Keep Your Eyes On the Road

I can’t decide what my favorite part of meeting this dude was, but some highlights:

1. WE WENT TO THE SAME RAGE CONCERT?!

2. His soliloquy about relating to Odysseus was some next-level Lit Nerdiness.

3. That time he went IN on police brutality and how fucked up it is that people are critiquing the Black protest method vs. the message.

4. Him giving the low-down on *that* relay decision and how his godmother told him to focus on goodness vs. greatness.

OKAY I WILL STOP FREAKING OUT ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA NOW.

Hello tumblr fam! My tumblr activity has been pretty lacking recently, especially in the AM world, but I’m back to tell y’all about one of my favorite days of the year: Jack’s Mannequin Day. 

As many of you know, August 23rd represents a very important day for Andrew McMahon. On that very day back in 2005, Andrew released the debut Jack’s Mannequin album Everything in Transit. He also received a stem cell transplant from his sister, Katie. This stem cell transplant saved his life and led him down the road to remission from leukemia. Needless to say, these two events have had an immense impact on Andrew and his fans, and while Andrew has moved past his illness and continues to create beautiful music, it seems only right to honor this day somehow. So a few years ago, I got the idea for Jack’s Mannequin Day. Over the past 5 years, it’s blossomed into a beautiful thing that’s been embraced by Andrew and his Foundation. If you’re unfamiliar with Jack’s Mannequin Day, here’s the gist: First and foremost, Jack’s Mannequin Day is a day of celebration. A celebration of music. A celebration of community. A celebration of life. You can choose to celebrate any way you choose. You could:

Blast Everything in Transit and the rest of the Jack’s Mannequin/Andrew discography in your car or at your workplace.

Share Andrew’s story and his music with people in your life who have never heard of him. Make your very own mixed tape for them with all your favorite songs!

Share a movie night with friends/family and watch “Dear Jack." Post Jack’s Mannequin/Andrew-related stuff (Andrew’s story, a JM song, etc…) on Facebook, Twitter, Insta, Snapchat, or Tumblr. If you see other fans doing it, message them and make a new friend!

Jack’s Mannequin Day is also a day of action. This can be accomplished in a multitude of ways.

In honor of Andrew being in remission for 11 FREAKING YEARS, donate $11 to the Dear Jack Foundation or another charity of your choice. While $11 might not seem like a lot, the smallest donation can make the biggest difference, especially if a lot of people do it! Andrew’s The Dear Jack Foundation supports the UCLA Daltrey/Townshend YA Cancer Program (the only YA cancer treatment program in the country), Cancer For College, and Stupid Cancer, among others. You could also donate to any number of teams participating in the Dear Jack 100K Challenge. There’s also the Matt Cwiertny Memorial Foundation, which I’m partial to. Those who’ve been around the Andrew fandom for awhile remember Matt as an amazing member of our tribe, and his family have done some incredible work keeping his memory alive and helping other young adult cancer patients via the power of music.

If you don’t have the money to donate (or even if you do), spend the day volunteering. Go visit with pediatric cancer patients at your local hospital. Ask your friends for gently used toys. Whatever you end up doing, make sure to share Andrew’s story and let people know what you’re doing for your community and why.

Become a bone marrow donor. Andrew was lucky enough to find a successful donor in his sister, but not everybody is. Every year, 10,000 patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases need a marrow transplant from an unrelated donor, but only half receive one. By registering as a bone marrow donor, you can help change that.

Pre-Olympics: Man Anthony Ervin is a hella hot nerd and that Vice interview was woke as fuck.

Day One of Swimming: Oh damn he won gold as part of the relay team! That’s shitty that they didn’t let him swim in the finals…

Last Friday: HOLY SHIT MY TRASH OLYMPIC SON WON GOLD IN THE 50 FREE. LOOK AT SWIM GRANDPA OUTRACING THESE FUCKING TEENS.

Today: *Finds out Anthony Ervin is doing a book signing in Berkeley next month*

@edwardspoonhands is a smart guy so I’m assuming he already looked into this song and knows it’s about his daughter, but for everyone else…

Andrew wrote this song shortly before his daughter (Cecilia) was born. Fun fact: Cecilia is a super awesome science baby! See, the intense chemotherapy treatments Andrew went through before his transplant made it basically impossible for him and his wife to conceive naturally, so they had to do IVF. Thankfully, it worked. ~YAY SCIENCE AMIRITE~

The other really important detail you have to consider is the importance of the sky in Andrew’s music. It’s a consistent image he’s been using for the past 15+ years. Go listen to “Watch the Sky” if you wanna understand.

It’s important to consider these things when trying to understand the song. After years of pain and heartbreak and NEAR DEATH (this poor little satellite has seen a lot of shit) this little girl emerges and changes his whole life. HIS WHOLE CONCEPT OF THE SKY CHANGES.

In the grand scheme of things, he’s just a tiny part of her life, and he’ll never be able to truly understand her, just like she’ll never truly understand what he went through before she arrived. She’ll never understand how cancer almost destroyed this young satellite and made her life impossible. But dammit, he’s gonna keep and eye on her and try to protect her the best he can.