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February 14, 2007
Retrohump Day - Cristina
So in lieu of a traditional V-Day lovesong post, we're taking a more cynical tact with a very jaded song indeed...
Cristina - "Ticket to the Tropics"
Like today's earlier post, this one features a fashion forward young woman singing about "tropics." The difference in early 80's art-diva Cristina's case is she's almost certainly using it as a vagina metaphor. Yowsa. Listen to the way she vamps about "warm, wet...sand," and there's no other interpretation to make. The song itself is a killer pop number, a campy, catchy parable of sex and materialism that's one of the two or so best cuts on 1984's recently reissued and entirely awesome Sleep it Off album. The heavy handed sexual connotations aren't gratuitous (well, aren't that gratuitous) in the context of the story, where poor Cristina is wooed by a young man who only cares about one thing. He gets it. She sounds more annoyed than distraught though. She's a Harvard grad and woman of the world, who had plenty offers I'm sure. She ended up marrying an heir to a fortune, after all...
Cristina - "Ticket to the Tropics"
The video sees Cristina dolled up with a really unfortunate poodle do that makes her a dead ringer for Woody Allen-era Mia Farrow (she looks better on the later club stage in Chicago garb). She's courted/ ripped off by a perpetually creepy OG Patrick Bateman type, who gets his eventual comeuppance. This is roughly the 400 millionth absolutely amazing You Tube find featuring an artist who's almost too obscure to even get a re-issue. You Tube earns our completely sincere romantic love...
// Cristina - Sleep it Off buy
Posted by Jeff Klingman at February 14, 2007 02:00 PM
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