We always hang in a buffalo stance
by Robyn
Simon at The Opinionated Diner posted this old Peter Urlich music video, from a time in 1989 when Urlich was being pop/funk act called B Cup:
The song isn’t really worth listening to, but I found myself strangely drawn to the non-Urlich visuals in the video: shots of downtown Auckland, people drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, sleek yet full late ’80s hair, hoop earrings, Lycra. It’s all very “Look at me! I am being very urban! I am cool!”
I was about 14 when this video was shot, and this was the life I coveted. Stuck in rural Hamilton, I dreamed of living in a art deco flat in Auckland, with a media job, and I’d get to go to parties and meet interesting people. (It’s that naive teenage thinking that says fulfilment comes from a checklist.)
It’s not like I consciously pursued that, but it all eventually happened. Last year I realised that all my 1989 dreams had come true. As soon as I realised that, I knew something had to change, and that’s one of the reasons I got a new job and moved to Wellington. I mean, who wants to live a 14-year-old’s dream life?
That is the WORST SONG EVER!
I like the shots of the city though. We moved to Ponsonby around 1988 and I have these cool home videos of us standing out on the street and you can see the city in the background. Or should I say – what city? Hehe :)
and now wellington is never letting you go
Yes, I find I am becoming “everything I dreamed of as a little girl”. Be careful what you wish for?
With the Gloss pilot now available on-line I have been comparing it with my memories of the original. What I noticed immediately was how whereas the Gloss offices and staff seemed to thirteen-year-old me impossibly fast-paced and full of backbiting they now seemed not that much different from where I work. This comparison does not encompass the clothes and hair, however.
Kyla: Isn’t it just *awful*? I’d rather listen to those robot-vocal R&B songs. And I love the way the Auckland skyline looked in those pre-Sky Tower days. There was no homing beacon, so the city felt bigger.
Sue: Wellington has me in its grip! Eeee!
Kowhai: Biggest fear – wot if we can’t escape our childhood dreams!
H-bizzy: My workplace is also sometimes like Gloss, but in different ways. Still not the clothes and hair, though.
That is the WORST SONG EVER!
But surely this is the best blog post title of the year?
Heh, thanks Giovanni!
Interesting (but better with the sound turned down). Like a moving version of Cha Cha mag – most of the self-consciously fashionable aspects of inner Auckland that outsiders love to hate. But who knew Hinemoa Elder could dance?