Note to those who popped by earlier, I didn't know I had subscribers, sweet. You really should leave a message below, let me know who you are. The version that went live this morning was a draft, accidentally shared when I only intended to pause. Blogger, as far as I can tell, doesn't allow unpublishing a post unless you delete completely. Much too close to what I intended to say to toss & start over, know what I mean?
Now then, this is the final draft.
I think.
Where were you the first time you heard Closer by NIN? The first time I heard it I was at a bachelor party for Chuck's friend. I no longer recall his friend's name, but Chuck was a tall strawberry blonde with hair longer than mine and tattoo of a topless woman on horseback. My BFF Tabitha and I were the entertainment at Chuck's friend's bachelor party, and our music ran out. Chuck stopped us from grabbing another of our CDs and said, I have something you're really going to like.
He was right. On another timeline, I am certain I broke my self-imposed rules with Chuck, and lived out some you look so much like me narcistic taboo fantasies. On this one, I left with his copy of Downward Spiral and let him keep his soul.
There was something familiar in the porn-pop bass, but the way every space is filled with sound, if you heard it for the first time in the 90s, you had never heard anything like that before. If you weren't introduced to the album version, if you were so unfortunate to hear the radio edit first you didn't actually hear, I want to fuck you like an animal. But you knew that's what Reznor wanted, because while they censored out the profane fuck, they left in the profound .... you let me violate you, you let me desecrate you, you let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you.
Help me get away from myself
Most recently I heard it on Beltane, while grinding on the dance floor of Manrays. Hundreds of bodies rocking Doc Martens, fishnets, latex, electrical tape nip covers, just flowing and sharing a vibe. While contemplating how special yet appropriate it was to find myself there in that moment on the night celebrating the fertility rites of spring, it occurred to me some of these souls may very well been conceived while Nine Inch Nails provided the mood music for their ancestors. Then I blushed when I realized perhaps Trent was spinning while one or two or maybe more of my descendants sparked into being too.
I broke apart my insides, I've got no soul to sell.
Yesterday was 3 Mother's days without my mother. That isn't the whole truth though, we didn't spend 2023 together either. That last year, on the Wednesday following I called, I said I left you a message on Sunday. She said I know, I was busy, what did you want? Imagine any infliction you wish, I have intentionally erased the tone from my memory bank. Two weeks later she was admitted to the ICU, and I still haven't found the rewind button. Shortly after my mother passed, I had a dream, I think I may even have already shared it here, she told me now that she lives in my imagination, we'll get along so much better. That wasn't entirely true either. I'm currently pissed at her and not speaking to her at all.
I invited her to Manray once. Not this incarnation, the original back in 2000. She was 48 then, younger than I am now. I must have been going with Mistress Lisa that night, not my sane Ex or that new guy I was lusting over. You know the artist that often rocked a Bowie in Labyrinth look. It must have been with Mistress Lisa. Mistress Lisa was the dad of a kid my little sister dated, and while I enjoyed her company, I was hoping to pawn her off on my mom. He was cool enough, but not my type. My mom however has always loved a man in uniform, and hetero cross-dressers in the 90s really were just dudes in alt uniforms.
It's really easy to imagine an alternate timeline where she didn't say she was too old to go to a club that opened at 9p. I can see myself taking her by the hand, making her try on my latex skirts, convincing her that she looks great in fishnets. Come on, try the black lipstick, it'll be fun. Why not go out to a club that opens at 9p, we can bail if you're not having fun. How would that timeline unfold? If the sane ex was there that night, would my mom had acted like a high school bestie? Gotten all up in his face,dude you're breaking my daughter's heart? If the new crush were there would the objections she had to him later have come sooner? It wouldn't have mattered, I wouldn't have listened. I have always held the opinion that my mother had terrible taste in men. Her objections would have made him even more irresistible to me. But I can see so many possibilities. While grabbing post club breakfast would she have said, whatever happened to the boy that was moving to Florida, you should see if he's on that MySpace. My imagination holds no timeline that lacks the souls that sprung from that window in time. Fate had them lined up for me long before that weekend. But maybe had she gone Mother's day 2023 would be the year she told my little vanillas how their crazy mother dragged her to a fetish club back in 2000, can you imagine?