Despite being half a century in a few years (which is weird to say) and experiencing massive things as an adult, i’ve done my best to live life as simply as possible. i’ve never really been that interested in all those things you’re expected to be into at my age- the long career where you begin to identify with your job, ‘investing’ in a house, the so-called ‘2.5 kids and a dog’… i actually quite like being an adult, and have no desire to relive my youth. i just don’t support the societal expectation and limitation that adulthood entails.

There are definitely things from my childhood that make me smile when i think about them though.

i saw Rainbow Brite And The Star Stealer in the theater when it came out. It was released just after i turned 9. i honestly don’t remember anything about the plotline; i do, however, remember the song that played during the end credits. i do remember the film credits being similar to the end credits of the tv show- Rainbow Brite riding the horse (Starlite), with a rainbow palette constantly moving in the background. i guess i remembered wrong, because while the credits DO have a rainbow palette constantly moving, it’s the credits themselves that are rainbow.

i absolutely looooooove ‘Rainbow Brite And Me’. Yeah it’s sappy and the synth drums are bad, but i don’t even care what anyone says. i’m absolutely sure the machines behind the Rainbow Brite franchise are horrible (the Hallmarks, the Mattels, the DIC enterprise, etc.) but that song makes me cry of happiness.

And rainbows themselves are some of the most beautiful things on earth. There should be more songs about rainbows. Kermit is wrong- there’s not enough of them.

Still in the ‘land of synth drums,’ i decided to play around with another memory of my youth- The Facts Of Life. The theme was one of many co-written by Gloria Loring, Alan Thicke and Al Burton, and was sung by Loring. Like many theme songs, there’s a longer version (which i am playing to here). Again, though i watched the show a lot as a kid i don’t remember a lot of what happened. One thing i do remember was the introduction of Geri as a primary character for a while. It was really cool to see someone with cerebral palsy living their life on a popular tv program, because as i mentioned in another post, you don’t see to many folks in the disabled community as primary characters in popular culture in a way that’s not pathologized.

And heeeeeeere’s where we get out of childhood and more into teenager-ism, with Wire. Pink Flag is one of my favorite ‘post punk’ albums, and ‘It’s so obvious’ is a pretty great deep cut. i was thinking of playing it on drums, but i decided to just play it on the (still unnamed) bass.