Karen Booth
Author Roni Loren is my guest today, discussing the musical landscape of the mid-90s. I adore the imagery in her post of the flowery dress and combat boots–that was my uniform through much of high school and college. I may have single-handedly kept Dr. Martens in business or at least helped them ride out the rocky late 80s. My daughter is thirteen and is drawn to eerily similar wardrobe choices, which amuses me. To her, it’s unimaginable that Mom used to walk around in creepers and black tights and vintage dresses. And it’s not even that she’s at the point where I’m a disdainful human being, she just can’t fathom me that way.
Roni Loren
A little catholic high school in small town Louisiana, Class of ’97, Erotic Romance Author
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Alternative and grunge were big in my early high school years (before music went into the cesspool that was the late 90s). I listened to Alanis Morrissette’s Jagged Little Pill album a LOT. It was like balm for my angsty soul. I also remember dancing like a fool to The Cranberries’ Zombie at one of the homecoming dances wearing (of course) a flowery dress with combat boots. *facepalm* I think I believed I was Angela from My So-Called Life. Unfortunately, there was no Jared Leto by my side.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My best friend and I got back into New Kids on the Block our freshman year when they came out with a new album. I remember we went to the thrift store and bought the old concert t-shirts. I’d like to say we wore them to be ironic, but sadly we weren’t that cool.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Hootie and the Blowfish. I just never got the appeal. Also, all those hip-hop/dance-y songs that they put on those Jock Jams albums and played incessantly on the radio.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: I didn’t see a lot of them in high school. (I’ve since made up for that. I’m a bit of a concert addict.) But I would probably pick Alanis Morrissette since I was such a big fan.
Best high school make-out song: Almost anything by Boys II Men. But frankly, I didn’t do that much making out in high school, so I’m no expert, lol.
You can learn more about Roni Loren at roniloren.com. Her debut, Crash Into You, is out now!
Fellow Ellora’s Cave author Sidney Bristol shares her teenage music memories with us today, full of bands I know little about. I mean, I know about Limp Bizkit, I’m not that out of it, but some of the other artists, like Demon Hunter, are outside my scope of familiarity. That doesn’t happen very often but is one of the coolest thing about doing this blog–seeing the breadth of music and experiences that make up my contributors’ stories. Sidney has a brand new book out today (!), titled Flirting With Rescue. Be sure to check it out!
Sidney Bristol
Grandview High School, Class of ’03, Currently: Author and IT Education, Administrator
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Reliant K. If I never hear another Reliant K song, it will be too soon. As the only person among my friends with a car, I did all the driving and they did all the picking of music. I would have preferred some grunge or metal – anything except pop Christian rock! Don’t get me wrong, like any good teen in the Bible Belt I had a thing for talented Christian rock, but that only went so far.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Oh! This is a hard pick. There are two, but one of them I got the summer after I graduated, which leaves the other. It was a drum stick I caught standing front and center at one of the Triptych tour shows from Demon Hunter, a melodic metal band. I still have it. Every time my brother sees it he smirks and asks me if I remember the guy who peed his pants. The story goes that we were some of the first people in line and got prime spots right up near where the singer stood. One moment I’m really into the music, the crowd pushes and I get lifted halfway onto the stage. The singer bent down and sang, sharing the mic with me. The moment passes, the crowd recedes and I can slip back down, only there’s this huge goth guy behind us that grabs my little brother by his throat and shoves him down on the ground. Keep in mind that around this time he was rail skinny and tall, super long hair and glasses. Not threatening at all. The goth guy? Kinda scary. But scary never seems to show up on my radar until after the moment has passed. I grabbed this guy by the collar of his shirt and yanked him around and started yelling and getting up in his face. That was my brother he was trying to stomp the brains out of, and if anyone was getting to brain him, it would be me. He left, and moments later I caught the drumstick. We later found out from a friend of a friend of a friend that the guy peed his pants.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Oh god, any of the boy bands. They were more popular when I was in jr high, but they somehow managed to hang on and terrorize me in high school as well.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: I think the best ones were back in my early high school days. There was a really active local scene as far as the venues went. There were two groups that were really awesome to see, Animal Couch and Travail. AC was kind of a heavy rock, industrial female fronted group and Travail was about as metal as you could get. There was one really big show that was a ten hour event. There were so many acts involved. The venue was really special too. It had a concert venue, and then several side rooms to hang out in and whatnot. It was loads of fun.
Best high school make-out song: I think the only boyfriend I made out with we were listening to Limp Bizkit at the time. Yeah, real classy I know! If I were to pick one, maybe The Road Goes on Forever (and the Party Never Ends), which was the theme song of my graduating class. Yes, we really were that country.
You can learn more about Sidney Bristol, the self-described recovering roller derby queen, former missionary, and tattoo addict at sidneybristol.com. Flirting With Rescue is out now!
Author Jocelyn Modo has some unfortunate information about Marky Mark this week. I won’t delve into it–it’s best delivered by someone who has first-hand knowledge. Please note that this information does not pertain to Mark Wahlberg. He’s one of my favorite actors, so I prefer to keep that illusion intact. Some of you may think I fixated on the Marky Mark-ness of her post just so I could put up the infamous Calvin Klein underwear shot (I know, minus the underwear, I’m trying to run a family operation here, at least on my blog). I find it interesting when people report about the true personality of celebrities. We see one thing in a photograph, in concert, or on the big screen and chances are, the reality will be less shiny. I’ve met a handful of celebrities and my fair share of rock stars, and something is always different, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. It would be hard to live a “double life”…be one person for work and another at home, but then, don’t we all do that? Some just get paid better.
Jocelyn Modo
Class of ’98, Currently: Science fiction and fantasy romance author…and work for the IRS. *Don’t screw with me, I work for the IRS. jk*
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: “Loser” by Beck. Remember that one? It’s still on my iPod. “I’m a loser, baby. So why don’t you kill me.” And, um yeah, those lyrics just about sum up my high school experience.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Marky Mark signed concert ticket stub. My BFF’s dad worked at the local radio station so we had back stage passes and got to meet him—really really short and kinda a jackass. Now that he’s Mark Wahlberg, famous actor, I bet his signature’s worth something…and he’s probably an even bigger jackass. Never know, he might have grown since then.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Boys II Men. I know it was the 90’s and cheeseball was in, but I just couldn’t swallow for these ‘boys’. *gag*
Best show or concert you saw in high school: The Village People. That’s right. I said it. You don’t know. You weren’t there. It was awwwww-sum!
Best high school make-out song: “Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm” by The Crash Test Dummies. jk! That would be a horrible song to make out to. “Because the Night” by 10,000 Maniacs works. Oh, and “I’d Do Anything for Love” by Meatloaf. Romantic but not cheesy and the boys liked them, too.
Jocelyn Modo’s latest is Revolution Lovers. You can learn more about her at www.jocelynmodo.com and jocelynmodo.blogspot.com.
So excited about today’s RNRHS from author Lily Harlem. I adore her books, especially since she has a penchant for rock stars, and she and I have some eerily similar adolescent memories. I must, however, quibble with her about one thing. (Lily’s a Brit. You quibble with Brits. You disagree with everyone else.) The Cult? Lily, Lily, Lily! I loved The Cult. I have the best memories of driving to the lake during summer vacation with my BFF, Jane. I drove my brother’s beater car, which was painted entirely with gray primer, and we blasted “Love Removal Machine” from a cassette with the windows rolled down, singing at the top of our lungs (Salt shaker!). There was this one lifeguard…oh, never mind. On with it!
Lily Harlem
London, Currently: Author of erotic romance
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Oh, lots, but probably Madonna stands out. Like a Virgin, Papa Don’t Preach. They were in the charts at the time my friends and I were all huddled in the playground talking about sex and who had done what with who. The songs were sassy and daring and we all wanted to be Madonna. I remember having the jewelry, the legwarmers, the fingerless gloves and practicing my pout and my jaunty walk. I remember totally lusting after the guy in Papa Don’t Preach, when he shoots out from under the car he’s working on looking all oily and gorgeous – Phew!
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Relax’ t-shirt. Everyone had one and I remember the teachers and parents being horrified at the hidden meanings but we never really got it at the time, we just wanted the white t-shirt with the big bold letters. I remember going to a school disco when ‘Relax’ came to number one. We were all talking about it but it was banned from Top of the Pops (our weekly update on the charts) so only a lucky few, with older siblings, had heard it. Anyway, we had a cool DJ that night who put it on at the end of the evening and everyone had a good bop, pretending to know what the hell Frankie was on about – ah, the innocence of youth!
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: The Cult. A couple of their songs were tuneful, the rest went over my head in a loud blur of noisy screeching. But my best friend was completely into them, always swooning over the drippy lead singer and playing their tapes (Argh, I know, tapes) at full volume. I pretended to like them for a long time, even singing along to some of their songs when I’d deciphered the lyrics. But eventually I had to give up and confess to much preferring Wham! I still, to this day, adore George Michael’s voice, especially his ballads. There is something about the emotion in his songs that sends me a bit gooey.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: U2. Best show ever, in school and since. They are such ace performers and whenever I’ve had the chance to nab tickets I have, even at some ridiculous prices. But its so worth it, they always deliver the goods. Playing a great assortment of both old and new songs and their stage sets are so wild, I remember one time the band all emerged from a giant lemon! That was cool.
Best high school make-out song: (I Just) Died in Your Arms by the Cutting Crew. I love the words, and the tune express-trains in memories of dancing with the first guy I ever had a seriously massive crush on, no make that loved with a capital L (you know, the obsessive teenage love that grips you by the lapels and drags you along for the ride whether you want to go or not). He was gorgeous, soft, olive skin that smelled heavenly, he wore a thick cable sweater that I could sink my fingers into, and we danced and danced and danced to this song. In fact I think we were still dancing when the music stopped.
So you can see I adore music, particularly from the 80’s which was when all these wild youthful emotions were springing up. It was this love of music and obsession with bands and rock/pop stars that inspired my Mattress Music series. At the time Kings of Leon and The Script were the two CDs being played the most in my house and so they kind of inspired The Manic Machines, which consists of Ian, Robbie, Tim and Dean.
Lily Harlem is a multi-published author of erotic romance, including Mirror Music. Visit her website at lilyharlem.com.
Writer, blogger, and fellow Duranie Andrietta Luna is at the helm for the first RNRHS of 2012. When I first befriended Andi on Twitter, I was a tad envious of her rock star name. Surely, Andrietta Luna had to be on Simon Le Bon’s baby name list at some point. I found her post timely when so much focus is on improving your life and going after what you want. Below, she shares a bit of her journey as a mom and writer, all of which shows that you never know where life will take you. Just do your best to steer your own ship.
Andrietta Luna
Cleburne, TX, Class of ’88
I am divorced and have one daughter who is 20. I was a single mom for 18 years, working two jobs and going to school. I have wanted to be a writer since I picked up my first crayon in kindergarten. I used to make up stories and put on plays for the neighborhood kids. In the 3rd and 4th grade, my best friend Michael and I would write plays after school then put them on for the class. I wrote stories to escape my home life and am so thankful I had that outlet. In high school, on a whim, I joined journalism. That really opened the writing doors. I finally found a place where I belonged. I won’t go into detail, but eventually that dream was stolen, I lost my confidence and shut the door on that desire.
My daughter is grown and out on her own now, so I moved to a new area and started over. I decided to step back into the writing world, even though I was scared to death. I realize now how vulnerable sharing your writing with others makes you feel. I am currently writing reviews for films, books, and music, which I am passionate about. I write for The Blackland Reporter and they have some exciting prospects for me. I still would love to write romance/erotic novels and use my blog as a platform to bring awareness to causes that I am passionate about. My dream is to get paid for my blogging, write full time and travel.
Song or band that reminds you most of high school: Whitesnake. Our graduating song was “Here I Go Again”.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: I had a Duran Duran cap I bought at Six Flags.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Bon Jovi
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Def Leppard December 1987 Hysteria tour.
Best high school make-out song: I wasn’t allowed to date so I never got to make out. However, if I had to go back, it would be Styx, Reo Speedwagon, or Journey, “Open Arms” being the number one song to make out too.
Andrietta Luna is a writer for The Blackland Reporter. You can check out her personal blog at mzlunasworld.blogspot.com
