Set adrift on memory bliss…
My screen says, “Please replace this generic password.”
Either my kappipaal hasn’t kicked in yet or I’ve got a severe case of Spring fever (perhaps cowbell could cure it?). I can’t focus, let alone devise a password with 12 letters, one symbol, two numbers and an exclamation point. One of my favorite co-workers stops by my desk, with an eyebrow raised.
“You look lost.”
“Can you like, pick a password for me? Like, passwords are hard.”
“Like math?”
This is our favorite inside joke, this reference to Barbie’s great fustercluck of ‘92. Still, despite legendary vacuous utterances, Barbie is beloved not just by me but also his six-year old daughter, because as we three agree, them Bratz dollz are slatterns.
“Sure I’ll pick something for you.” He seems serious.
“You like music. Use a song lyric.”, he instructs, before striding in to his office, which is next door to my desk. Then he pops his head back out…
“I used to use ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine’ as mine.”
“R.E.M. fan, eh?”
He smiles at me in response. We’re nearly the same age; we were both dorky loners who probably spent all our free time between classes with our headphones on, tuning out the world. We both remember how the release of “Green” in 1988, during the fall quarters of our Freshman/Junior year in high school defined a moment, a mood.
“You know, I usually just pick a word in Greek or Latin.”
“That also works.”, he says and then he’s gone.
I’m trying to choose something which is easy to type and still somewhat secure but now I really can’t concentrate. All I can hear is Michael Stipe singing/shouting “LEONARD BERNSTEIN!” and I feel like I’m falling backwards mentally, travelling through time.
Being able to sing along to that song was something impressive; memorizing the rapid-fire lyrics didn’t just prove that you loved R.E.M. and “college rock”, it also affirmed that while others listened to disposable pop, we chose to be “politically aware” and ponder what it all meant.
After my fuzzy trip back to my first year of high school, I realized that perhaps the universe was giving me what I had asked for— inspiration for today’s Friday55. I am so sorry. I’ve meant to do one every Friday since the last nanofiction orgy, which was a while ago, but something always comes up and if it doesn’t, I just blank when it comes to a theme.
So, write about
rapid eye movement
Athens, Georgia
A tournament, tournament (there’s your madness)
the rapture
or
why you feel fine. :)
In other words, pick any phrase or idea out of the lyrics below, that is, if you need a prompt, a gentle nudge, a temporary muse. You may also choose to be a G.D.I. and ignore our theme completely. Whatever you do, pretty please mold exactly 55 words in to a fantastically short short story and post it in the comments below. Friday calls for flashes of fiction, because I (and hopefully you) feel fine.
::
R.E.M.- It’s The End of The World As We Know It
That’s great, it starts with an earthquake,
birds and snakes, an aero plane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, don’t misserve your own needs.
Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no.
Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a
government for hire and a combat site.
Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it’ll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed.
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight,
bright light, feeling pretty psyched.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
Six o’clock - TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign tower.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Lock him in uniform and book burning, bloodletting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down.
Watch O’Neil, crush rush, Uh oh, this means no beer Cavalier.
Renegade and steer clear!
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide.
Mount St. Edelite. Leonard Bernstein.
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine…fine…
(It’s time I had some time alone)
