talking to people doesn't suck & neither does britpop
talking to people
last spring someone asked me if i would start a blog while i was abroad and i said "huh??? no??? what???" because i didn't even know it was a thing people did.
i've been in the UK for about a week. i am generally a very anxious person, especially socially, and i tend to assume the worst about people if they aren't coming up and talking to me, even though often i am not talking to anyone either. the past few days, i've been just... talking to people. i had a realization while standing in a group at a reception that i just had to ask the person next to me a question. and i did. i also spilled wine done the neck of my dress, but luckily it only got on me and not the fabric.
my flatmate and i went to a cozy bar afterwards and read dozens of notes left in a drawer by past patrons. we stayed until everyone left and a gay couple celebrating their one year wedding anniversary bought us and all the bartenders shots (that went by the name of shitonthegrass, quite good, really). one of them told me to never reduce how incredible it is that i am an artist. i thought this was a little dramatic, but he was so earnest and his glasses had such thick frames that maybe he was right. it made me smile either way.
at the farmer's market the next morning, i asked the mushroom seller how they liked to prepare their mushrooms (always on toast). i asked the record store cashier for britpop recommendations (pulp, stone roses). i asked a woman selling bags what she was knitting and she told me about her daughter who was expectant of both a baby and a handmade knitted garment for said baby. i told her i'd be back in a few weeks.
i downloaded a dating app for the first time. i learned people use terms like homo and hetero flexible. i asked my new friends about what they got at the farmer's market and why.
maybe it's the town i'm in or maybe it's that people employed not by giant corporate chains have some joy left in their workplaces or maybe it's that this has always been possible and i've never known it. maybe it's all three. i feel like i am in a casey mcquiston novel where people actually want to know each other and form community with people who are different from them.
what i've been listening to (britpop)
i've been enjoying some britpop this week, courtesy of my lovely friend arlo. here are my favorites:
"common people" - pulp
(fave part: how the chorus builds. very angry dancing in the sun.)
"parklife" - blur
(fave part: "i put my trousers on, have a cup of tea / and i think about
leaving the house" (i thought it was "me house" before i looked it up))
"laid" - james
(fave part: "ah you think you're so pretty-eeeee-eeeeeee-eeeee)
"girls & boys" - blur
(fave part: chorus is just so wildly queer)
"she bangs the drums" - the stone roses
(fave part: ...oh to be in love "HAVE YOU SEEN HER/HAVE YOU HEARD???")
and not necessarily britpop, but "lost in the supermarket" by the clash ("i wasn't born / so much as i fell out") as well as the entire london calling album.
love you. stay safe. midwest emo is kinda just american britpop