"The truly ‘mysterious' object is beyond our apprehension... not only because our knowledge has certain irremovable
limits, but because in it we come upon something inherently ‘wholly other'... and before which we
therefore recoil in a wonder that strikes us chill and numb." - Rudolph Otto
Title: The Robots In My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock Artist: Softlightes Director: Ron Fountenberry (also the lead singer)
Say no! to being cool. Say yes to being happy. It sounds like a pretty good plan, or like a pretty good album title. In fact it's the title of the latest album from Softlightes, which is the home of one of my top songs from the past three months: "The Robots in My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock." Although I've been listening to the song for a while now, I hadn't seen the video until recently. It's a pretty basic video, but I think the absurdity of the song, the frivolousness of the title, and the cool-refusing ethos all work to live up to the title of the album.
I was recently at a camp in Minnesota visiting some friends who are working there. The camp was full of about 300 high school kids for the week (and almost every other week this summer). The friends of mine who I was visiting were doing a lot of the upfront skit/humor/entertainment stuff. They did some pretty interesting things, things that at some point might have seemed to be over high school kids' heads. Yet, as absurd as some of the characters were (a Leprechaun who smashes together boxes of Mike & Ikes and Lemonheads and calls it a "Candy War", lovable Italians in short shorts who speak with such broken English that a world of misunderstandings occurs) I wondered if it wasn't over EVERYONE'S head.
In watching the hilarious absurdity at camp this week and watching the Softlightes video, however, I wonder if absurdity isn't exactly the thing we need to help us "say no! to being cool." Seeing how the high school kids at camp responded to and enjoyed the absurdity and knowing how fast the strangest youtube videos catch on I'm beginning to think that what people want isn't more cool (sorry Maroon 5 and Hollister). Maybe people want someone willing to step out in wonderfully creative absurdity. Maybe this gives others a chance to step out of the culture of cool and have a place where they can simply exist and be accepted.
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