Alan Hanson

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General Public, Tenderness

Yesterday I found myself at a BBQ for an acquaintance’s birthday where I only really knew maybe three people. I’m usually a very social person but for some reason my head just wasn’t in the game. I bounced from huddle to huddle making small talk and pretending to remember names of people I may or may not have met before while simultaneously discovering the best shaded spots in the yard to stand in for I had forgotten my sunglasses. Later, at the end of a Solo cup of champagne and as I nubbed out a spliff beneath my shoe, this song came on the host’s speakers. I was so happy. I was so thankful. Whenever I’m alone in a public place with music while inebriated, I have a tendency to feel very cinematic. And of ALL the songs on the Clueless soundtrack, how lucky did I get? Thank god it wasn’t Rollin’ With The Homies. Thank god I could sit on the patio furniture enjoying myself without swatting away endless smirks and RIP B-MURPH jokes in blinding sunlight. Thank god it wasn’t Fake Plastic Trees which would undoubtedly throw me into a depressing and dark mid-afternoon period of self-reflection (laaaaaaaame). It was Tenderness and, 80s production aside, it’s a pretty good song. Especially when you know no one at a party and your head is cracking. Because everyone just shut up for a second. Everyone just drank their beers and smiled at each other and bobbed their heads slightly and swished their hips like easy carbonation. It felt like a high school party in a good way. Or an end-of-high-school party. I decided that this was as good a time as any to bail. I walked down a street in Silverlake with many trees and it really felt like fall. Sure, I was still high, but I couldn’t help but smile to myself the entire way to the car. It felt good hearing that song. And it’s not even a song I particularly have enjoyed before. I drove home feeling better about my generation after watching a bunch of strangers have a great time and how silly it felt to have previously judged that group of people. We’re all just people, bro, dawg, man. I headed to Del Taco and missed a three car pile-up by the skin of my teeth and it felt good to drive on Sunset with the windows down and the music loud and to know most things are still alive.