The Starfire Lounge Turns 3

Three years ago today, four days before my birthday and just over a month into lockdown due to a global pandemic, I sat down and registered this domain name, briefly did some site window dressing, then knocked out my first post, all in about an hour or two. It was a spontaneous act that I now realize was a reaction to being thrust headlong into the new world (dis)order. A lot of the early posts back then mention this disorientation, and in fact many posts from 2020 revolve around me wrestling with the stuff we all wrestled with back then: isolation, anxiety, and fear.

These themes carried over into some of my 2021 posts and beyond, but it was particularly acute during that first year. It’s interesting to have those posts now as a historical document of a time when the world—and especially the United States—felt like it was spinning dangerously out of control. Reading my often-rambling thoughts on the lockdown from today’s perspective can be triggering, but also comforting: the entire world changed, but I’m still here adjusting on the fly. That’s life, right? Always moving, never standing still.

Those first few posts in 2020, and many since, reflect my love for Susie Diamond and The Fabulous Baker Boys, among other Michelle Pfeiffer movies and roles. It’s not only fitting that I started the site four days before my birthday, but also just ten days before Michelle Pfeiffer’s birthday. Susie is the forever patron saint of this site, with Michelle’s sassy and sensitive portrayal serving as the inspiration for everything I ever wanted to do here, which is to write openly and honestly. Susie is the most perceptive and honest of the three main characters in The Fabulous Baker Boys, and it’s that honesty that shakes the Baker brothers out of their stupor. Just as Susie never filters herself, neither have I wanted to do that here.

A lot has changed in the world these last three years, while much has stayed the same. Hopefully I’ve stayed true to Susie’s spirit during all of it. Here’s to many more years of following Susie’s lead, wherever she takes us.