I Am Adam Ant...

From time to time a word (or phrase) in the English language really makes me chuckle. A perfect example of this is adamant. I am currently rewriting a few things in preparation for the Manchester writing competition. Checking sentence structures, reordering, ensuring the messages were strong and so on. I had began reading aloud, getting very carried away. Practicing dramatic reading tones, fast northern sounding John Cooper Clarke style, deadpan slow monotone William Burroughs, a slow sort of flippant John Cale, Under Milk Wood Welsh accents- not that I was very good at that one, practicing should I ever decide to read them aloud to anyone other than Andrew, what would be the best style for me? Then I reached it, a sentence containing that word, I burst into a fit of laughter... "I have always been adamant..." the word always brings the vision of that 80's dandy, prince charming himself, Adam Ant. It is as if revealing a secret identity, "Now I know you may find this hard to believe, especially seeing as I wasn't alive when 'Stand and Deliver' was released, but you may now find that that was merely a convenient guise, and a clever one too. No one could possibly have guessed it but I shall reveal all now you see... I have always been Adam Ant."

It happens every time someone is adamant, I see greasepaint and laugh.
"He was adamant..." Was he really, how fascinating.
"I am adamant..." Oh come on, that's a lie, I saw him on TV last christmas, you look nothing like the man.
Of course this was the joke all along but I just wanted to point out it still resonates...

I once saw a guy walking down Tibb St in the Northern Quarter wearing a red military jacket. This was the only flamboyant element to him. He was quite a generic looking mosh style kid otherwise. Not quite the dandy his coat would have him seem. Anyway, it must have been around ten on a saturday morning. Two rough drunk lady's, one with red hair the other yellow, grey roots four inches thick on both, pointed at the boy. "Ay look. He's Adam Ant!" Poor sod I look over. He ignores them. They burst into 'Prince Charming', dance and all. Poor poor Adam Ant. "Ridicule is nothing to be scared of," I utter as if consoling the fella, even though he was out of earshot, and didn't really give a toss. I chuckle at myself and the sad state of 'Adam Ant's' current
affairs, then wonder if the boy actually knew what they were talking about. How many people remember Adam Ant? The boy was probably 15. When is the cut off generation for Adam Ant? When will he become forgotten? What is the cut off age for any time specific piece of knowledge/nostalgia?

I was, I am and always will be Adam Ant.