College nostalgia vignette: She Sells Sanctuary
Today marks the 37th anniversary of The Cult's Love album release. The album was released on October 18, 1985, but I didn't hear The Cult for the first time until at least one year later. I was at WhereHouse Records in East Lansing. It was the old location on Grand River Avenue and Charles Street, which is now a Starbuck's Coffee. I don't know what I was doing at WhereHouse or what I was looking for. I might have just been poking around or maybe I was looking for an R.E.M. or Smiths album (having just really gotten into those bands upon arriving as a freshman at MSU). I felt free from the restraints of home and of the secluded backwater I had lived in from fifth grade through high school graduation. College life and by extension, the energy and vaguely countercultural vibe of this record store made me feel alive in a way that it difficult to describe. So that one particular afternoon--and I am positive it was an afternoon because I remember natural sunlig...