WWJD aka What's With Joy Division?
There is a method to my madness this week. No really...
I am devoting plenty of blog space to the memory of Joy Division because at one time, they were *THE* band for me at the right place and the right time.
It was my freshman year in college. I was 2,000 (or so) miles from home, just getting to know the folks in my dorm and enduring the WORST work-study job of all time. I had to earn my keep at Mount Mercy College by sweeping out the dusty tunnels that connected the basements of all of the campus buildings. Students clogged the subterranean passageways during the harsh winters of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I swept up their litter in the dimly lit tunnels, armed with a push broom, a dust pan, a walkman and two tapes: "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" by Joy Division.
Ian Curtis' lyrical journey into the heart of human darkness seemed an immeasurably appropriate soundtrack to my daily descent into my tunnels of drudgery.
I eventually emerged from that desperate work-study job, becoming the editor of the English department's literary department.
That was more than 15 years ago. Yet I can't hear Joy Division today without thinking of the underground gloom of that freshman year.
I am devoting plenty of blog space to the memory of Joy Division because at one time, they were *THE* band for me at the right place and the right time.
It was my freshman year in college. I was 2,000 (or so) miles from home, just getting to know the folks in my dorm and enduring the WORST work-study job of all time. I had to earn my keep at Mount Mercy College by sweeping out the dusty tunnels that connected the basements of all of the campus buildings. Students clogged the subterranean passageways during the harsh winters of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I swept up their litter in the dimly lit tunnels, armed with a push broom, a dust pan, a walkman and two tapes: "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" by Joy Division.
Ian Curtis' lyrical journey into the heart of human darkness seemed an immeasurably appropriate soundtrack to my daily descent into my tunnels of drudgery.
I eventually emerged from that desperate work-study job, becoming the editor of the English department's literary department.
That was more than 15 years ago. Yet I can't hear Joy Division today without thinking of the underground gloom of that freshman year.
posted by erik hogstrom at 8:34 PM
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