track 25: love... thy will be done b/w gett off

In the fall of 1991, I started going to school at MDCC. I took pretty general classes, with a slight focus on English. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All I really wanted to do was keep writing. I began to take public transportation for the first time. Unlike New York City's mostly reliable transit system, Miami's was a real mess. The buses were unreliable, few and far between. It was only two to get to MDCC and the timing for the transfer was pretty good, unlike years later, when I worked at Barnes & Noble in Kendall and often got to the first stop five minutes after my second bus left, leaving me stranded for another hour. So in the mornings, after I was all ready and waiting to go out for my bus, I'd often have the TV set on. At some point, it would be on AMC- back when they showed truly classic movies. That was how I discovered one of my favorite movies ever, Private Lives, the film that introduced me to my beloved Norma Shearer. But I think that was a little later and I'm not sure what triggered my desire to watch old movies. At this point, it was still MTV or VH1, which is what I was watching one morning when I caught the video for a new song by my old favorite, Martika.



I guess it was sometime later that week, but I think I had to stop by Kendall Town & Country for something for my stepfather and while I was there went to the music store (Record Bar? Tracks?) and bought the cassette single, since the album, Martika's Kitchen wasn't even out yet. I became utterly addicted to the song. Soon enough, I got the complete album and listened to that all time, too.



The new album was a bit more sophisticated sounding than Martika's debut. There was just as much pop goodness, but it felt a bit less fluffy. Although at the time, I was just like, "More Martika!!" but today I can admire the cleverness of the title track, the call to home of "Mi tierra" and yes, I can even own up to the fact that some of the songs are a little too ambitious and don't exactly work. I love it nonetheless. Several songs on the album were collaborations with Prince, who I had never really been a fan of at that point, despite the fact that one of his proteges, Sheila E had made an album I loved called Romance 1600. However, at the time he had just performed "Gett off" at some MTV awards show and his disc Diamonds and Pearls was out. Encouraged by the music he made with Martika, I picked up the new album and found myself really liking it.



Despite having loved music my whole life, I think it was probably listening to Prince that I started to really pay attention to the way music was produced. Of course Prince adds lots of amazing and interesting layers to his work and I found myself really loving the pop funk of "Thunder" and "Daddy Pop," I still can't say I'm crazy about the title track, despite being able to sing along to every word. While I never became a hardcore Prince fan, this all led to my discovery of some of his older music and for a few years, I followed his career. Meanwhile, Martika never released another solo album. A few years back when vile Eminem sampled her hit "Toy soldiers" for one of his songs, Sony put out a greatest hits compilation (and only Sony could pull of releasing "best of" albums for artists like Martika, Jeff Buckley or The Fugees who only ever had two proper albums!) that features an excellent Prince remix of "Love... thy will be done." Martika spent some years out of the spotlight but has recently gone on to create music with her husband, Michael Mozart, under the name Oppera.

track 9: more than you know

Another strong memory of the summer of 1988 revolves not around working at the swimming pool itself, but the commute to get there. Morning after morning, we'd get to the same stretch of road near Miami International Airport and get caught up in the gridlock. Traffic in Miami is particularly infuriating, but I think that at the time I minded it less. Mostly because it gave me more time to hear my favorite cassette of that summer: Martika.



Martika had been on the television show "Kids, Inc." (at the same time as the unbearable Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson) and went on to find a brief bit of fame with her self-titled debut. My favorite song was the catchy and addictive single, "More than you know" and I'm sure playing it over and over again (having to rewind to the beginning every time) drove my mom insane. Now she'd probably be better known for the ballad "Toy soldiers," which ended up being used in an Eminem track.

Playing any track from Martika will make me think of that morning traffic on my way to work, or of the ride home, my towel over the car seat still in my bathing suit and smelling of chlorine.

alternate track: Chaka Khan's song "Through the fire" was always on the radio in the mornings that summer and I loved it!