Closetfill

For some inexplicable reason, I had a strong urge this weekend to clean out the closet of my childhood. And that's not a metaphor for anything. I mean the actual closet of my childhood, which has been accumulating stuff since I moved to that house in 1983. It's been cleaned out a variety of times over the years, but not so much since 1996 when I graduated from high school and moved to Europe. Since then, my room ceased to be mine, and all my stuff got boxed up and closeted...until now. I took a couple of antihistamines and dug in.

I found a lot of good/funny stuff: tons of ridiculous and hilarious stuff from old boyfriends (including a cool pair of socks from one of the Italians which I still could not part with), a picture of ACH and me on the night that began it all, a letter dated 1992 from the uncle who has had an undeniable impact on my present path, some of my old art (I hope I don't regret tossing it out, but it's not that good), and all manner of photographs from every stage of my life.

One of the most fantastic things, though, is the collection of cassette tapes accumulated over my life. The last time I was in that closet, people still listened to cassette tapes. In fact, I am listening to some of my old tapes right now. Talk about flashback. Anyway, here's my collection, because it's seriously making me laugh:

• All manner of mixed tape, including *'s Happy Fun Tape (punk tape made by my best friend from grade 11-12), my dad's Oldies but Goodies mix with the Bobby Fuller Four version of "I fought the law" which I LOVED when I was a kid (and still do), and at least a couple of boyfriend mixes (Seany's Noisy Mix comes to mind)
• A whole series of The Solid Gold Collection which was this series published by Esso or Shell in the '80s. You got them when you filled up. Gas stations never do that any more.
• Butterfly Plague and Imp, both bands with people I knew in them
  
• Debbie Gibson "Out of the Blue," Olivia Newton John, "Greatest Hits" (none of which I recognize), Paul Abdul "Forever Your Girl" (apparently not enough to ruin her life forever), Madonna "Like a Virgin", Salt n Pepa "Very Necessary" (not the one with "Let's Talk About Sex")
• Jimi Hendrix "The Ultimate Experience," Christopher Cross, Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way," Leonard Cohen (still a fan, but now I'm old enough to appreciate him),
• Smashing Pumpkins, the Flaming Lips, Enigma "The Cross of Changes," 54-40, Nirvana "Bleach," Red Hot Chili Peppers, Genesis "We Can't Dance," Snap "World Power" (?), The Beatles, Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill" (a tape which got stuck in the the player of my LeBaron for several months one time), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Arrested Development "3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of", Nine Inch Nails (yeah, that one), USA for Africa "We Are the World" (back when MJ wasn't a total freak yet), Technotronic, Breakdance (a compilation of break dance music), and C+C Music Factory ("Everybody dance NOW..." oh, the good old days!)
  
• A ton of stuff from my dad's collection, including lots of classical music, Bellafonte, Liberace and the Dueling Banjos
• There's a tape labelled "Elvis Presley - LIVE (Taped in Denver-11/77-Gramps) Merry Xmas to Ricky 1977"-there's no one that I can think of in my family named "Ricky" so I'm going to have to find out who that is. Also, Elvis didn't perform after June of '77, but it definitely sounds like him on the tape...maybe it's his ghost.
• And, my personal favourite, from 1984, published by K-tel International Ltd: The Minipops "Let's Dance"!!!! I'm embarrassed by it, but Hsuan (our billeted harpsichordist from the TBSI) and I kind of got down listening to this tonight. I have to say, they do a pretty good "Our house [in the middle of our street]."

There is a ton of stuff without labels, so I'm going to have to go through and check it out, just for old time's sake.

Okay, time to bust a move.