someone is whistling "Thriller" in the alley
I have a really terrible memory, which is probably related to my tenuous relationship with time. I have no idea what year anything happened in my life, unless I can piece it together with other things. I have very little idea of what order things happened in. I talk with my husband about stuff that happened early in our relationship, and he remembers whole events that I don't, and occasionally I'll recount a story from that period to him and he'll be like ummm... no.
Flashbulb memories are notoriously inaccurate in terms of time and context. I don't have many, but I do have one -- with no specific time associated and very little context -- of seeing on TV the cat eyes from the Thriller video. It seems like I was at my neighbor's house. It also seems like it could be my absolute earliest memory. Until a few years ago, I wasn't even sure that there was a shot of cat eyes in the Thriller video -- for years, I thought it was from "Bad." All I had in my head was that image, which makes me think that it's not a false flashbulb memory.
All the comments that people-on-the-street have been making in reaction to Michael Jackson's death mention in some way the way that his music intersected with their childhood, and even though I was pretty much under a rock in terms of pop culture until... well, I still kind of am... nonetheless, his music strikes the chord in me that can only exist if it's put there early. Early melodies form your brain, I really believe that.
So to think that the source of that image of cat eyes is gone from our world makes me really sad.
We may not believe in human sacrifices anymore, at least not of the body. But he was one of the human sacrifices that we do tolerate, grist for the mill of the cameras, originator of content. They found a vein of spirit and they tapped it, starting when the kid was 10 years old. I can't wrap my mind around what that must have been like. Now we've all seen how it plays out. And we'll see it again and again.
Flashbulb memories are notoriously inaccurate in terms of time and context. I don't have many, but I do have one -- with no specific time associated and very little context -- of seeing on TV the cat eyes from the Thriller video. It seems like I was at my neighbor's house. It also seems like it could be my absolute earliest memory. Until a few years ago, I wasn't even sure that there was a shot of cat eyes in the Thriller video -- for years, I thought it was from "Bad." All I had in my head was that image, which makes me think that it's not a false flashbulb memory.
All the comments that people-on-the-street have been making in reaction to Michael Jackson's death mention in some way the way that his music intersected with their childhood, and even though I was pretty much under a rock in terms of pop culture until... well, I still kind of am... nonetheless, his music strikes the chord in me that can only exist if it's put there early. Early melodies form your brain, I really believe that.
So to think that the source of that image of cat eyes is gone from our world makes me really sad.
We may not believe in human sacrifices anymore, at least not of the body. But he was one of the human sacrifices that we do tolerate, grist for the mill of the cameras, originator of content. They found a vein of spirit and they tapped it, starting when the kid was 10 years old. I can't wrap my mind around what that must have been like. Now we've all seen how it plays out. And we'll see it again and again.
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