I couldn’t believe that Grace Jones was on the Pee Wee Herman Christmas Special. She arrived in a big wrapped box and stepped out singing “The Little Drummer Boy.” I’m so glad I taped it.
I just watched the whole thing again to try to cheer myself up. But it’s over, so now I’m in the little room, listening to “Slave to the Rhythm” and thinking about everything that’s happened.
I wish I could be like Grace Jones. She obviously just does whatever she wants and doesn’t have to worry about a bunch of losers constantly bugging her after one of her so-called best friends told everyone she knows about the stupid mix-tape she made of songs off the radio — the radio radio, like AM, not the university station — and now has to deal with being called a poseur all the time.
So what if I sort of, kind of like “Faith” by George Michael? It’s good to dance to. It’s not like there was any Phil Collins or anything on that tape.
And since when can’t I like something that other people do, something popular? Grace Jones wouldn’t care. I mean she was in that James Bond movie and the Conan one, and then this Pee Wee Special. She doesn’t care if something is popular or not, she does what she wants and likes what she likes. No one is calling her a poseur. I’m going to be like Grace Jones. Who cares if I don’t have any friends.
*
Image: Grace Jones, photographed by Greg Gorman for Blitz magazine, November 1989.
Welcome to the Little Room is a series of 250-word re-imagined vignettes from my ’80s youth with a focus on music and style. It appears weekly on periodicult.com.
