Filed under: Uncategorized
“Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.”
Mel Brooks put these words together and I cannot think of a better way to summarize what I’ve been up to these past couple of weeks. Flapping, not in a floundering and confused flurry, but on an average of 6 hours of sleep in order to squeeze every last moment out of the summer.
Last weekend I put on my first punk-rock show in 8 years. It was an anxious and exciting experience. Leading up to the show, I was unsure what kind of madness was going to ensue. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, the band I booked from Toronto are known to have quite intense fans; Hardcore Kids that get on on sending feet and fists into the crowd. A dance that I don’t really buy into, but as long as no one gets hurt or nothing gets trashed I could really care less about judging. If kids are getting off and rocking out, I know I’ve done my job. The show sold out, the kids freaked out and (almost) everyone went home stoked. It was pretty glorious. (props to the communal camera for the photos)
Last week I also aquired the new Bad Religion. A band I’ve always looked up to, not because they’ve gotten me through many a snowboard sesh, but because I’ve always appreciated the lyrical stylings of their singer-man, Dr. Greg Graffin. Yup, dude’s got a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology. I’m such a fan that I’ve even read his dissertaion “Evolution, Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist World View”. I’m pretty sure I understood about 3/8ths of it, so I guess it pays to have a B.Sc. (HA! Did I say pays?) Anyways, back to BR. They put an album out about 15 years ago that pretty much changed my life the moment I heard it. The album was called against the grain and the lyrics questioned the role of the church vis a vis global conflicts, the effect our species has on the planet and modernity. That album was my Bible (irony?). For real and the bar was set high for my 15 year old self. Questioning my role as a steward of the planet preluded nearly every decision I would make thereafter.
So now to my job. I am employed by my City as a recreation technition for the next six weeks. Sounds fancy huh? Does it imply images of me spending my days skateboarding and playing cards with youth in the 30 degree heat? Thought not. But that’s what I’m doing to get paid these days and I couldn’t be having more fun. My kids are very culturally diverse. Actually, they refer to eachother by their nationalities so it’s kinda funny to hear them yelling “out of the way Cuba”, or “hey Chinese, let’s go get a drink”. A couple interesting things have happened too. A girl came to the park the other day and cut the head of a Teddy Bear that belonged to her (12 year old) ex-boyfriend. Then today, some kid totally lost it and I had to try to convince him not to whack any of the kids with a stump, then a bike lock, then a rock. Good kid too. He likes making treehouses and watching Borat when he’s not making drama for me to deal with. Anyways, I’m having more fun with this job than I think I’ve ever had on the clock. It totally paid to not spend my summer in the dead-end soul-sucking labour industry.
