Reflections On What Will Be Madness
by (our new & awesome manager): Dan Graham
There are few days like the one where your GM tells you that Janet Jackson is doing a book signing at your store. Suddenly my carefully cultivated cool was replaced by an even more carefully mimicked Rhythm Nation dance. Yes, I am not too embarrassed to admit that I was once a chubby little queer boy meticulously recreating Janet's call to social justice daily in my room, and for five minutes each time I played the song I wasn't alone. I was a part of a Rhythm Nation! It was the first CD I bought with my own money.
The phone started ringing off the hook a month ago, about the time Ms. Jackson posted on her website that she would compliment her Number Ones concert at the Gibson Ampitheatre on Friday, April 15th with a book signing for her inspirational memoir True You at Book Soup. We have the honor of hosting Ms. Jackson this Friday, and we're expecting quite a turnout based on pre-sales of her book and heavy call volume from a truly energetic fan base. I suppose that is because Janet Jackson is a pop star of the kind they just can't make anymore.
I won't entertain any notions of actually meeting Ms. Jackson this Friday although I will be working that day. Mostly because I would probably freeze in place and softly mutter "You're great" (my default when I meet favorite authors). The truth is I'm more likely to tell her I want a red rider triple action shot gun than I am to tell her that my literal idea of Heaven is a dance floor where everywhere I look I see a friend, some passed on and others separated by distance and time, but all smiling. The song that's playing is Together Again. My guess is that there will be a hundred stories like that one in line this Friday.
A playlist for the signing line:
That's The Way Love Goes
Rock With U
Got 'Til It's Gone
I Want You
What Have You Done For Me Lately?
All For You
Young Love
Rhythm Nation
Make Me
Love Will Never Do (Without You)
Together Again
Any Time, Any Place
