Little Brett, Big City

Unexpected, but this is my second post about Paula Abdul here. And no, it’s not about her new commercial for that arthritis pain gel. This week in 1989, she hit #1 again. This time with “Cold Hearted,” a song I didn’t really care for then until I saw the video. In an airline pilot’s hat, Paula leads under-clothed dancers to spin and sprawl on studio scaffolding as she warns about a serpentine playa. Entertaining enough. But then the window blinds come down, men’s shirts come off, and the writhing begins. The dancers pair off to “embrace” to the beat, including two guys. Well, one just rolls over the arched back of another. But it was still thrilling to me, a Midwestern kid who was pretty sure he was gay. And thanks to pause-and-rewind on YouTube, I just discovered another male couple in the sweaty mix. What?! Thank you, Ms. Abdul. MTV usually skipped the opening where “label executives” walk into the rehearsal, chatting about the video concept they were about to ...

  I heard it before I saw it. More “Honk Honk” than “Choo Choo.”  Then faint lights down the track illuminated other faces near me on the platform, growing as the train approached. Muggy air pushed ahead by the engine car cooled my forehead. Amtrak’s Broadway Limited then glided into its brief stop in Lima, Ohio.   The nervous vise around my stomach loosened. After a two-hour delay, my getaway to New York was here! I grinned as my eyes darted all over the humming train, trying to identify the right car to enter.   People streamed to my left towards a porter waving from his perch on the train several feet above us. I floated that way and finally got to step up into the car’s threshold. I flashed my ticket to the porter, who barely nodded.   Inside, I turned left toward some seats half filled with slumbering passengers. The dim coach smelled like diesel fuel mixed with recycled air on a jet. I chose a spot, dropping “The World’s Heaviest Briefcase” on the emp...

(ICYMI. Happy Summer!)  Family Ties wrapped up its 7th and final season 31 years ago.  So did other iconic 80s TV series Miami Vice and Dynasty . I lost interest in those two by that time in 1989. But who didn’t love the annual Krystle-Alexis beatdown?   I was too busy to follow specific shows when I was at Bowling Green. MTV was always on, like a roommate who never went to class and threw the best parties every night.   But I did watch the Family Ties finale. I had always appreciated the Alex P. Keaton character. Too conservative of course, but I was totally into his drive to hit the “Big Time.”   The series’ last episode spoke to me. Alex had accepted his dream job with a Wall Street investment firm and was packing quickly to move to New York. Ohio was already history to him.   His excitement and eagerness to leave was a bit much for his mom, Elyse. In her eyes, Alex was too gleeful, too quick to exchange their family life together for the “bright ligh...

The YMCA I decided to stay at on 34 th Street did not take reservations, but they said not to worry because they always had rooms.   Worrying was my top extracurricular activity. If it were an official sport, I would have gotten a four-year scholarship to Bowling Green.  After checking to see no convention was in New York the weekend I planned to arrive, I decided to just go with it. I had to trust that the YMCA staff wouldn’t turn me away from the inn without recommending a good alternative.   Physically getting to New York would be based on more certainty.  I fell in love with the city during my high school Drama Club trip in 1984. (Shout-out to Don and Sue Smith who took a bunch of high school kids to the Big Apple. What could go wrong?!) We traveled by train from Lima then too, riding through the night until we walked out of Penn Station the next afternoon into the heart of the roaring beast.   It’s a tedious and draining 17-hour ride, but the familiarity w...