Burning down the house

“Hold tight, wait till the party’s over …” Self-portrait, Su Leslie, 1985.

 1985. A flat in Grey Lynn. There are six of us; all in our 20s and a mix of students and recently-minted teachers. It’s a sociable flat, into which friends, neighbours and extended family members are welcomed. We eat together most nights and hang out at the weekends; going to movies, concerts, parties, nightclubs. I’m meant to be writing a Master’s thesis, but realise part way through the year that I find the topic monumentally boring. The effort I should make trying to resolve this problem is instead diverted into listening to music and experiments in film-making.

Sometime in that year, “the flat” goes to see the movie Stop Making Sense. We’ve been listening to Talking Heads and the related band Tom Tom Club, and the film doesn’t disappoint.

I love all the songs from that album, so I guess there is no particular significance in my choice of Burning Down the House to share as part of 30 Days, 30 Songs, a challenge devised by Sarah at Art Expedition. You can see her latest song choice here.