Hanging in the Goondocks

I freely admit that getting older is really starting to hit me. Not from a mortality stand point or anything like that, yet, but more from a realization that some of my memories happened a very long time ago. I'm getting to the point that I accept this as a fact of life but it's still strange. We have Sirius-XM in our cars and sometimes I listen to Lithium which is 90's and early 00's alternative. Most of what they play is the soundtrack to my high school and college years. Listening to these songs on the radio again brings forth a severe sense of nostalgia in me and sometimes I love it while sometimes it gets kind of scary.

When I hear Green Day's Basket Case or Longview, Dave Matthews Band's Satellite or Ants Marching, Our Lady Peace's Starseed, or even freaking Lisa Loeb's Stay, I go straight back to 1994-95 driving to Showboat practice at Captain Shreve High School because those were the tapes and cd's that I played incessantly back then. This isn't just a fond memory, I literally feel the spring air blowing through the windows of my little five speed Honda Civic driving down East Kings Highway. Really weird sensation but cool none-the-less. I've found myself actively seeking out a lot of that music that sort of faded into obscurity, or were one-hit-wonders. I miss bands like Trippin' Daisy and the Toadies; Caroline Spine and Sponge; Seven Mary Three and Candlebox; Gin Blossoms and Toad The Wet Sprocket; the Wallflowers and Sublime; Silverchair and Smashing Pumpkins; etc. A lot of these bands are still around in one incarnation or another but man when you see them they look OLD. That's when it hits me a little bit because when I liked them, they were a lot younger than me. I'm not too far away from that whole middle age thing and its trippy. I really don't know if any of this is even making sense, this is sort of a mental vomit session.

The impetus behind this little diddy springs straight out of my nerdy side. I have the testicular fortitude to admit that Cinemagic, the movie soundtrack station is one of my presets on the Sirius-XM dial. I listen to it sometimes when Alt Nation is playing too much Silversun Pickup and Lithium spins a little too much Big Audio Dynamite and Jesus Jones. I hit a trifecta of 80's classic movie scores and they just really took me back in an outstandingly positive way. First up was the Goonies. Several cues were played and one second I was taking a leak in a cave in "The Men's Room," then I was Data being saved by the pinchers of power and then I was using a dagger to slide down the sail of One Eyed Willie's ship. You really start to realize how much these movies meant to our childhood and how much we watched them when just listening to the soundtrack immediately transports you to specific scenes.

The exact same thing happened with the Karate Kid. They played the finale music from the All Valley Tournament and I could picture Daniel Laruso in the Crane form kicking Johnny in the face and everyone going crazy. Even without the picture there, I still got the same exhilaration as I did watching it as a six year old. Movies don't do that anymore and it's a shame. Too many special effects and not enough Crane kicks to the face

Back to the Future was up next and the themes from that movie are just cool. Flux Capacitors, DeLoreans, life jackets, and Crispen Glover start showing up in your head when you hear that trumpet. I really wish I could articulate this better but it's just not meant to be. I didn't get emotional or anything listening to this stuff but man did it make me happy. I highly recommend checking the station out. Sometimes you get a real gem on there that will take you back to your childhood. I should admit that Hoosiers came on too and while that movie is, in my opinion, one of the greatest sports movies ever, there is just too much synthesizer stuff going on. But I digress.