When I Was Goth

About 100 years ago, back in 1987, I began my little transformation into being a goth girl. This is what happens when you try out for drill team (you already knew you'd never make cheerleader) and you don't get a spot. Parents, beware!

I started watching 120 Minutes every weekend (can't remember if it aired on Fridays or Saturdays). Mostly, my Momma would be in the room, and she tolerated most of my music at the time. I'm the youngest of three, and by then she knew which battles were worth picking. She'd generally just roll her eyes at the endless Cure and Siouxsie videos. There was one, however, that she abhorred.

Wanna guess? No? Takes too long, anyway. It was "Stigmata" by Ministry. Man, she hated that song and hated that video. The minute the nail-scraping sound came on, she'd just glare at me. I'd look back at her, then keep watching. Finally, she said, "No. No way. Turn that crap off." Of course it made me love the song and video more. To be honest, I didn't like the song at first - I'm much more a sucker for melody - but I had to love it from then on.

So for the rest of "Stigmata"'s run, I had to lower the volume so much that she couldn't hear it, and then try to block the TV from her eyes so she couldn't see it.

The only other song she really hated was The Dead Milkmen's "Beach Party Vietnam", but that came later, much after she'd already let me attend their free concert in Laguna. Phew! Dodged a bullet there!

Oh, I finally remembered the point of writing this. One of my cousins is now a friend of mine on MySpace, and his page consists solely of all things Slipknot. Slipknot sounds a whole lot like "Stigmata", and it got me thinking. Well, thinking, and feeling badly for my uncle, who's pretty damn awesome. (For the record, I think my cousin is around 14, so it's the appropriate age.) Overall, this is further proof that each generation thinks it invented painful-to-listen-to music.