"The Art Teacher"

Sometimes I think if I analyze something too much I'll ruin it.

And that might be the case with this song by Rufus Wainwright. I never fail to tear up a bit at this song's beauty and I can't think of very many songs that do that to me so consistently.



I love how he is singing it in the part of the girl now grown and reflecting back on the teacher and that always makes me think of Miss Haines who was my 8th Grade Algebra teacher.

She was very attractive, probably in her mid-twenties, and used to wear these horrible polyester pantsuits with VPL. She was still very cute despite the polyester which is God's worst fabric I'm sure.

I was the fat kid in the back. (I got shuffled into Alegbra because of my good math grades in 7th grade BUT I had to repeat Alegbra my first year in High School anyway). And I can recall with vividness the day after John Lennon was shot and Miss Haines, visibly upset, relating how she grew up with the Beatles (if she was 25 in 1980 that would have made her a teenager when they were still recording as a group) and then asking the class if any of us liked the Beatles. I meekly raised my hand having just gotten the Beatles "red" collection on vinyl at Thanksgiving (I got the "blue" one at Christmas). I think my friend Dirk raised his hand too but at the time Dirk was more into Styx and metal but I think he had a soft spot for the Beatles too.

This is the video for "(Just Like)Starting Over" that I recall seeing on the Casey Kasem TV show shortly after Lennon's death (this was pre-MTV after all).