#philosphizing

I recently re-watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and here are some things I noticed and that it made me think about.

And no, we aren’t going to talk about the two biggest problems the movie has - Manic Pixie Dream Girl plotting and Micheal Sera being a) a little unconvincing as a womanizer and b) terribly unconvincing as a fighter. here we go:

1) I forgot how good the soundtrack is. Not like, Garden State ‘completely alter the discourse of popular music’ good, but pretty solid raunchy crunchy garage rock. I’m pretty sure the movie is supposed to take place in the early 2000′s, so that vibe fits. It also makes me pine a little for when interesting things were happening in the rock genre. I feel more like a grandpa every day hacking away at my guitar. I always give people crap for saying that “modern music sucks and I remember when music was GOOD” because music has ALWAYS been bad - you just don’t remember the bad stuff. With the shite filtered out it’s easy to look back and think music was better. I will, however, very readily say that contemporary rock music - as a genre - is boring as hell right now - excepting, maybe, heavy metal and a couple of outliers like Royal Blood or old bands still chugging away.

2) There’s a funny feeling something like “anybody could make it big” floating around. Everybody’s in a band and musicians are cool and if you get lucky you could get signed and make some money. That’s probably never really been true, but it reminded me of *feeling* that way at some point when I was younger. I really like how music gets treated in the movie. It’s how I remember feeling about it when I was young, like music really mattered. I suppose it still does, but it feels much more like a pleasurable distraction or a more mindless triviality now. Probably just me getting old.

3) At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, one scene stuck out delightfully - the secret password to get into a nightclub was a completely disdainful “whatever...” followed by an annoyed sigh. For as long as I can remember being disaffected was part and parcel of how you were cool when you were young, and how you marked the difference between the popular kids and the *cool* kids. It was true in the 90′s when I was growing up, it was true when I was in high school, college, and in to law school... but I think that might be over now. Young people today are being given an object lesson in how professionally not giving a shit leads you to President Drumpf eventually, and boy-howdy are they learning it and acting on it.

I think I'm looking for the right things in the wrong places. I'm looking to the people I've never been able to reach, the "popular" kids. I keep thinking that if I get accepted by them, my life will have validation. I'll be happy. 

But I don't think I will. What makes me happy is having a good, long debate over something I'm passionate about. Sitting down with a good book and not getting up until I want to. Spending time with my family and being a goof. Talking about the big picture of life, and the future, and the past. Talking philosophy. Talking religion. Sitting in the dark under a blanket. Watching movies. 

And yes, I do think that going to wild parties would make me happy. I love dancing and feeling the rush that comes with it. I love to laugh and sing along to crazy music. I love being around my friends. But strangers? People I've never spoken to before? People who give me panic attacks when I get put in a room alone with them? Who freeze me to the bone and make me sick to be around? I don't think I would be.