Clown Love

Oh man, you gotta love that sweet feeling when you hear a band you used to love for the first time in years. It kindof hurtles you straight back through the time. Today, I celebrate my renewed love for Insane Clown Posse (ICP).

I don’t really love clowns (mainly thanks to Stephen King). But I do love ICP. The first, and almost only time I heard them was in highschool, riding in Melissa Ashton’s car. Melissa was the field commander for band that year, and I remember we drove around downtown Moundsville only to end up near the banks of the Ohio River, forcing us to turn around. I think her boyfriend Jeremy was with us, and maybe my friend Angela and/or Dyann. All of us band geeks, all of us listening to the dark hip-hop stylings of Insane Clown Posse.

It is so odd what our brains decide to remember, and what gets filed together to be recalled later. Easily 10 years later, I’m sitting in lab listening to “Great Melinko” and “Hocus Pocus” grooving to the carnival beat and relishing the gratuitous swear words.

Melissa killed herself while I was in college, and it’s always been strange since I only heard about any of it, and never saw her after high school. So when she pops into my head every couple of years, it feels like she’s still around somewhere. Maybe she is? As always, who knows? Today is one of those days that I give her a thought, and hope wherever she is and whatever she’s doing, she’s enjoying it. In some world, in some time, we’re still laughing and swearing along together.