The Teenagers – Homecoming

The French are so classic. They aren’t quite happy being French. Thats the feeling i get when i hear this tune. Even the lyrics are quite silly and kinky. Just the fact that you can detect the strong French accent of the lead singer telling a story about a british foreign exchange student, is quite hysterical. It’s like he doesn’t know that American girls fancy sexy frenchman. I can at least attest to that. At Richmond I was friends with a french student from “Versailles”. That was pretty much the catch phrase for innumerable beddings of Richmond gals. They lyrics are also telling of the mind of the average male/female. On one side we see a sharp crudeness and on the other side we see an honest sweetness. I think its true to how men and women think of the whole fling situation.

I absolutely love this video (the lead singer really looks like Frenchie from U of R days, maybe it’s his younger brother):

The Teenagers Last FM blurb:
The Teenagers are a French pop-electro-rock band who formed in 2006 originally hail from Paris, France but currently reside in London. Michael does vocals and plays the bass, Dorian does guitar, computers and vocals, and Quentin is the songwriter and lead vocalist.
-Debut single “Homecoming” featured a duet with a girl called Sarah Rozelle.

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From 1991 until 1993 I had the pleasure of living just outside of Paris in the suburb of Chatou. When I first arrived in France I was a wide eyed nine year old with a cautionary tone. Everything was amazing and cool, but also alien to me. I’m not sure I knew how special it was until many years later.

My mother has been widely known as Big Sue throughout my childhood and into my teens. I think Kimmy Richardson coined the phrase at an away swim meet where my mother was a chaparone. Mom was raised in a Catholic school where the ruler was still a common form of punishment for bad girls and the cane for bad boys. Certainly the pen was never mightier than the sword in my upbringing. Kimmy must have received a small taste of her wraith on a night the girls tried to sneak out. I hope she cares to elaborate.

Big Sue was obsessed with swimming. When we lived in France we immediately sought out some ridiculous swim league in Versailles that had an olympic size swim pool, communal (guys/girls) showers (i loved that), olympic diving boards. it was pretty awesome. In the many years since leaving France, I have still as yet never been to another pool as sensational as this one. University of Maryland has nice facilities, so does UVA, but the pool at Versailles is unrivaled in size, and awe it inspired in my young soul.

If you thought Big Sue was rough, man you should have met this coach. She never smiled. She never laughed, she was a drill instructor dishing out orders to her troops. All the members of the team looked like champs. All the young kids my age were buff 9 and 10 year olds. sprinting through enormous sets. It was truly painful to swim under such a dictator. We definitely learned new ways to stretch our muscles, and push ourselves through dry land exercises. At some point there was a fight between the coach and Big Sue and we had to join the local Chatou club in a rinkydink pool, but at least the people were friendly and more carfree. I quickly befriended some of the young kids on the team and began to learn French at a much more rapid pace. I saw what they saw, but i also saw it with my perspective and it made me chuckle a little. When I arrived. Michael Jackson released the Black & White Album. Kids were absolutely obsessed with Mykaylle Jochson. They had all his albums, I only had one. I bought my first two compact discs at La Defense plaza outside where my dad worked for IBM. I bought Metallica’s Black Album (the one with the snake) and Michael Jackson’s B&W. Did it really take 19 years for the “doesn’t make a difference if your black or white” to result in an Obama victory? That was the cool song with the funky McCully Culkin introduction. *BAM *BAM *BAM TURN DOWN YOUR STEREO*.

I believe our second swim coach’s name was Ka-treen and my friend’s dad was Christie-on. He was a pain in the ass just like my mother. Except he’d swim right through you and not know the difference. I think he liked it. He was a weird ass old dude. I think he resented that we were American’s swimming on his team. But he was eager for me and his son to play together so i could teach him English. They invited me for dinner a few times and I noticed just how far the American roots went in France. This kid and his brother had old Nike Shoes in their closet going back the last 10 years in original boxes. it was bizarre. I feel like they changed my perspective on nike shoes forever.

Moreso than my sister and I ever were. Don’t get me wrong, Monica was always a very good swimmer. She had attended Stamford Swim Camp, Virginia Swim Camp, and all the major competitions. She usually took home gold, silver or bronze which were often blue, red, or gold ribbons. Everyone was usually shocked if I won a blue ribbon, I still go back and rifle through an old shoebox of red and gold ribbons. My mindset was just against me winning. Monica could be told to change her stroke once and then permanently absorb it. I’ve never been able to do that. I just get a song stuck in my head while i’m swimming and then two laps go by and i can’t remember what i was trying to focus on doing, was it hold my hand the right way or kick my feet harder. And then the next thing you know I’ve swum a couple more laps and can’t remember what lap i’m on. I always had trouble focusing when swimming. It’s just so easy to go slow. I think cooldown, friendships, and hot showers after swim practice were the only things i liked about swimming.