Not really a post about writing as such, more a post about nostalgia.
Chinese potato seems to have lots of Western songs from my teenage years on it now. I’m not sure when they appeared, but I don’t think they were there a year or two ago.
I looked at Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance. I seem to remember that I used to think she looked, how to say?, to me, somewhat … I don’t know, ghetto? Not in a good way. But I used to think she looked cute I think? But in the video now, I can’t see how I ever thought she ever looked cute! Strange… Still, to be fair, I still really like the song, and I find the words quite endearing: “No moneyman can win my love. It’s sweetness that I’m thinking of.”
I think at that time we didn’t really have videos as such, just the music on the radio – tape-to-tape machines were in! – and pictures and interviews in my sister’s Just Seventeen magazine. So maybe I never saw the video, just heard the song and the words on the radio?
Depeche Mode’s ‘World in My Eyes’. I still really like this, a lot.
Paula Abdul, ‘Straight Up’. I used to think she was really cute. I still think she’s quite cute actually, though I think the initial tap-dance makes her look like a guy… but after that I think she is quite cute. I find the bit where she says ‘straight up!’ and points upwards a bit silly…
Roxette ‘The Look’, I think I still like this. There was a group of fairly well-off, hard-working students at school that I hung out sometimes, I mean I wasn’t particularly well-off, relatively, so I don’t know how I fitted in particularly, perhaps I didn’t, but I seemed to hang out with them sometimes; and this was one of the main pop groups that this group liked; and I seem to still like it.
A-Ha ‘Take On Me’, this was from when I was like eight or something, maybe ten. I still really like it. Actually I say “still” but I’m not sure I actually liked it at the time. I don’t think I really enjoyed music at that time, I just liked the cartoon… I really like the music now though.
I find it strange watching the old videos because it makes me realize how old I am getting … and it reminds me of being young, which wasn’t always fun-fun-fun I think, but on the other hand, when I accept that it is a part of me, and then I look at my life now, it has I feel the opposite effect: making my life now feel quite free.
Ok, after re-reading, one more song I want to mention: INXS ‘I need you tonight’. I was never massively into this song, though I liked some of their later work like ‘Guns in the Sky’. There was a guy at school who was really good looking, I guess, since lots of really hot girls really liked him. He liked writing really long stories in English, and was pretty good at that. He really liked INXS. I think the singer in INXS is a bit too good-looking for me to relate to 
And… Guns’N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”. I never really understood why this was so popular, and I still don’t really. It’s really strange to me seeing this come up with a huge copyright notice at the front. I can’t really imagine a rebellious group today having a really big copyright notice at the front and being popular, although perhaps I am being naive on this point? The whole video looks very contrived to me, put together by a huge record label is my feeling, but I could be biased. There was a guy at school whose parents were I feel really well-off, who was a really nice guy, lots of friends, had a really cute girlfriend I feel, and studied enough to be second in most classes, and he really liked this song, which I never understood at all, and still don’t! I can’t help thinking I need to get older still before I will understand this