'Holiday' by Madonna is the sound of his first school dance. It was a formative experience, and while he flatters himself to think it was formative in unusual ways, he is probably deluding himself. He remembers wondering what kind of logic dictated that the gym be pitch black? Next, what was a child who had the social skills of a potted plant supposed to do at a dance? And how about if that child's dancing skills also qualified him to be a potted plant?He remembers sitting in a folding chair off to the side, trying to make sense of it all, when the DJ put on 'Holiday'. To this day he tries to hear that song in the wistful way he heard it that night, full of yearning and potential. 'If we took a holiday... it would be - it would be so nice'.
This was when Madonna was as new wave as she was pop. Before she was a virgin, before she was a four letter word, before she was eclipsed by her own celebrity. When her songs were as simple and purely crafted as snowflakes. And it all made sense to him: this was his chance. It didn't take him long to become comfortable dancing, comfortable in the dark, even to enjoy it all. And it was - it was so nice.
