Group consciousness in action? In the weeks after so many of us got back together for May’s Che Games at the Casbah (and the lovely Graveyard Park picnic that followed), I was struck by the number of references to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” dropped by attendees.
Never mind its post-“Trainspotting” ubiquity: “Perfect Day” remains a haunting paean to love and loss, as the narrator muses about a perfect day with a companion who made him feel like “someone else … Someone good.”
It’s also makes me think about the “perfect days” of our youth … And days that approach perfection now.
In 1988, I finally got serious about a higher education. I previously tried college at SDSU in 1980/81 but it interfered with my social life and record-buying fund, so I dropped out. (I hated SDSU anyway.) But in 1988 I packed up the 1967 VW van, and me and my girlfriend Michelle headed off for Humboldt State University, after a fine summer living in the van and beach-combing up the California coast.