Since Prince Was On Appalonia

Everyone I know and love is either dying or dead.

First it was Tim Russert. And he died, and the world said, "what's this?" I heard the news about Russert's death on the news as almost an offhand remark. My mom and I were driving home, and the reporter on KRCL said, with an announcement of the time, that the host of Meet the Press had died of heart trouble.

While I will admit that I really had no connection to Tim Russert besides seeing him once in a Newsweek magazine, and consequently naming a Sim after him, I can say that George Carlin's death was one that really hit me.

I encountered George Carlin because his specials were always on HBO late at night, when I was up and looking for a chuckle. I liked him. And ironically, I'd never even seen his oh-so-famed piece, "Seven Words You Can't Say On Television." I'd seen other gems that made me wish this old chimpanzee man would come to town. He did, and I didn't go, because I just... I just didn't.

I'm in the mood to switch gears. My friend Mitch and I were talking about punk rock and how it gave us what we listen to now. Punk is dead. But punk honestly did something to the world. It was a big swill of alcohol that came over the wounds, and washed away all the junk that had built up. The wars, the psychedelia, punk came and brought this waving middle finger that really taught people how to say, "fuck you, I'm making this music because it's my music, and there's nothing you can do about it."

It was really what came after punk that began to ruin it. Kids taking punk's theory to mean that anarchy was a good idea, or that nobody was right. Punk taught us the lesson of rebellion, but it quickly became abused. Almost like, in a way, kicking a dead horse.

Punk is dead because there's nothing to protest nowadays. We live in a world where an American president can be hated by 75% of the country, and nobody is punished for hating him. We live in a world where the American people can look at a war we initiated, and say, "that was a mistake, and we need to stop it." Nobody wants to be a modern punk. Everybody wants to be the originator of something, some little thing that you can hold onto and say, "I made that."

I think memory should be enough of a little thing you created. I think memory is enough.