ONE
The only thing that a tape is still good for. Swapping mix tapes used to be a sign of love (generally unrequited) in the 80's. A guy could give another guy a mix tape, but it was bit, well, "funny".
I was thinking: what if you had to get all the music that mattered throughout your entire life onto one 60 minute mix tape. It would be like a 60 minute autobiography.
Unfortunately my ego is too big to get my short life on one sixty minute tape. This is Volume Two of my mix tape. Volume One must be 1973-1985. Volume Two is 1986-1997.
TWO1986 starts here. I'm probably twelve in this photo. I went to Scots College for Primary and Intermediate (another story), and then we moved out to the coast and I started Secondary at Kapiti College. The first few days at a new school in a new place are friendless. The guy standing next to me in this photo was probably the first guy I talked to at this school. We didn't become friends as it turned out. He could perform simple songs by burping. It was impressive and repulsive. I wonder if he has hung onto this skill. Maybe his wife gets him to do it at parties.
I quite fancied the girl sitting in front of me. She was very good at art. I also took art but was... let's say "tolerated" by my art teacher. At either end of the back row are two people who would become friends (actually the guy on the back right is the bass player in our band).
Twenty-two years on.
THREESecondary school is where you begin to emerge out of the shadows of your parents and begin the messy business of trying to figure out who you are. This process doesn't really end I suspect. Funnily enough, for me anyway, once I'd spent twenty years trying to find out who I was I've ended up realising it might have something to do with my family and the place where I started.
There's a lot ahead of this twelve year old, and all the kids in this picture. The following pictures will prove that:
- it can take a long time to find the right pair of glasses
- some people do so many bad things with their hair that they deserve to have it taken off them
- it's hard for an adolescent boy to smile or dress themselves
3 comments:
Is the guy at the back on the left Danyl? It would be spooky if he was the drummer in your band!
Danyl went to another school. Danyl doesn't exist until about 1991 (he may be surprised to hear this).
Actually that sounds about right: the only things I remember prior to 91 were learning long division and a couple of episodes of 'The A Team'.
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