This is not one of my "Oh Em Gee, you guys, I freakin' love my friend, ________, so much!" So just...ok.
It's been my experience that the people I prefer to spend most of my time with are opposites to myself in many ways that are of little importance here. Perhaps it's an aspect of self-loathing that I enjoy the qualities in them that I do not possess, or simply a break from myself. I'm attached to them through different mediums, be it music, high school, sexuality, etc. But I have one in particular that is set apart as we seem to be attached at the soul. It seems a somewhat flaky thing to say, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. I do not have this with the vast majority of people, even my self-described "best friends" are not linked to me through the soul, metaphysical, existential embodiment of self. Our Gemini status has become something of a running joke in my circle and I'm quick to laugh when it's brought up. It's frightening though. Not that I'm getting all Khalil Gibran here, but there's something overpowering about being around someone who you feel reads you better than most. We don't spend a lot of time together as it would be too much of...not a 'good' thing exactly, but too much of being in your own head. It's an immense relief at times to have someone say exactly what you want to have said in a moment. I'm not sure if it's true half the time; it just seems as though This is what needs to be said Now. But true or not, it works. It serves a function and an important one at that.
Now, the malaise of being in ones mid-twenties has started to afflict some of us now. My specific symptoms and reactions were chronicled somewhat in the last post, but suffice it to say that I am not alone and that this has become something of a tragic bonding point as of late. We were discussing recently how strange it is that we know through history and instinct what we need to feel good and yet we actively choose to do the opposite. We know about exercise and eating right, how to combat depression and achieve goals, but what do we do? Sit on our asses eating Doritos Cool Ranch (ew) and do nothing. And what is so great about that? Why do we prefer to be slothful rather than feel better? Got me. Perhaps we're all just a little bit emo, a little bit "I like being imperfect because then I can complain and people will listen to me." Well, yeah, but - and correct me if I've not sunk your battleship with this statement - wouldn't it be better to get people listening to you because you look good, feel good and acheive a lot of success?
I will now opine my solution to all of the above by informing you what I feel will save your life:
Pop music.
I don't mean your Beyoncés, your Christinas or even (Lord, strike me dead) your Rihannas. No. I am talking about real, true, gritty (that's right: gritty!) pop music. We're talking Aqua, Abba, A*Teens. Anything with beginning with an 'A' is usually a pretty good marker. This is not superficially deep music; that is, this is not music that the writers have created whilst thinking, "Gee, this is deep. I'm gonna affect people, y'all." Yet, there's something very genuine and telling in the seemingly frothy nature of the stuff. They're Fairytales v 2.0. Fantastical tributes to the romantic notion of humanity as a vessel of love and idealism. These songs speak of love as if it's the most important thing in the world, which, c'mon, it is and even when it's lost love, they aren't all like, "Fucking bitch left me!" No, say "This happened and I'm really sad about it." Isn't that more rational? When you break up, a mature person is not gonna go and smack a ho. They're going to grieve. And not through over-thought metaphor and whimsical glochenspiel motifs. It's clear, basic. "I'm sad. This bites."
If I'm filing at work or riding some shitty-ass bus for the 17 time that day or even summoning the devil that is the gym, what do you think is going to make time pass more quickly: moody complexities developed by music's intelligenicia's to make me think about the crushing state of these dark days we live in or motherfucking Barbie Girl?! I'm sorry, but I need it. Life is just too rough otherwise. You will not find these bands listed on my Facebook profile because I would not want to be judged as a person via those musical tastes (cause God knows, I'd judge me), but when I go to karaoke you know I'm punching in The Sign. I know all the Romanian lyrics to the Numa Numa song. I want to play jazz flute just for the riff in California Dreaming. I have a dance to Like A Prayer. And I've done moody piano ballad versions of all four, as well as Knowing Me, Knowing You and the theme song from Friends. And they'll last, because look at the songs we know from the last 50 years. There will never be any musicals based around metal bands. There are not a bajillion covers of Kanye West songs. Mere decimal points can sing you lyrics to songs by The Ramones, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Final Fantasy but every single person in the free world knows exactly what's about to go down when they hear "[rolling piano arpeggio] At first I was afraid, I was petrified..." And we dance. Cause it's fun. And holy hell, do we deserve some fun once in a while.
It's been my experience that the people I prefer to spend most of my time with are opposites to myself in many ways that are of little importance here. Perhaps it's an aspect of self-loathing that I enjoy the qualities in them that I do not possess, or simply a break from myself. I'm attached to them through different mediums, be it music, high school, sexuality, etc. But I have one in particular that is set apart as we seem to be attached at the soul. It seems a somewhat flaky thing to say, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. I do not have this with the vast majority of people, even my self-described "best friends" are not linked to me through the soul, metaphysical, existential embodiment of self. Our Gemini status has become something of a running joke in my circle and I'm quick to laugh when it's brought up. It's frightening though. Not that I'm getting all Khalil Gibran here, but there's something overpowering about being around someone who you feel reads you better than most. We don't spend a lot of time together as it would be too much of...not a 'good' thing exactly, but too much of being in your own head. It's an immense relief at times to have someone say exactly what you want to have said in a moment. I'm not sure if it's true half the time; it just seems as though This is what needs to be said Now. But true or not, it works. It serves a function and an important one at that.
Now, the malaise of being in ones mid-twenties has started to afflict some of us now. My specific symptoms and reactions were chronicled somewhat in the last post, but suffice it to say that I am not alone and that this has become something of a tragic bonding point as of late. We were discussing recently how strange it is that we know through history and instinct what we need to feel good and yet we actively choose to do the opposite. We know about exercise and eating right, how to combat depression and achieve goals, but what do we do? Sit on our asses eating Doritos Cool Ranch (ew) and do nothing. And what is so great about that? Why do we prefer to be slothful rather than feel better? Got me. Perhaps we're all just a little bit emo, a little bit "I like being imperfect because then I can complain and people will listen to me." Well, yeah, but - and correct me if I've not sunk your battleship with this statement - wouldn't it be better to get people listening to you because you look good, feel good and acheive a lot of success?
I will now opine my solution to all of the above by informing you what I feel will save your life:
Pop music.
I don't mean your Beyoncés, your Christinas or even (Lord, strike me dead) your Rihannas. No. I am talking about real, true, gritty (that's right: gritty!) pop music. We're talking Aqua, Abba, A*Teens. Anything with beginning with an 'A' is usually a pretty good marker. This is not superficially deep music; that is, this is not music that the writers have created whilst thinking, "Gee, this is deep. I'm gonna affect people, y'all." Yet, there's something very genuine and telling in the seemingly frothy nature of the stuff. They're Fairytales v 2.0. Fantastical tributes to the romantic notion of humanity as a vessel of love and idealism. These songs speak of love as if it's the most important thing in the world, which, c'mon, it is and even when it's lost love, they aren't all like, "Fucking bitch left me!" No, say "This happened and I'm really sad about it." Isn't that more rational? When you break up, a mature person is not gonna go and smack a ho. They're going to grieve. And not through over-thought metaphor and whimsical glochenspiel motifs. It's clear, basic. "I'm sad. This bites."
If I'm filing at work or riding some shitty-ass bus for the 17 time that day or even summoning the devil that is the gym, what do you think is going to make time pass more quickly: moody complexities developed by music's intelligenicia's to make me think about the crushing state of these dark days we live in or motherfucking Barbie Girl?! I'm sorry, but I need it. Life is just too rough otherwise. You will not find these bands listed on my Facebook profile because I would not want to be judged as a person via those musical tastes (cause God knows, I'd judge me), but when I go to karaoke you know I'm punching in The Sign. I know all the Romanian lyrics to the Numa Numa song. I want to play jazz flute just for the riff in California Dreaming. I have a dance to Like A Prayer. And I've done moody piano ballad versions of all four, as well as Knowing Me, Knowing You and the theme song from Friends. And they'll last, because look at the songs we know from the last 50 years. There will never be any musicals based around metal bands. There are not a bajillion covers of Kanye West songs. Mere decimal points can sing you lyrics to songs by The Ramones, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Final Fantasy but every single person in the free world knows exactly what's about to go down when they hear "[rolling piano arpeggio] At first I was afraid, I was petrified..." And we dance. Cause it's fun. And holy hell, do we deserve some fun once in a while.
2 comments:
hmmmm...
You know David, I really love your blog.
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