I was thrilled to receive an email earlier this week from Dave Scheff, the drummer for one of my favorite bands of the 80's: Translator. I discovered them after hearing their first hit (the title of this entry) on KUSF, the coolest college radio station in San Francisco. I was a big New Wave fan and their music was exactly right for my life at that moment. I'd just moved from my hometown to the big city, I was having adventures and getting my heart broken, and Heartbeats and Triggers went with me everywhere on my ratty old Sony cassette player. I even went to a couple of their shows although I was constantly broke back then; music was as important as food. I liked everyone signed to 415 Records, but Translator and Romeo Void were the standouts. When I hear Translator it's 1983 again. I'm twenty-five years old and pop culture is focused on me at last. I am the prime demographic. I am the center of the universe and I know it.

Twenty years later, I entertain the masses with this diary in part by mining my past for anecdotes, stories, and memories. When I decided to start listening to music again last year I started out with the songs that made me happiest, stuff from the 80's. At the top of my list was Translator. So who do you think popped up in Google when Dave decided to do a random search on the 23rd anniversary of the band's first gig?

Yeah. Pretty cool. He wrote, I responded, my mix CDs are playing and now I'm as happy as if I were still the center of the universe. Dave and the rest of the guys, thanks for the music. If you ever wondered whether your band made a difference in the world I can tell you it was a big part of mine once upon a time.

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