Nostalgia's Overrated

Watched School Of Rock tonight with my brothers and mom. I love that movie so much. I would easily put it in a list of Top Ten Best Movies Of All Time. I say this, of course, without having seen many of what other people call the classics. There's a part of me that thinks that I would still rate School Of Rock that highly even after having seen "the classics".

Spent today making Yu-Gi-Oh cards of Danny Phantom characters. Considering I wanna make sure certain characters have related effects, I didn't really get to make cards of the more popular characters. Most of the ones I made were villains, all of them were ghosts. 24 total, I think. I feel pretty accomplished.

Watching School Of Rock, I started to groove in my seat when "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)" by The Ramones started to play. I absolutely love that song, but I'd forgotten all about it, so I was glad that we had watched the movie so that I was reminded of it. After the movie was over and my mom had gone to bed, I got on the computer to listen to the whole song. It's on the School Of Rock soundtrack, and I own that, but I knew I'd be getting back on the computer anyway, so I figured I'd just look it up instead. The whole time, I got to thinking about how I'd forgotten the song, and started to worry for some odd reason. My thoughts started to snowball and I worried - Maybe I have been deceived. This song is so good. All the songs back then were so good. Man, that was rock and roll! And here I am, stuck in my modern little bubble of pop-punk. Maybe I'll clear all the Four Year Strong off my phone and fill it back up with AC/DC. So, I found a video with decent sound quality and listened to it ... and wasn't impressed, for whatever reason. So I found another video with HD quality (it said so in the title, but it wasn't a lie) and listened to it and fell in love all over again. I honestly do enjoy the Ramones. But off to the side in the suggested video list was a link to "Logan Circle" by the Wonder Years. It was one I never heard before so I thought to myself - I'll do a little test. See how today's music compares to the classics (now that I've reacquainted myself with them). And I listened to it. And, it, too, was very good. It, too, was heartfelt, meaningful. The Ramones wrote "Bonzo" about Reagan's trip to Bitburg cemetery in Germany. I read that and went - Huh. Good music and pointful lyrics. And then I listened to "Logan Circle" and went - Huh. Good music and pointful lyrics. So I came to the conclusion that, despite what the complainers want you to believe, rock music hasn't really changed. The conventions of instrumentation have changed, but they're still powerful, still focused on sounding good and being fun to play. And the topics we sing about have changed, but we're still picking out things to rant about and finding clever ways to phrase our frustration. We're still sticking it to the man. We are. I assure you, we are.
So I'm not feeling bad anymore about claiming to be a punk rocker but being a proponent of modern music. What did Billy Joel sing? "It's still rock and roll to me?" That's exactly how I'm feeling.

On a somewhat related note, I continued my listening spree by clicking on a song of the Wonder Years' titled "I Won't Say The Lord's Prayer". And it was your nowadays-typical anti-religion rant. I had to think of a way to phrase that, because they're not atheist songs (it's fine line they walk, but they're not atheist), and it's becoming an increasingly popular topic to write about. Another example is "An Old Book Misread" by Set Your Goals, the title being a knock on the Bible. They all seem to focus around being forced into religion, being encouraged not to think, etc. All the cliched atheist arguments without ever claiming that there's no God. And it's a hard pill to swallow for me, cuz I have such a close relationship with God, and to think these talented people (so obviously blessed by God that they have these talents) are struggling with people who are going about sharing God with them in the wrong way, so now they're turned away completely. But that could be said without the mention of the songs. I guess I'm nervous whenever I listen to these songs and I hear a line and go - Hmm, good point. For instance, in "I Won't Say..." there's a line:

These billboards that flaunt these scare tactics make me think you're only good if you're afraid of being punished.

Now there's not a lot of these "kind" of signs around here where I live, but I took a trip to Texas this summer, drove through "The Bible Belt", and I did indeed see these kinds of signs. Honestly, up till then, I half thought they didn't exist - they were stuff of legend, a very unsettling legend. They make me think what we believers must seem like to those riding the fence. And it's unfair cuz the minority of religious radicals that go and put these signs up make it seem like they are the mentality of all religious people. And it's not. There are a lot of us, a lot more than the media would have you believe, that actually practice what we preach, so to speak. That don't judge, and are tolerant and (at least try to be) welcoming.

And it's as much odd as it is unsettling, my relationship with these songs; because I'm as questioning as the songs' authors seem to be. My mom brought it to my attention once how Jesus lived during the time of the Romans - the biggest clean-freaks in world history. Jesus wasn't there to cause a ruckus just for the sake of causing a ruckus - he would've obeyed the laws, he would've remained cleanshaven. So all these pictures that show Jesus with long hair are logically a fallacy. And I don't say it to be blasphemous, but Jesus had a sense of humor. When the Disciples questioned him as to why he sat with the sinners, and he responded, "It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick," that was as much sardonic as it was prophetic, at least how I read it.
I don't know. My mom says I worry too much. I think I just think too much sometimes.

As I'm typing now, this all happened yesterday. Today was fun because we watched How To Train Your Dragon and then watched some epicsodes of Dragons: Riders Of Berk that we had recorded. My little brothers coined the phrase "epicsode(s)" to describe how awesome (or "epic", rather) each episode of the TV show was. And whilst enjoying a fine lunch from McDonald's, that pretty much took up the afternoon. But it was fun, though, very fun. It was another world to get lost in, yes, but in this world it was very nice to get to relax and hang out with my brothers and my mom. I love them so much.
So yesterday was all philosophical and thought-provoking in terms of music, and today I have the theme from How To Train Your Dragon stuck in my head. It's funny how stuff like that happens.

I don't really have a song for thought today. Sometimes there don't have to be words with the music to have it get you thinking. If I had a recommendation, it'd be to start watching Dragons: Riders Of Berk on Cartoon Network so you can appreciate a good new show and get that blasted film score stuck in your head too.