I decided to leave the 80’s behind in order to post about something that’s still near and dear to my heart — Britpop! I got into it in college, and unlike other genres that came and went, it’s stuck with me for all these years. And, whenever I listen to The Verve or Supergrass, or Blur, but especially Oasis, it always brings me back there. The other day I got on an Oasis kick.

That night I hung out at The Strand Smokehouse in Astoria, and they played a couple Oasis songs there. I can’t listen to Oasis without singing along. So when “Wonderwall” came on, I started singing, but then felt like an idiot and tried to hide behind my fist.  But did not stop singing. Funny enough, I noticed one of my friends “Dom” was also singing along quietly. HA! I started a furtive singalong in a bar! That’s one of the kinds of things I take pride in. I have no idea why.

(Sitting here in Starbucks I realize there are several songs I can’t not sing along to — the current one being “Another Nail For My Heart” by Squeeze. I love them! OMG I hope the guy next to me doesn’t think I’m a total freak for this…)

Anyway… I also can’t listen to Oasis without thinking of my college friend Sandra. She was a goth chick. I’d never met a goth chick before. We met on one of my first days of school. She told me her classmates used to make drug jokes, because she came from Colombia, and at the time everyone associated the country with cocaine. I told her about my life growing up as a Christian. We also both wrote really crappy poetry about it, along with a guy named Nick who would speak with a British accent when he got drunk. I’m pretty sure we had a couple classes together too, but I don’t remember which ones.

It wasn’t the childhood stories, the bad poetry, or the classes that made us friends, it was the music. We got each other into Britpop. She liked some bands, I liked some bands, and we introduced each other to our favorites.

I still remember telling her about Oasis, because I was in love with them, but I thought Liam was a total jerk. Um, because he is. Sandra agreed with me about the music AND Liam. I felt a sense of accomplishment when that happened, as though I had brought some extra happiness into her life.

Sandra left Adelphi after her first or second year, and we didn’t keep in touch. But I will always remember her when I listen to Oasis.

So I mentioned that two Oasis songs came on at Strand the other night. One was the aforementioned “Wonderwall” and the other was this: