Kitty Litter

While working at home yesterday to save lunch and commuting money, I heard the song “All For Love” by Color Me Badd (how prosaic) from 1992. It brings back cheerful memories of a time gone by, of lost innocence, and makes me write in clichés like the ones you just read.

It’s amazing how important songs and music are to our lives, whether we notice them or not. I was proofing the New York Times last week when I came across an article explaining why “The Wonder Years” is not yet available on DVD despite the huge demand for it. It’s because the music licensing costs are prohibitive. Yet the producers persist, because they believe that without the original music, much of the series’ charm will be lost. The fans agree.

Getting back to “All For Love”: I absolutely hated that song when it was first released back when I was still in college. A little background is necessary at this point, and I’m reconstructing this from my old diaries.

I was going through the application process for an organization which I really had no business joining—it being a pre-med org, and I an English major. But hormones usually rule over right and left brain hemispheres, and so I found myself going through the rather brutal application and initiation process because I had a crush on one of the guys there. Let’s call him "Tim".

I’d first seen him in my Soc Sci class, and marveled at how such an anime-pretty boy could come to life right in front of me. Coincidentally, Wynn was in the same class, and he was assigned the seat diagonally behind Tim, thus blocking my lovely view (I was across the theater from both of them. Yes, I had a class in a theater. Go figure). Oh, how I "...cursed and ranted at the fates that such a dorky-looking guy could prevent me from seeing my male Muse..." (and note that I am quoting from my old diaries, so forgive the stinky prose).

But when I found out (through a process one shade removed from stalking, and including certain acts of dubious morality such as stealing Tim’s class card from the heap where the Soc Sci department usually dumped class cards the end of the semester) that he was the member of that org, I put my name down for application. Had I known then what was involved (hint: ketchup does nothing good for your hair when you shampoo with it. Same goes for patis--fish sauce) maybe I might have thought a little harder before defying my friend James’ dire warnings and insisting on joining that org. If you’re safely in your twenties or beyond, of course you know that I didn’t listen to him; the more you tell a teen to do something, the more s/he’ll do exactly what you don’t want her/him to do.

Enough with the sermon. During the application process, I became close to another applicant, Lisa, and we shared secrets. I told her about my crush on Tim and she told me that she liked another member, whom I’ll call Pao, who was currently linked to another member but who was not that member’s boyfriend.

(Digression: when he went after poor Lisa, the repercussions were terrible, mainly because the other member was the prez of the org, and the other members felt it their civic duty to “destroy” Lisa for presuming to interrupt a beautiful non-relationship (otherwise known as MU, allegedly "mutual understanding" or "mag-un". It's a lovely kind of non-relationship that allows both parties not to commit). It's the stuff teleseries like "Beverly Hills, 90210, Dawson's Creek, and The OC are made of. Ah to be young and hormone-riddled again!)

Where was I? At the tambayan (organization hang-out), we had a radio going nearly all of the time, and once, near Christmas, the song “All For Love” was playing. I was railing to patient Lisa about how I particularly hated the repetitive piano riff in the background when Tim entered the tambayan. He heard the song, snapped his fingers, and did a cute little dance only cute boys can do…and get away with. Upon seeing me watching him, he smiled at me radiantly, then said, “Cute song, huh?”

When he left, Lisa turned to me and said, “So, about your new favorite song...?"

She understood things better than I did.

Labels: college memories, music