Freaky Friday

Music: INXS, "Don't Change"

I'm not an INXS fan, but that song sort of resonates with me. I remember liking it when I was about 14 or 15, full of youthful hope and promise, digging the Little Drummer Grrl (a friend of mine from then), when nights seemed forever and I had wrestled time to the ground, or so I'd thought, young Punk that I once was. They were a Pop band, but I liked that song, anyway. That one, and a couple others of theres. Shhh, don't tell!

It's funny, but the two other people I know who were Punks "back in the day" are, like me, total norms today -- you'd not blink twice if you saw me. But we always find each other out, just a few words here and there, a reference that only Punks would actually know, and it's like "Ahaaaa, were you a Punk?" I always find that funny when I'm on the bus and I see some kid with a skateboard and a fauxhawk, or a jacket bracketed by safety pins with band names painted on it. They probably see me and think "Norm." with derision, but I look at them and think, "Poseur." At least when I was a proper Punk, it was still a new thing -- being a Punk today means nothing. Less than nothing. Maybe even less than it meant back then! Hahah!

It's dreadfully humid in the city today, making me feel like I'm in a steam room or something. We've been getting freaky-big storms and ample rains this May, once the cold weather finally gave itself up, Winter conceding to Spring, throwing its cold hands up in irritation, while blustery Spring does a festive little rain dance on the city.

I think this summer's going to really be a hot one in Chicago. Just seems like that's how it will be. Bleah. Speaking of "Bleah" -- I passed that intersection at Lincoln Park West and Belden where that poor little girl, Maya Hirsch, was run down by that horrible Roth bastard who did a hit and run, snuffing her sweet little life away because the idiot didn't stop at the stop sign there. People have been putting memorials at that spot, like flowers and teddy bears. And it breaks my heart to see it. I'm so glad that somebody caught that guy's license plate number before he gunned his Lexus up the street and took off. They caught him, and he'll pay for what he did to her. How fitting that a vanity plate was what led him to being caught.