7 Things I Love From 1984

Welcome to The Enthusiast, a newsletter thats all yum, no yuck! Every weekend, I'm sharing five things I'm loving right now. The challenge for me is keeping it to just five...

Friday was my birthday, and this is the 7th issue of The Enthusiast, so here are 7 things I love from the year I was born, truly the most iconic year until 1999 rolled around: 1984!

Prince, Purple Rain

“Let’s Go Crazy” was the #1 song the day I was born. I was literally gathered (with the help of forceps) from the womb on that day to get through this thing called life. I’m still trying to get through it, to be perfectly honest, and while I don’t really believe in an afterlife where you can always see the sun, I do still feel like a dearly beloved on my best days. The album is perfect, the movie is iconic, the artist is Prince, and the vibe is eternal. Immerse yourself in the crystal waters of Lake Minnetonka and be healed, my babes.

Amadeus

I kind of don’t know why I love this movie as much as I do because it’s so incredibly tragic, but it is also gorgeous to behold and for me, it's one of the better biopics that doesn’t make its subject out to be a saint. It does show Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as all too human AND an extraordinary genius AND kind of a weaselly little jerk, along with all the other complex ways human exist in this world, no matter how brief the time we spent. It also got weirdo 5th grade me interested in opera and introduced me to The Magic Flute, which is still my favorite opera to this very day.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

I only read this book very late last year as I've been trying to broaden my genre reading horizons, and it was wild. Wild not just in plot and storytelling, but also in the fact that it’s more than 35 years old and still feels fresh and relevant (aka me on a good day). You can very clearly see where series like The Matrix and other now-classics got many of their concepts, but you can also clearly see the imprint of previous works like Blade Runner, reflections of Star Trek, and more. I’m still pretty picky about the horror and sci-fi I read, but I feel like even the hardest genre skeptic would still be blown away by the absolute craft and subtle marvel in this book. I’m definitely a fan.

This is Spinal Tap

Name a better mockumentary, and it can’t be any other Christopher Guest movies, because this one was the blueprint for all that followed. Not only is the movie hilarious and the songs hilarious but the songs are also really good! “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”?! Do not try to act like that is not a legit classic rock jam. “Big Bottom”? “Sex Farm”?!? All are perfect parodies of big dumb late 70’s rock, and when paired with the flawless flow of effortless zingers from the entire cast, it’s absolutely brilliant comedy.

The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss

If there was one kid in the world who was obsessed with this Cold War/Nuclear Proliferation allegory, one of Dr. Seuss’s last books before he died, it was me. I was the one child who wanted to read that book every night, and I’m not sure if whoever bought it for my mom for my baby shower knew that it was in fact a searing satire of nationalism and propaganda (what if they DID? 🤯), but damned if I didn’t love the rhythm and cadence of the rhyme just as much of any of his other books. The Butter Battle Book should probably not be baby’s first Seuss, but I do think it deserves more recognition among his career, if only to drive home the fact that Ted Geisel was strongly anti-fascist but also participated in propaganda during WWII but later realized that racism is not a good look for anyone and changed his tune. Personal growth and self-betterment?! Imagine that.

The Terminator

I legit do not know anyone who doesn’t like The Terminator. If you don’t like it, you haven’t seen it, because it is basically the perfect modern action movie. It’s got time-traveling cyborgs, naked early Arnold Schwarzenegger, instant classic catchphrases, Linda Hamilton before she became a true badass, and so much more. It’s action, it’s romance, it’s saving the world, it's evil robots. “Come with me if you want to live.” Who can resist? I do not swing as hard off of James Cameron’s huevos as most folks do, and all the spin-offs and sequels have seen some heavily diminishing returns, but I will absolutely forever stan the original Terminator.

The Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense

Confession time: I did not truly get into The Talking Heads until my late 20’s, and I did not see Stop Making Sense until my 30’s. Yeah, I knew “Psycho Killer” from open mike nights at bars in Bowling Green, and “Once in a Lifetime” from Pop-Up Video, but as good as those songs are on their own, they’re all in their ultimate final form in Stop Making Sense. It’s the best version of every single one of those songs, and I am not a huge fan of live recordings if I’m being perfectly honest. I usually prefer studio versions of most music, to be honest, appreciating their consistent sound and well-crafted feel, but this is the one case where each song is in its finest form, its most perfect realization. Beyoncé’s Homecoming is the same way: I described it to someone as “the Stop Making Sense version of all of those songs,” and they knew *exactly* what I meant.

The Ten Seven Club

Not only is it my birthday, but I just happen to share 10/7 with several amazing musical artists, so here is a supergroup of Libras born on the seventh day of October to blow your mind...

First we have Founding Member and Cello genius Yo-Yo Ma who would bring everyone together in the name of music and beauty and balance, which no Libra can truly resist. John Mellencamp rolls into the studio on the back of an Indiana thunderstorm, all crinkled eyes and gravelly tones, to write songs of American heartache and righteous rage. He plays rhythm guitar and harmonizes with Toni Braxton on lead vocals, and they make for a rich mix both smooth and scratchy, elegant and rough. Thom Yorke comes in a little whiny at first, but gets it together in order to jam to wild crescendoed and add a little lighter top note to the vocal arrangement. Flying Lotus watches over all from the soundboard, expertly fine-tuning knobs and dropping beats that bring it all together in ways you wouldn’t expect but that you always can imagine any other way.

Try to tell me that wouldn’t be a truly excellent supergroup (you can’t!).

A Little More Love

🎥 Auteurs: John Waters is making a new movie! He had his run writing books and doing speaking engagements, but now he’s back on the filthy film wagon after publishing his first novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance last year. I haven’t read it, and I’m sure it’s awful, but awful in that fun, cheeky, transgressive way that makes Waters such an enduring icon and national treasure. A Dirty Shame was pretty meh (especially because I could only find the R-rated version to watch), but I’m hoping his bizarro sensibilities of trash and sleaze translate better now that the fake positivity of the aughts has given way to the maniacal collective nihilism of the 20s. Make it gross, make it dark, make it hilarious, Our Father of Perpetual Filth.

💄 Makeup: In Defense of Bad Beauty - On one hand–this is not anything new. The French had the idea of jolie laide (pretty-ugly) since at least before Ben Franklin had his little Paris dream vacation: the idea of someone odd-looking, ostensibly "ugly" who is also incredibly somehow incredibly gorgeous. You know you shouldn't find this attractive, but you do, and you aren't mad about it. Bad Beauty (Makeup would be more precise, in this case) is not anywhere on a level of like, injectables in terms of cultural pervasiveness, but on the other hand, if this is what the kids are doing and learning, maybe TikTok might be good for something positive after all?

🧓🏻 Olds: Growing Old Online  - I’m 38 now, and I still *vividly* remember rotary phones, manual roll-up car windows, and indoor smoking sections in restaurants. This makes me an Elder Millennial (I still prefer Millenniold, but I couldn't make it happen), to no one’s surprise. However, I’m also perfectly fine with the fact that some stuff is not for me anymore. Some stuff belongs to the kids: TikTok. 90’s fashion revivals. SoundCloud mumble rap. Body positivity. They just ain’t gonna happen for me, and I’ve made peace with that. It’s honestly something a LOT of internet users who didn’t grow up online coughboomerscough could stand to learn. Not everything is for you, no matter how much all the algorithms try to make all of your experiences all about you and tailored to you exact preferences. It’s a wonderful feeling sometimes, looking at some trend or meme in wonder and concern and suddenly realizing that it’s not relevant to me, and it doesn’t have to be. I highly recommend it.

And that's it for the first and best week of October, otherwise known as the best month of the year! Thank you for reading The Enthusiast – if you're not already a subscriber, you can sign up here (it's free!). Until next time, put on your frilly lace flouncy blouses, wayfarers and ugly makeup and let Libra season wash over you.

Don't let the De-Elevator bring you down (oh no, let's go!),
LKH