The Hot List
by REBECCA WIENER
I grew up in a place where the heat was exceptional. To get from house to car, from car to school, from school to Frappuccino necessitated wading through the thick, angry foam of outside. Every first moment of air-conditioned relief was a revelation. Every moment before, anticipation. The heat in New York is remarkable in a different way. Without the reliable sharp edge of central air, the clarity of an unnaturally cold room, days become fuzzy. Thoughts slow, feelings expand and boundaries blur. My body is your body is the grass is this bus seat is this dress. I say more of the things that float into my mind, I sleep much more or much less. New York in the summer has always made me feel nostalgic. Maybe it just turns my brain mushy, but this feels like longing. In the grand This Recording tradition, below is a list of things that make me ache in a good way when it's 104 degrees outside.
Blue Fla-Vor-Ice
Phoebe Washburn
French kissing frenzies by the middle school buses
Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris in my father's car
The fear that the water slide will steal my bikini top
Arnold Palmers in a too-big styrofoam cup
Weezer
Basketball on the blacktop
Goodbye, Columbus
Sweaty optimistic apartment parties in our freshman year of life
Elizabeth Peyton
AOL chat rooms
Canned peaches in syrup
Sketchers
Driving around on Saturday nights, shrieking when a good song comes on
Drinking iced coffee outside, then inside, then outside
Astroworld vs Great Adventure
Princess Di
Pressing 'record' at the perfect moment to tape your favorite song on the radio
Itchy, dry grass on the backs of my legs; soft, feathery grass on the backs of my legs
Fumbling sex
The Liars Club
Trampolines
Lucian Freud
High school boys
Field trips
Short haircuts
Sitting on our damp towels in the car on the way home from the pool
Christian Slater in Untamed Heart
Naps
Sunny D
Mix tapes before High Fidelity
Folded up notes written in 3 different pens
Chili's
Painting my nails with white out
Fake Plastic Trees
Holding hands at the mall
Bread and Jam for Frances
Badlands
Rebecca Wiener is the senior contributor to This Recording. She is a writer and artist living in Greenpoint. Her website is here.
"The Freshmen" - The Verve Pipe (mp3)
"Summer Girls" - LFO (mp3)
"Fake Plastic Trees" - Radiohead (mp3)
"Island in the Sun" - Weezer (mp3)
