You know your generation is calling some of the shots when the bar scenes and commercials and sound bytes are songs from your formative years. Not necessarily controlling the wealth yet, but at least responsible for a lot of the creative content we are inundated with on a daily and nightly basis as we recline in front of our blue screens, bathed in light, trying to forget what a shitty day we had.

I love that in Mare of Easttown, season 1, episode 3, A Flock of Seagulls is playing in the bar scene. It was beautiful and weird. For a minute, I was listening to MTV; I was at the Hot Rock Cafe, or Rubes, or that one basement bar that changed names several times.

I also love Kate Winslet. Although she is a young GenXer, she is one of us. She’s a pretty fab actor person. And she continues to prove this in Mare of Easttown—although obviously she doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

And just what about A Flock of Seagulls? Those dudes were so far ahead of their time. They had a vision of the future. Hearing them reminds me of this girl from Swartz Creek that I met at a dance. She had an internship at AC, over on my East Side, so there was the potential of possibly getting to know her. We danced to A Flock of Seagulls and one or two other New Wave hits one night. She was attracted to an acquaintance of mine, but I had the impression that he wasn’t that interested. She dressed and styled her hair like she was right out of the video for “I Ran.” I was smitten. We talked on the phone a few times. One time about cheese. She was a cheese connoisseur. I was into Kraft Singles. She corrected my ass.

But nothing happened. We didn’t date. We didn’t find ourselves at another dance. She talked about stopping by after work, but never did. It was probably because of my uncouth love of bad cheese. It’s amazing. I can still see her in my mind. She had these beautiful braces. I was a fool.

But it all worked out.