A bed in the Morning

Sad nostalgia for those of us totally boned from our anticipation of a Weezer Three Peat and the next chapter of Star Wars.

The year was 1999, I think I was 18.  I knew basically two things.  I really loved Weezer and Star Wars.  I was raised in the 80’s as most of you probably weren’t.  Star Wars were the movies for us.  But just like the best girlfriend of your life that left you holding the bag at a young age.  So exactly in the same vein were we totally let down and broken hearted when we received two the most anticipated projects of our lives.  

It was a new dawn because.  You really had to be delirious and broken hearted already to really enjoy Weezer.  Pinkerton was a revelation for us.  Finally the downtrodden nerdy guy was getting his just desserts.  In the world of being let down by women so often that album truly spoke in volumes to us.  It gave us a sense of hope amidst never ending up with the girl you truly wanted because Rivers who seemingly had it all was just like you.  Upon first listening of Pinkerton I was totally confused.  I thought the album was kinda strange.  Too jarring.  Not soft and melodic.  I was so upset.  Then slowly but surely, “Tired of Sex” and “Why Bother” kept hanging around the ol’ memory locker.  I’d return to those songs time and again and realized.  Wow, this is some powerful songwriting and incredible music.    Years later the Green Album surfaced.  I don’t know what it is.  Sometimes I feel like the songs are great and others I’m like “The fuck happened here?”  So it’s a mixture of emotions.  But as time told later.  The songs didn’t necessarily grow with you the way Pinkerton did.  Didn’t last.  Those melodies just came and went out the door.  And Weezer was totally dead for me.

Where Star Wars is concerned, that was more a historic event.  I waited in line on two separate occasions, first to receive tickets and then to see the movie.  We were seeing it in the childhood roaming grounds of Lucas himself.  Interviewed by the local news and stealing a giant banner announcing Episode 1 from a nearby Taco Bell.  These were some magical times of my youth.  I had the world in my hands and I only cared about finding out how Anakin became Vader and the true meaning behind the song Butterfly.   You all know the outcome of course.  Those two romances were dashed against the rocks on the beach of my brain.  I felt castrated and totally left at the station wondering.  Was it just me?  Did I alone see the same movie everyone else did?  I guess Lucas’ whole career was a fluke.  Cause surely that can’t be the same genius who gave us Boba Fett and Yoda.

Both these earth shattering events left me broken and defeated.  I truly learned that everyone is infallible.  And true inspired creative magic is fleeting.  It’s truly a sad lesson not everyone should learn in that way.  If you do, you both grow and die all at the same time.  

I hope there’s a ton of you who can relate.  I’m sure you can.