From: John L. Micek, jlmicek@mindspring.com Subject: Re: Heyday Today and Yesterday Date: 2/26/2002 6:25:54 AM To: seance@lists.no-fi.com "Kevin J. Bonham", sleepycat@eudoramail.com > > At the risk of committing the sin of Seance Soap Opera by talking about myself, me too. Actually I wasn't a fan when Heyday came out, but there is a period in my life where I was totally wrapped up in that album and it was extremely relevant to me. I was 18 and though it was only 12 years ago it seems more like 50. Many of my interests and a minority of my opinions are the same but apart from that, I would have a difficult time recognising myself now from then. I love "Heyday" but listening to it can make me feel like I've fallen into a personal time capsule. "Hotel Womb" the same for the same reason. > I, too, became a fan with "Heyday," but my strongest memories will always be of the time I bought "Starfish." Lessee, I was 17 years old and about to graduate from prep school when I heard "UTMW" for the first time. Shortly after graduation, I bought the cassette at a record store in the Holyoke (Mass) Mall during a graduation party weekend at a friend's cottage in the Berkshires. I think I played "UTMW" about 1,000 times at top volume during the ride back in the rain in the black-chrry Dodge Daytona that my parents had given me as a high school/colllege graduation gift. It rained like hell during that 1 hour ride, and it was so thick that the rain was sheeting and blowing horizontal across the highway on the way back to the cottage. When we got back, my friends and I drank until dawn, and slept the rest of the day away. Second big "Starfish" memory: My freshman year at Manhattanville College in Westchester County, NY. The record was a constant companion as I rode the MetroNorth trains back and forth to New Haven every weekend to visit my girlfriend at Yale. I remember buying a mess of bootlegs and "Art Attack," at Rhymes after The Palace show in 10/88, and buying an army surplus jacket at some thrift store down on Crown Street near where BAR is now, and slightly up the street from Louis Lunch and St. Rafe's hospital. Then came the weekend I bought "Of Skins and Heart," and I remember being thrilled because it meant I had two cassettes to accompany me on that 90-minute train ride. I listened to both of them constantly, and eventually had to replace both copies. For me, "Starfish" will always be about rain, windy days in New Haven, dark nights in New York, and being a vegetarian and in love for the very first time with all the cluelessness, passion and hope that only an 18-year-old can muster. John (wandering down amnesia lane) _____________________________________________________ John L. Micek Harrisburg Correspondent The Morning Call Allentown, Pa.