by William Cooper
There are moments that are stuck in time. As you move away from them, the details obscure, the story blurs, structure slips away and what you are left with is emotion, colors brightening, senses sharpening, the core meaning resonating out to overwhelm memory.
In this moment, I am at the Ohio State Fair in summer. I remember a long day, a crazy amount of fried food substances and processed sugars, wary avoidance of what they used to call the “freak show,” and for some reason a series of prolonged visits with sheep, goats and cows. I do not recall any other circumstances of my fairgoing adventure, or the influencing particulars of, what I realize now, were my mid-teen years.
The ride was called The Himayala and featured a serpentine train car that traveled at speed in loops around a short, rising and falling track while pop music blared through every speaker. I’d reached it at the end of my day, and it was the last thing I was going to do before going home.
As I settled into my seat and the bar locked into place, the train jolting into life, things shifted. Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America” started playing and something about the combination of momement, the hot summer night air, and that jangly song brought me out of myself. As I sped around the track, I started singing along and I felt something rise. I left myself behind, became larger than I was, and surrendered to sound, motion and wind. I was happy. I was experiencing life through my own lens, light and of the present.
In this episode, we let it all loose. We debate whether William’s continuing cold or his recently-learned fetus fact is more disgusting all while listening carefully for Mug Sign™, have a return visit from Jo as she provides a retraction and a promise of retracting her retraction later in ever-widening circles of clarification, yell at our devices and wonder why they don’t understand (NOTHING is hovering!), and end up in the land of proto-uber-neo-eurogirlpop with color commentary and real-time German translations from the Sniffling Googler.
Links
Alexa
“Hover”board
Kim Wilde, Tuning in Tuning on
Nena, 99 Luftballons
Kate Bush, Rocket’s Tail
