This essay popped into my head the other day. I was listening to — or rather had on in the background — a high school radio station (That is 1450 AM — which turns into a college radio station at night-time. There is a style to the whole outfit that the Entercom and Clear Channel stations lack.) The two high school djs played “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred. When one of them asked, “Why did you play that?”, the other answered “To show that such a thing was popular at one time.” (I would mention that there is a godawful hip-hop song popular right now — I think by R Kelly but a google search isn’t showing anything up — that’s based upon sexual innuendoes around the kitchen table — and it rhymes potato with tomato. Life meanders forward; history is prolouge; some mendacities of pop culture never change.)

This one hit wonder is completely outside of these teenagers’ pop cultural purview. For me, it is just barely inside it. I remember a slightly sophisticated fellow student having a conversation with the (elementary school) teacher about the song, and either moral decay or changing standards of acceptability.

Later, I was in a line at Fred Meyers. The cashier was having trouble with the code for produce, and had to ask either a fellow worker or the supervisor. He gave the answer twice. Then he started chiming in some other numbers. “8675309.” The young clerk did not understand the reference. (And yet… Tommy Tutone lives right here in Portland!) [Everything vanishes for me. Various games of Trivial Pursuit show me not knowing things that it seems that I should know, and knowing things that it seems I should not know.]

As for Alf and Tom Cruise, I saw the Alf parody first — and no doubt did not make the connection when it was first run. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the movie “Risky Business”, nor do I have any reason to want to. Today’s teenagers — Alf not being a part of their pop cultural purview — may turn to the Homer Simpson parody when they hear the Bob Segar song. (Perhaps. I can’t really make heads or tails of how The Simpsons passes through its second run syndication… though, the episode in question comes from the show’s golden period when less surreality abounded.)

Just leave the high school djs with their “Vote for Pedro” t-shirts, and move on.

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