Before heading into my humanities classroom this afternoon, a student stopped me to ask about the first writing assignment. I had stipulated that they could choose any text to write about as long as it had been created before they were born. My student wanted to write about a U2 song. I secretly hoped it was a song from Boy (1980), fearing it was more likely from The Joshua Tree (1987). I had to ask: it was “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from their 1983 album War. I was listening to that album when I was 15 and in high school, drugged into submission by the painkillers that my father took after one of his several back surgeries. A great song, a great album: “Brothers, sisters torn apart.” It was released a year before my student was born. And the circle of life continues.

Heard a snippet of Brainstorm‘s “Maybe” on PRI’s The World during the drive back home. Not only had I forgotten all about that song and that band, but I forgot how much I loved that song. This rediscovery prompted me to foolishly spend my down town searching the Internet for a copy of their album Online. (To save you time, you can order your own copy at BalticShop.com.) It’s funny that over the past couple of years I’ve been seriously trying to recreate my personal music collection to resemble what I heard while I was living in Central Europe. Dare I just move back?