazy camera-anglely. What is up with those rapid close-ups and reverse-outs? And that dancing--much faster than the song itself, very out of sync. Silly.
And pre-Worldwide Web as well. Imagine having to get all your music news from magazines and BBC broadcasts, letters from friends, and the occasional foray overseas. Yes. Really. That's the way it worked.
To be honest, I miss it. Oh, I love the Web and I make use of it thousands of times per day--and looky, even to write this blog that I'm never sure anyone's actually reading. I met my current boyfriend thanks to the Web, keep up with friends and make new ones through it, do my serious and fun research thanks to it, shop, read, work, stay up-to-date on current events and cultural happenings, goof around, play games, and generally eat, sleep, and breathe it. It makes me more sedentary perhaps, but it also helps me to "travel" through my conversations with others. And it makes me much less lonely than I might have been during my extended sentence in the hell that is Pittsburgh.
But, still, nostalgia. A couple of weeks back I went to a bookstore--yes, a bookstore!--a new one opened by a friend of mine here in town. How fun and exciting it was just to browse in a bookstore again and buy whatever struck my fancy.
Sure, we can do that in a way through hyperlinking and web-surfing, but . . . it just seems different now, more passive, less interactive, than going to a physical store and searching through the shelves, stacks, and bins.
Maybe it's a Pittsburgh thing or a small city thing, living in a place that doesn't have enough people and disposable income to support more retail. We still have a couple of contemporary music stores and some fantastic vinyl shops. We seem to be seeing a resurgence of bookstores, with two now open in Squirrel Hill after a few years of bookstore death. There are some other types of shops as well--cards, gifts, housewares, design, etc. They are few and far between, though, not nearly prevalent or promoted enough.
But do I go to them? No, not really. Rarely, in fact.
Some of it is due to money--trying to be wise with it for a change and not spend it on more stuff that I don't need or will have to pack and move at some point. Some of it is due to focusing on my true interests--music and media, mostly, when it used to be more about music, books, clothes, and food.
But, all in all, I'm just not that interested, and I'd really rather . . . live, work, and shop online.
And watch early '90s videos, remembering when, twenty years ago, and who I was then and reconciling it with who and where I am now.
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