I am friends with the undertow

I have Suzanne Vega on my mind. I used to listen to her at boarding school -- in fact, that was when I was introduced to her, and to pop music in general (I'd always managed to avoid it before, and still did, mostly, then). Ah, the halcyon days of belting out Karma Chameleon with a group of other twelve-year-old girls, all trying to hit the notes, while coming back from the playing fields. Not to mention being taught the one that starts, "Twas on the good ship Venus, my God you should have seen us..." Really, one shouldn't underrate the education one gets from classmates at school.

No, we didn't do that one where the teachers would hear. We weren't that stupid.

It was a friend called Adam who introduced me to Suzanne Vega, playing me a tape of her music. I loved it. I bought my own tapes of her music. I'd play it in my cubicle in the dormitory (I was a senior by then) on my little tape deck, wearing a pair of headphones -- I'm sure logic will make it quite obvious why there were rules concerning playing of music in a cubicled dormitory shared by 30-40 people. I'd listen and wallow in teenage melancholy, possibly with a good book, possibly just lying there and thinking sad thoughts about the soldier who went knocking upon the queen's door.

Of course, had I been that age in these days, I'd be writing my lj while I listened. Just think of the outpourings of angst you've missed.