Mario recommends “New York Grief ‘86” by Princess Demeny
I cried in front of my boss today and confessed to her that I have been very unhappy with my job for months now. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
There are two versions of this song: the one I have highlighted is a version recorded with the artist’s then boyfriend in the year 1986. It is the last thing he would do outside of the hospital he ultimately died in. The second version was recorded in 1989, three years later, accompanied by a music video. In 2016, Princess Demeny uploaded the video to YouTube, as a memorial to one of its contributors.
I worry often that I don’t have what it takes to be an artist for a living. I know I need to live more gently, and, more and more, that seems at odds with producing the art I want to create, which is likely to earn me little recognition, and even less money.
My previous job was in retail, which is like living through a psychological horror film. My job before that was as a private security dispatcher for an amusement park, which regularly involved people calling me about other people they thought were dying. It was like living through the last half-hour of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. In any case, I have lately been trying to pay better attention to the magic I encounter in my life: Memoir Mixtapes resurfaced after a two year hiatus on the day I cried at work for the first time in my life, which is a week after I first listened to this song that has been painfully stuck in my head ever since, a song recorded on a dark night in an otherwise ungentle life, and that I am now sharing with you 36 years later.
Mario is the son of a hairdresser and a trucker. He currently lives in Massachusetts, within walking distance of one of his best friends. He worries a lot about forgetting the music he loves, but still doesn't know how to organize it. He tweets @yung_radish.
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