a shout-out to Arcade Fire

{image taken from here}

I have a secret to admit.  And you're not going to like it......I don't like Arcade Fire.  They're ok, I guess, but I find their music a little too melancholy.  BUT, one thing I DO love about Arcade Fire is Richard Parry.

{image taken from here}

You see, I went to high school with Richard.  He was in his last year of high school when I was in my first, but he knew who I was.  He even signed my grade 9 yearbook.  I went to a performing arts high school, and Richard and two others (a guy and a girl, and I have to admit, I had a huge crush on the other guy) (my friend Sophia had a huge crush on Richard because she loved the wool sweaters he used to wear) used to spend their lunch hour playing music in one of the stairwells.  Two of my girlfriends and I discovered this one day, and we loved them so much we'd spend our lunch hours with them.  They'd play, we'd eat and listen.  They called us "the stairwell girls", and we called them "the stairwell band".  And in my yearbook, wrote a small paragraph in which he thanked me for listening to his music "no matter how scratchy it was".   The last time I saw him was when we ran into each other at the Ottawa Folk Music Festival about 10 years ago.

He probably would have to remember "the stairwell girls" to remember me, but whatever.  I was living in Hong Kong when a friend first introduced me to them.  He played me some of their music, and pulled up some images online.  I nearly fell off my chair when I saw Richard in the pictures.  My heart swells with pride every time I hear Arcade Fire mentioned on the radio or something.  They've made it so big.  I'm just so proud of Richard (or, "Richy", as he signed himself in my yearbook).  I mean, he even made it to the cover of Time Magazine!!

{image taken from here}