In My Place

IN MY PLACE, COLDPLAY

(February 2003)

Sophomore year at UCLA: I had been aware of Coldplay's existence, mostly when the summer before going to college when MTV did this A-Z of things to come this summer special, and Y was for "Yellow," which was Coldplay's first single. But I had tuned out their other singles from the first album, mostly based on my massive dislike for "Yellow," and wasn't even aware that they had a second album out. But, during winter quarter of sophomore year, I was wandering down the hallway from my room at the end to the elevator on the opposite end when I head this song blasting from my RA's room. Mary, my RA (who also had a very, very unfortunate surname), had a habit of blasting "A Rush of Blood to the Head" from her room in the early evenings, and I walked over to her room next to the elevator to pop my head in. In hindsight, I think I had this fascination with Mary, and it wasn't a crush at all - she's not my type, and there was a latent snobbery in her demeanor that was a real turn-off - but I think it may have been this need to know that my RA was as cool as Justin, my freshman year RA, was, and I don't know if Mary was. I mean, she was nice, I'm not saying she was a bitch, but she wasn't as cool as I wanted her to be. But I kept wanting it, wanting it, and that's why I kept bothering her, especially to nitpick her musical choices.

On this particular day, "In My Place" was playing, with its oddly catchy guitar riff, and I really wanted to know what it was. So, I asked and I was told. Then she started asking where I was from and told me that I had a major New York vibe, which I still to this day don't understand since I've never been to New York. I asked what she meant by that, and she blathered on about something about being sophisticated or something. When I told her that I was in fact from San Francisco, she said that she didn't get that at all. Apparently, San Francisco is void of sophistication. All this while listening to Chris Martin wail about being lost.