It's amazing how the mind, especially the part called the "male mind," works. One day I stumbled upon the music video of Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" on YouTube, and began wallowing in nostalgia about the 80s, completely unaware of the significance that that day was our 25th wedding anniversary. On some level, though, I must have known it.
Men have a strange way of approaching sentimentality. They will feel a sorrowful yearning or bittersweet ache for a particular event or a phase of their lives, set about by some old movie or song, and usually intensified during a brew or five. But it shall never occur to them that a particular day might be an important anniversary or even their own birthday. And they are often found shopping on Christmas Eve.
Neither will they communicate to their beloved anything about this orgy of wallowing historicity, and most certainly not any of their feelings about it. I'm not even sure I understand mine.
For us, the 80s were a tough time, and the music itself not very good. In contrast, the music of the 70s and 90s is generally much more well conceived and executed. Yet the music of the 80s, mostly very trite, stirs a great sadness. I think it is because it makes me think of all the promise of a young couple, and the long road since then. It hasn't been a sad story, but such a long journey is poignant.
Perhaps we feel regret for the mistakes we made, or our failure to make situations better, or harsh things we have said. But we shouldn't think that--life was just as we made it and we make it better as learn more about it. And the only way to learn about it is to make bad decisions.
I thought I had something profound to say about time and memory, but it has slipped by somehow. At any rate, here is the music:
Trip through the 80s - A Video Compilation
Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric?
Gary Numan - Cars
Gary Numan - I Die You Die
What Gary is up to these days
A-ha - Take On Me
Big In Japan - Alphaville
Men Without Hats - Safety Dance (the most inexplicable band name, song title, and video theme of the 80s)
And the video that launched me on an orgy of sentimentality:
Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (full-length official video)
I thought that this last classic, voted best video of the 80s if I remember correctly, could not be improved upon--yet perhaps it can:
Max Graham vs Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (2004)
