15 years ago today,
Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers vanished without leaving a trace. So, another post in his honor.
Recently I spent nearly a month in Germany. During this time my “interest” in MSP/Richey didn’t decline, it actually remained quite strong despite being permanently exposed to alternate sources of stimuli. I was pondering this (while listening to MSP) when a question arose in my head: “AM I BECOMING COR?” COR = (a member of the) Cult Of Richey. You can probably figure out that means a MSP fan obsessed w/ Richey. It must be noted that CORs have a bad reputation (& are often ridiculed) for doing things to copy their idol, who had some pretty dangerous habits.
Anyways, some things that happened while abroad.
* I listened to MSP all the time & had some of their songs/lyrics in my head constantly. But in 95% of the cases, they were Richey songs/lyrics. From when he was around (albums Generation terrorists & Gold against the soul. Not The holy bible, I’d had my THB phase before) or written w/ his lyrics (album Journal for plague lovers). & when the songs weren’t his, they were about him (such as “Cardiff afterlife”).
* @
the ashram, I thought about how back when Richey was last around (94-95), yoga/meditation/breathing techniques were nowhere nearly as widespread as nowadays. What if he had come into contact w/ them? In short: would they have made any difference @ all? Independently, what would he have thought of all that stuff?
* A photo of Richey (thx
Kelley) stuck in my journal as can be seen in this snap taken on the Berlin Ring-Bahn @ like 1am after drinks w/ Eva, Olivier & Ahmed.
* Someone bought me vodka orange @ Kaffe Burger. They offered me a drink, I said “Sure, what r u having?” They said vodka orange, I said I’d have the same. But I was all “RICHEY!!!!!!!!!11” Didn’t say it aloud but I thought it & drank in his honor. Bc that was his favorite.
* @ Mysliwska in Kreuzberg, I saw this
& thought UM, LOOKS LIKE RICHEY. Does he rly resemble Richey, or am I tripping? I went 2 ask the bartenders who this dude was. I heard:
Zbigniew Cybulski (wrote it in my ~notebook~, of course I cannot remember that spelling), Polish actor. [Polski friends, do u know him?] L8r I googled & found out he was like the Polish James Dean & that he died @ 40, run over by a train on the way home from a shoot : ( Also, he looked nothing like Richey, it’s just that one picture (& in my opinion). You need to have seen
certain photos/vids of Richey to observe a similarity, as well. What I mean is, for instance, this Cybulski looks nothing like the image in my notebook. Get it?
* One night I went out w/
Viktor Dragon, my friend Cali’s sister, who was also in Berlin. I had never spent time w/ her one-on-one but we were getting along. Anyways, we drank & I ended up talking about MSP & Richey (among many other things)…for…a…long…time. Believe me folks, I can talk. I’m a Gemini! Especially after some drinkz. Especially about musicians, boys & some other thingz. Part of my discourse probably went something like this: “Have u heard ART BITCH by Cansei de ser sexy? Maybe Richey was a little like that. Studied History in college, graduated @ the top of the class, super intellectual, spent all the time reading, l8r named authors in his lyrics (Miller, Mailer, Plath, Pinter, Chomsky, etc), knew all about politics & also discussed them in his songs, etc (*)”. SRY VIK, I hope you didn’t die of boredom.
* I heard these guys talking in a hostel lobby & was like SRY BUT R U FROM WALEZ?! (MSP are Welsh) & they were from Australia. But…I srsly thought they were Welsh. How was this mistake possible? I am (somewhat?) familiar w/ the Aussie accent. I was obsessed w/ silverchair (Australian band) for years! I have met, befriended & interacted w/ Aussies for months on end. I watched every episode of every season of Australia's Next Top Model, dammit!!!11 I srsly thought this was Welsh! Like...I listened hard & it sounded sooo much 2 me like Richey when he spoke in the vids I'd seen on YouTube. O well.
So: obsessed or not? The line between the two is always a thin one, hm? Enough for now though. Happy February all.
(*) James Dean Bradfield, vocalist of MSP: "I would think I was being intelligent just by reading a novel that none of my friends had read before, but sometimes (Richey) was just, reading like, the teachings of the 8th Pope." THAT'S FIERCE.
