Facebook got me back in touch with one of my favorite people in the world. She lives in town but for some reason we lost contact with each other. I met Diane during my Stardust days, basically meaning I don’t remember when. These few years are just a blur of alcohol and depression, kinda like the Self Destruct tour but with less hot guys and with bad music. But I do remember how I met her.
I’ve never met an American who knew who the Manic Street Preachers were so I’ll explain. The Manics are huge in the UK, big in Europe and relatively popular in Israel. That band was a major influence on my life, the lyrics talk about everything I was experiencing back then and helped me deal with a lot of this stuff. (NIN came after, when Manics weren’t enough anymore but that’s a different story). Anyway my dear friend Avi, who owns the Stardust, loved them too and would play them once in a while. The lyrics were sad and angry but the music was upbeat and rocking. So there I was minding my own despair when the song “Stay Beautiful”. Now this is one of my favorite songs, the chorus goes (don’t laugh) ‘don’t want to see you face, don’t want to hear your voice, why don’t you just…’ instead of what should be there is a very loud guitar reef. The Manics always said they were attention whores and they wouldn’t want to risk their song not being played on the radio so they replaced the ‘fuck off’ with some sounds. But – any real manics fan screams ‘fuck off’ as loud as they can when singing the song. When the chorus hits I notice I’m not the only one yelling ‘fuck off’ and when I investigate I meet Diane. More or less in the same state of mind I was in at the time. We talk about Richey Edwards– the band guitarist who disappeared on February 1st 1995. I quickly found out she was cutting too and tried to help there. We became friends because of the band and the cutting but it turned into something a lot better.
Over the years, kinda like me, she managed to shake the demons and get her life on track. She went to the army and now she’s studying fashion design in the best school in the country. We used to see each other once in a while and it was always – I’ll call you, we’ll have a drink – but nothing happened. Anyway, then some guy called Trent decided to come disturb my perfect life and give a concert in the holy land. Diane didn’t want to go but her friend dragged her to the concert and we met there. Since then we talk on facebook all the time. Last week we met for drinks and hung out with Mike and my niece Rachel, I took her to the Old Friend because she was always scared to go there and she had a great time. Mike spoke to her for hours and said he never knew how cool she was. That’s the thing about her, she doesn’t look like much but once you give her a chance she becomes one of your favorite people.
I’ve never met an American who knew who the Manic Street Preachers were so I’ll explain. The Manics are huge in the UK, big in Europe and relatively popular in Israel. That band was a major influence on my life, the lyrics talk about everything I was experiencing back then and helped me deal with a lot of this stuff. (NIN came after, when Manics weren’t enough anymore but that’s a different story). Anyway my dear friend Avi, who owns the Stardust, loved them too and would play them once in a while. The lyrics were sad and angry but the music was upbeat and rocking. So there I was minding my own despair when the song “Stay Beautiful”. Now this is one of my favorite songs, the chorus goes (don’t laugh) ‘don’t want to see you face, don’t want to hear your voice, why don’t you just…’ instead of what should be there is a very loud guitar reef. The Manics always said they were attention whores and they wouldn’t want to risk their song not being played on the radio so they replaced the ‘fuck off’ with some sounds. But – any real manics fan screams ‘fuck off’ as loud as they can when singing the song. When the chorus hits I notice I’m not the only one yelling ‘fuck off’ and when I investigate I meet Diane. More or less in the same state of mind I was in at the time. We talk about Richey Edwards– the band guitarist who disappeared on February 1st 1995. I quickly found out she was cutting too and tried to help there. We became friends because of the band and the cutting but it turned into something a lot better.
Over the years, kinda like me, she managed to shake the demons and get her life on track. She went to the army and now she’s studying fashion design in the best school in the country. We used to see each other once in a while and it was always – I’ll call you, we’ll have a drink – but nothing happened. Anyway, then some guy called Trent decided to come disturb my perfect life and give a concert in the holy land. Diane didn’t want to go but her friend dragged her to the concert and we met there. Since then we talk on facebook all the time. Last week we met for drinks and hung out with Mike and my niece Rachel, I took her to the Old Friend because she was always scared to go there and she had a great time. Mike spoke to her for hours and said he never knew how cool she was. That’s the thing about her, she doesn’t look like much but once you give her a chance she becomes one of your favorite people.
4 comments:
Oh how wonderful. Sometimes we really need those who were with us at out worst and loved us anyway. I'm glad you two had each other. Make an effort to stay in touch. It will be worth it.
what do you mean at our worst?! just kidding, it was pretty bad back then, i just miss it sometimes ;)
lol. Hey - if you knew the crap Shelley and I have gotten each other through. Oh my. ;P Go ahead, get worse!
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE.......I haven't listened to them in AGES but I used to listen to MSP allllllllllll the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime.......*runs off to listen to MSP*
PS I am the same way with music - there are some bands that I couldn't live without - and sometimes I think I mean that literally ;) :)
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