The closer the G-Man gets to being a teenager, the more I feel like one. I've been watching all of these movies from my formative years (see last entry,) listening to tons of old-school punk and rap, and I recently bought a pair of pink DM-style boots with black, side zippers and the anarchy symbol in the tread. I'm definitely regressing.
I thought I might look up some friends I haven't talked to in ages, but when I Googled my date from the junior prom I discovered that there is a hot, new actor on a show about housewives that shares his name. Not much chance of sifting through the fansite hits to find a goofy, Monty Python fan, last seen with a UPC symbol tattooed on his shaved head, training to be a fire swallower.
This all may have something to do with this book I just finished, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, if you are, or have ever been a teenager you must read this book. If your teen years coincided with the late 80s/early 90s and you don't read this book you are a fool and should be ashamed of yourself. Read this book.
The amazing thing about the book is that it is so real. Reading it, I didn't feel nostalgic and I didn't feel intensely relieved that those years were behind me, I felt seventeen. I was driving around in a crappy Ford Escort, singing along with a mix tape that was jammed in the stereo. I was awkward at someone's basement party, watching couples hook-up and drunk boys fight. I was witnessing the slow disintegration of my parents' marriage. I was strangely relieved when they finally split up. I was missing the cues of someone's crush on me. I was harboring crushes for people I would never have. And the ones I could have, I didn't act on, because I was worrying about what other people might think. It's all still there, barely beneath the surface, all that drama and confusion, all you have to do is scratch. Hairstyles of the Damned is one itchy mother of a book.
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