As these pics of my laptop show, I love a nice sticker. The stickers I choose to decorate with are meticulously curated and I change them out a few times a year (what a freakin’ nerd, jeezus). I generally stick to the same motif so it’s always favorite bands or albums, plus the occasional film ( yeah that’s two nods to “Over The Edge” in my current design, “man, I’m flashing” y’all). I also always make a point of acknowledging my hometown and Peanuts. Yes, we are truly in the ‘golden age of stickerdom’.
When I was a young one in the ’70s and ’80s, cool stickers were hard to come by. Choices were generally limited to the freebie bumper stickers advertising radio stations you could get at record stores or the decals they kept in glass cases at the old school head shop at the mall (where when I was 13, I went with my best friend so she could buy a coke spoon neck chain which she used to wear to school every day and no authority figure ever questioned…or maybe recognized). Anyway, the decals were not only expensive, the selection was pretty limited and tended to feature the obvious or what I used to refer to as “big kid” stuff like Led Zeppelin or Rush, which I wasn’t remotely into. That meant that in order to showcase my love of specific bands I had to improvise. In lieu of stickers, my school notebooks were covered with my own hand-drawn logos (ELO, Genesis, and the Police were my faves). I confess to actively practicing them at home (loser), endlessly tracing logos from album covers until my muscle memory was strong enough to recreate ’em freehand on my binders. I’ve retained this completely useless skill so if you ever need a meticulous ELO logo on your math notebook, you now know who to ask. While I love drawing, I am genuinely thankful that these days I can just slap on a sticker to declare my devotion ( actually, I’m not that cavalier, I take time planning sticker placement. The loser-dom never freakin’ ends).
It’s now time for the latest WEEKLY NEW WONDERS PLAYLIST featuring the finest songs that have surfaced over recent days. Full of melody, messages, and melancholy, here’s hoping they stick to your heart as hard as a fierce Stevie Nicks sticker. Rock on…
Listen on Soundcloud
Listen on Spotify
PICKING UP ROCKS 