Although John Hughes’ films’ kinda began their downhill descent after Pretty in Pink and then careened into eminent demise after Some Kind of Wonderful, yesterday’s twinge of sadness (upon first learning of his sudden death) was made all the more acute by today’s radio retrospective.  And what, besides soundtrack, could have possible succeeded in summoning up a melancholic parade like that.  The outcast characters of his mythical Sherwood, Illinois all somehow managed to elevate the atmospheres’ around them through the soundtracks that their seemingly unaware characters, lived, breathed and moved within, thereby elevating the outcast experience right along with them.  What was amazing was how, at the time, they seemed to resonate with absolutely everybody.  At the time the phenom of the universality of an emotionally honest script, eluded me on a conscious level, while The Breakfast Club, his masterpiece, might well have been the most memorized screenplay since, well, okay, since Sixteen Candles.  And even today, can anyone truly disassociate Ben Stein’s talk show appearances with his “anyone?  anyone?” lecture in Ferris Beuller’s Day off?  In those awkward and isolated early adolescent years, the Walkman & Echo and the Bunnymen/ Suzanne Vega/ OMD/Psycadelic Furs/ Simple Minds combo was the emotional subtext I moved through the world with. John Hughes and his characters seemed to always understood that, somehow.