Manliest Music EVER

I apologize for my tardiness. Last week Cdahle called me out for my lack of Manliness in my music and I vowed to make this weeks post the Manliest one ever. Problem is, my music tastes veer sharply to the soft side of the road. Also, I don't have a lot of innate anger or even frustration. But I have plumbed the depths of my musical history and have come up with something I hope Cdhale can be proud of. I know I am.

A little background to begin with. My sophomore year in High School I started dating a girl that I was totally crazy about. She was a little nuts but it's well established how I feel about that and she was smoking hot and a hoot to be around to boot. We dated steadily for most of the year and I was a happy camper. Summer came and she started acting aloof. After a few weeks of that she said she wanted to break up to see other people. I was hurt. But not nearly as hurt as when she decided her first new beau after me would be my brother. Even that wasn't as bad as the first time they came over and started making out in front of me. So I decided to get out of Dodge.

I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle and their 5 kids who lived in a TINY town called David City Nebraska, population 2,485. Yes, that's correct. Keep in mind my previous High School had a student body population of around 3,000. My new school was a K - 12 with about 200 students. The graduating class was a whopping 12. Needless to say they were a close knit group. One day a young man showed up with a herpes outbreak on his face and within a week the entire senior and most of the junior class were enjoying the fruits of their shared encounters. Needless to say, I had very few common interests with my new classmates. And after I turned down their first invitation to "Naked Twister Night" I was shunned completely. And to tell the truth I was actually pretty happy. For the first time in my life I was alone and forced to figure out who I was and what I wanted. Freed from the normal societal constraints I realized I really liked doing things I couldn't do back home for fear of ridicule. Like making beads from old magazine pages. And sewing my own clothes. And taking long walks picking wildflowers. See? Your snickering already. But since everyone in town mocked me to scorn no matter what I did, I just did what I wanted.

Anywho, there I was, a pariah and loving it. I had all kinds of time to do whatever I wanted and was lovin life. Then I had a sit down with a guidance counselor. She told me my 3 years of laziness where catching up to me and I would not graduate on time without going to summer school. That did not sit well. As much as I was enjoying my stay in NE I had NO intention of staying over the next summer. She did have an option for me though. Apparently, the Butler County School District counted almost all Extra Curricular activities as full academic credits. I was promptly enrolled in Drama club, Newspaper, Yearbook, Choir, Mock Trial, Debate, and a bunch of other more obscure ones as well.

My first role in Drama was of Pavel in "I never saw another butterfly". A overly dramatic and pretty depressing story of Jews in Nazi Germany. Anywho, Pavel was an angry young man who wanted to resist the Nazis and was constantly fighting with his Father. My big scene required me to be slapped by Father across the face for yelling at him. We tried a "stage slap" a couple times but it felt to fake to me so I insisted he hit me for reals. It took him a couple times to get into the swing of things but he eventually got the hang of it and started taking some pretty good pops at me. The hardest part for me was getting worked up. I just couldn't get angry enough to make the scene realistic. My teacher told me to think of things that made me mad and that sometimes music helped. So I went out and bought a copy of "Nevermind". And that was exactly what the doctor ordered. Before each performance I would strap on my headphones, pop Nevermind in my Sony and crank it to 11. By the time I got to "Drain you" I was pretty worked up. And after the 12 or so performance I started to really enjoy my time with Curt and the guys. I had a hard time empathizing with him but I certainly appreciated what he had done. To this day, I may not prefer to listen to that type of music, but I recognize the passion and talent it took to make it. Also, I freakin rocked as Pavel. When my Mom came to see the play she left crying, saying it was "too intense". Thanks Curt, you made me angry.