There have been some fascinating synchronicities lately. Besides working on the ideas that I have for my PhD and reading extensively but also non-organically nor pragmatically [basically, I'm feeling all over the place with that...] I received an email from an old school friend whom I haven't seen nor heard off since... well, 1983.
I don't remember much for those years. It feels that 1981 to 1983 are in a haze. I finished school in May of 1983 and moved away from the town in September never to go back again. Still, they are there, my school friends. In whatever I remember of those years, mopeds seem to be at the forefront. I burned the inside of my right ankle on the exhaust of mine. I remember the first kiss, little Vespas buzzing away in the town center, tears [so many tears] watching La Boum / The Party with Sophie Marceau and we all danced to Dreams are my Reality. We all did.
I was volunteering in a local radio, Radio Studio Nord and my nom de plume was Andrea Angermann. I remember walking there sometimes barefoot and dressed in black because I was obsessed with Bob Marley. And all this would be ok but you have to remember that it was a small [small] village, in the North of Italy, near the Alps, in 1981. Whoelse knew about Bob Marley?! One Easter I was in London and I remember calling in from a phone booth outside Backingham Palace and going live with a guy whose name, if I remember correctly, was Gigi de Simoni and then I brought back T-shirts I bough in King's Road for Andrea Bano. Those were the years I have also discovered Donald Fagen / Steely Dan and that beautiful sound that follows me around now. Oh, that phone number: 29 19! I remember taking a bus that it felt took forever to go down to the "city" to buy the Kool & the Gang latest LP... the courage, we had, back then.
Somehow, if I look back, we were rebels... the avantgarde of Tolmezzo cultural milieu. Those were the years when I started to explore art / art-making, began writing, my hair was dyed in all sorts of colours, I was expanding my music taste, I already wanted to go and live by myself, I felt trapped, I knew that there was more, so much more out there and I knew I was in the wrong place and the wrong time, maybe even in the wrong century and definetly wrong continent.
And still, I can only think now about a guy at school with me and who was always always always smiling...
I don't know where I am going with all of this and why this memory is coming up right now but I am sure it will all make sense at some point.
so, onwards + upwards
mx
________________________
Date : 04 DEC 2023
ps: don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to or BECOME A MEMBER on my website to be notified of updates & new blog entries! > form below!