When the record “She’s So Unusual” came out, it utterly changed my life. I was completely head over heels in love with Cyndi Lauper, this tiny, twinkling little songbird, with titian red hair and a crimson corset, wearing more belts than I could count, looking like a fox on fire, with this VOICE that you knew you would always be with you from that moment on. I just wanted to marry that voice. Cyndi was so beautiful I would weep when I watched her on “Friday Night Videos.” It was like she turned the color up on my life, saturating me with blues and reds, corrupting the blackness of my early teenage moods forever. I loved her then and I love her so now. It is funny how you can idolize someone and then you are lucky enough to come to know them and they are your friend and then it feels like you have been friends for the whole of your life.