No question; no argument; definitely no apologies: Today’s holy trinity of whup-yo-ass: Ministry, Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails.
In my second year of university, I would sit outside on the stone wall beside the pathway that people used to get to class, listening to “Badmotorfinger” and “Louder than Love” way too loud on my walkman. I was invincible behind my Olive Oyl-y combo of long johns and combat boots, my slightly used plaid flannel shirt, my scraggly hair. I sneered at the students hustling to class, wearing hiking boots, crippled by the weight of their textbooks, clutching coffee mugs and muffins in plastic wrap. Who cared if they were late? Wasn’t it better to watch the world, observe it closely and experience its madness from a vantage point like mine, where the heavy wailing and screeching in my ears assured me that I wasn’t wrong, that really it all was for shit?
Well, I was 18. I sure thought so at the time and I’ve got the poetry to prove it.
Still, twelve years later (ACK!), I think it would benefit me in my dull-as-pink-carnations-on-mother’s-day job to reconnect with that mad, scornful 18-year-old. You’ll find me siting outside on the concrete benches, listening to Ministry on my walkman (same walkman – still works), mentally fanning the sparks of the people in suits and 1.5 inch heels who hustle to their 9 am committee meeting where they will discuss how many more committees they should commit to for the fiscal year.
However juvenile it might seem, separating me from them might be the only way to survive. That and big hoop earrings. And, quite possibly, subversive underwear.