Dear Friends,
The universe presented me with a situation yesterday that I hope I handled well.
During math class, my student from Africa raised her hand to answer a question. Now, I knew that her response was not going to be correct. She barely understands English and my Swahili is terrible.
More like non-existent. But she raised her hand, took a chance, and even though her answer was way, way off, I was so proud of her. I’m sure I was beaming at her for a split second.
A bunch of the class laughed at her answer.
I had given them a lecture a few moments, maybe five minutes before about how many of them had gone on vacation a bit early and taking five minutes to write down a subtraction problem, was unacceptable. I said something about how it didn’t show a lack of understanding, but a lack of effort.
I said it was one thing to try and fail, but another thing completely to not try at all.
I shared with them that I was frustrated by this and then they laughed at a young lady who is just learning a new language. It wasn’t a titter, either. It was a full-blown laugh and that is understandable in any language. On the inside, I was crushed for her. All she had tried to do was participate and was merely hopeful that she was picking up on something.
When the laughter erupted, I slapped the whiteboard I was writing on, and it was a bit loud. I didn’t raise my voice because I didn’t need to do so. The class went instantly silent. I ripped into them for what they had done. I pointed out that this young lady was no different than most of them. The majority of my class can be designated as English as a Second Language (ESL).
The silence continued throughout my short lecture on empathy. I tied it back to the previous lecture about not trying. How dare students who weren’t even willing to try and do a problem mock a student who didn’t understand a tenth of what I was saying but was still willing to try.
The attitude of the class was different for the rest of the lesson, and they participated. Whether or not that carries over to today, we shall see.
*****
I watch Valley Girl at least once a year. Not the remake, but the original 1983 film. I was thirteen years old and in eighth grade when it came out. I went to see it at the inside theaters in Christown, which were a United Artists (UA Christown) theater. You had to ride the escalator up to the six theaters that were above the stores on one edge of the mall.
It is one of the several movies Nicolas Cage made where I wanted to be his character at one point in my life. As an eighth-grade guy with an interest in punk rock and cool music in general, Valley Girl was just so killer. Cage’s “Randy” was the coolest dude and in the film, you can’t help but root for him.
One of the things that made Valley Girl so cool was the music. While the Valley Girl (Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) never really came out as it was originally intended, there are a couple of Rhino Records compilations from the mid-90s that do it some justice. Over the years, I have collected most of my favorite tracks from Valley Girl on vinyl from the original artists. I’ve also made a playlist on Spotify, too.
There are actually many playlists on Spotify that are dedicated to the original film.
The soundtrack is a perfect snapshot of 1983 in Los Angeles, which meant that it was the perfect snapshot of Phoenix in 1984. New Wave was huge in my life and I gravitated toward it as much as I was gravitating towards punk rock. In the film, “Randy” was supposed to be a punk, but he didn’t really seem to a punk like I was soon going to be. He just seemed cool and he really liked The Plimsouls.
“A Million Miles Away,” “Everywhere At Once,” and “Oldest Story in the World” by the Plimsouls are featured prominently in the film. These are all solid songs. I really feel like I should own more Plimsouls stuff, but I don’t. I’ll have to rectify that because, like “Randy,” I really like the way they sound.
Of the three, I think I probably like “Everywhere At Once” the most. I think the guitar work on “Oldest Story in the World” is pretty darn boss, but of the three, I like the words on “Everywhere At Once” the most. Plus, when “Oldest Story in the World” is playing in the film, “Randy” is hooking up with his ex in the bar and she was super-hot. I might have been jealous.
There was always a part of me that was curious what he saw in “Julie,” the ‘Valley Girl’ when “Samantha” was so hot. But alas, I digress.
Valley Girl introduced me to another teenage crush in Josie Cotton. “Johnny Are You Queer,” “He Could Be The One,” and “School’s In” are all super catchy. The former would probably never get played on the radio today, but in 1983, it was a song that you could occasionally hear on KZZP in Phoenix. I definitely have these on vinyl.
Another one of those songs that made it to the radio in Phoenix was Felony’s “The Fanatic.” I bought that cassette around the same time and the rest of the album was god awful, but “The Fanatic” is one of my all-time favorite songs. We’ve talked about covering it in Hillbilly. I think we could do a crushing version of it. The song just oozes the 80s.
“Eyes of a Stranger” by Payola$ is another cool, one-hit wonder. It’s kind of haunting in the way it comes in sort of slinky with that sparse bass line over some effects-drenched guitar and a just slightly busy drum and percussion thing. It’s super effective in the film where they don’t play the whole track. The whole thing, out of context from the film, gets a little long, but I will occasionally spin it anyway in a DJ set.
One of my favorites on the Valley Girl soundtrack is the Pat Travers’ song, “I La La La Love You.” It’s another one that you really only get the best part of the song in the film, but it’s a great song. The guitar riff is killer and while I don’t know a lot about Pat Travers, I am always tempted when I think about this song to dive in and explore his work more. The way the song kicks in is so cool.
There are two great Sparks songs included, as well. This is how I became familiar with them and for years I searched for these songs. If only the internet had existed, and I would have been able to look them up and find out that they were pretty easy and cheap to get. They are both on the Angst In My Pants record, which is great (and I already wrote about it).
“Angst In My Pants” is another one that just oozes the 80s. I love it so much. It’s another with a deceptively cool bass line. “Eaten By the Monster of Love” is just so perfectly placed in the film that it was unforgettable for me. I remember the scene so vividly because of the song. That “Skip” was a lucky guy.
“I Melt With You” by Modern English is another one that just cemented itself in my life because of Valley Girl. In the years since I’ve come to learn that After The Snow is a great record, as well, but as a teenager, I always thought that “I Melt With You” was the epitome of romantic songs.
There are other songs on there, too. Bonnie Hayes’ “Girls Like Me” is peppy and sweet. So is her song, “Shelly’s Got A Boyfriend.” They don’t really do a lot for me, though. Gary Myrick’s “She Talks In Stereo” and “Time to Win” are also catchy and come up at good spots in the film, especially the latter.
If there is one more from the Valley Girl soundtrack that I really do like a lot, it’s “Jukebox (Don’t Put Another Dime” by The Flirts. The whole 80s-ness of it are the draw, of course, and the bridge part is sofa king cheesy that you have to love it even more for that alone. It’s got a fun beat, though.
I would love to find one of the OG vinyl copies that are out there. They go for big buck. I’d love to think that someone will re-press it the way it should have been pressed back then, but I doubt it will happen. It would be a money loser, for sure. People don’t realize what they have, sometimes, and Valley Girl is one of the best soundtracks ever.
*****
See you tomorrow.
コメント