Shiny Happy People

Occasionally I have an experience. A feeling; inspired by sorrow, intensity, a smell, sounds. They are, for one reason or another, branded directly onto the skin wrapped around a collection of special memories. The word "special" may indicate something favorable. Not every branded memory is pleasant. Intense most of the time, and much easier to retrieve than say, my name at times. I stood by the bar at The Hard Rock Cafe. My first job as a restaurant manager. A shell of a young man. Wrapped up in addiction, insecurity, the picture of instability. I happened to glance at the screen over the bar playing a music video. The song began, Champaign Super Nova by yet another group of gritty little sassy shits out of Manchester, the band Oasis. Twenty seconds into the video, I was transfixed. One of those branded moments. The restaurant, the people, maybe the world, stopped. The video, the music, and me. We were the only things that existed. I was moved. Not moved to the point of doing anything about my failing life. Just to the point of feeling something true for one moment. "God damn, those guys are fucking rock stars," I thought to myself in my tiny world. Oasis burned my memory, pumped my blood faster, and meant something great to me for that one moment. Fast forward to present time. My wife and I attended Morrissey: Music to kill yourself to, last night. Click on her link for more Morrissey than you can shake a knife at. As we waited for him to saunter onto stage, four seats directly to her left, accross the aisle, were vacant. The ten minute countdown began. The young men that held the tickets to fill the vacant seats came down the steps behind us. The young men, escorted by an usher, took their seats. The young men were the members of the band Oasis. The memory burned into my conscience flashed back to the forefront of my thoughts. I capped the emotion, and left the Gallagher brothers alone. What would I have done anyway? "Wow! I'm a real fan of your band!" I'm not, really. That would have been a lie. But if I could have told them they touched me, for a moment, during a rough time in my life, warmed something cold, provided light in a dark room... That's what I would have said. Thank you for the moment Oasis, you are fucking rock stars. By the way... Morrissey was fantastic. I think even Oasis enjoyed the show.