There are really no words to render the sadness about the earthquake and tsunami victims in south east asia. 44,000 people, dead. Millions more, who on that quiet Saturday had very little to being with, now have far, far less.
So instead of being another bourgeois, priviledged, slightly-rained-on-but-otherwise-safe-and-dry person struggling to find words, I'm going to make this post an homage to something completely and inappropriately different: television and commercialism.
For christmas, Erik got me, amongst 12 or so others, the Polyphonic Spree 2003 release, "The beginning stages of... The Polyphonic Spree." The song, "Light and Day" makes me smile and feel inspired every time I hear it, and I'm going to have to admit that my indie rock sixth sense didn't lead me to this song or this band. Instead, it was an iPod commercial. (And technically, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but as the song came on last night, I immediately thought, "dude! the song! from the commercial! that I always comment on!" Ergo, rampant commercialism gets the credit).
Instead of trying to redeem this indie faux pas, I'm just going to resign myself to television and marketing ruling our generation, and confess other songs and artists that made their way into my heart via commercials. There aren't many, but still. And I can imagine that two thirds of all Nick Drake fans out there hadn't heard of him until, well, you know, so stop looking down your noses at me.
Postscript: I will say that there have been equally (if not more) common moments of happy recognition, followed by "those fuckers! stealing my song" in other commercials. Namely, the Hummer/Mojave3 commercial.
With that, I'm going to go and listen to "Light and Day" over and over again because I like the idea of following the day and reaching for the sun amongst the unfathomable sadness and grief in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment