I have approximately 4 drafts started for blogs that I was going to finish up for today, but a quick glimpse at an article on MSN got me to thinking about something else.
There are many factors in the world that make life hard. You have sickness and death everywhere, the chances of making a poor decision are pretty high, and just the feeling of not knowing who you are and what you want to do can be tough. These are all problems that most people face, but I was thinking that the person that had to face that third item the most are the sons of the most beloved actor of our time, Tom Hanks. What do you do to carve a name for yourself? How do you not go for acting/directing/producing even though the path is pretty clearly laid out for you (with the draw back being that it’s a high chance you’ll only be the Tom Hank’s kid)? You have almost all the opportunities in the world open to you. What do you do?
Well I started writing this and thought, “What did they do?” I focused on Colin Hanks (you know…Tom Hank’s son from “Orange County”), but then I actually had to rewrite this because there was a son I didn’t know about, Chet. Well this how he did it. I told you…it’s hard. All the money, all the opportunity, and still in a big damn shadow.
I want to be clear, I’m not making fun of them. It’s an honest question. What do you do when you’re the son of Tom Hanks?
Music of the day by Chet Haze…not my normal cup o tea, but it suits the message.
It’s my white whale. It’s been 14 years in the making. My last chance was 2007 and I’ve been on the hunt for something that I was just a shy too late to experience. It was just out my reach. I just didn’t have enough jingle in my pocket to mingle. No more…I’m ready, prepared, and waiting. Now, let’s take a journey.
A journey back to 1999; when life of computing was on the verge of destruction as it approached Y2K; when Prince was played for weeks straight on the local 97.9 radio station; when a junior in high-school cruised in his ballin’ white 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with burgundy interior, with 2 of the biggest subwoofers $1oo could buy in the trunk. I’m that junior. I’m that balla and I’ve never stopped boomin’…not in my head at least.
Every morning I would pick up a neighborhood freshman on my way to school, pop-in my favorite CD, and on track 2 my favorite song would play. It would sometimes get obnoxious, but I would always come back to it. It asked to be played. During the next months my curiosity and love of this band I knew nothing about grew as I stumbled upon MTV playing an amazing video about a dog and a boombox that rocked my socks off. I just couldn’t get enough. Until my college years started and my musical taste made a pivot. I followed the trend of being untrendy.
In 2007 I returned to my roots with one of favorite jobs of all time, a door guy at a club where my sister was a dj. It was an extremely hard moment in my life emotionally, and some of the most awesome times. My sister and I were not very close and working with the same friends brought us together. It’s one of the best moves I’ve made and I thank Ryan and Jason for taking a chance on a prep kid running the door at their indie club. Sometimes you discover how much harder, better, faster, stronger you are when you’re covered in sweat and dancing your tail off until early in the morning. Especially when your sister drops the music. I wish those times were still around, but I’ll save this for a deeper post. While working one night I heard a slight mention of something that I remembered from my past. I think Vegas was in the conversation and  an awesome show was going on out there. Yeah, that band that boomed in the Cutlass was going to be there, but they’ll make their rounds to other cities. Right? Right?
I missed it. I’ve had to relive it through YouTube. I saw what it was like to be there and watch the music live. That’s not enough. I wanted to be alive too.
I made it a point that a live experience was now a bucket list item. My obsession grew more and more to the point of infesting much of my 2009. It’s attached itself into a weekly habit of constantly keeping a watch out for tours, new albums, or even small appearances in movies. No matter how small their part, they make everything better. I’ve put a watch on SongKick.com. I’ve been saving for a trip. I’m waiting and I’m ready…just give me a hint of a sign.
SXSW ’13 started today. My wife and I were trying everything we could to go, but it would of taken nearly 1/3 of our savings to make it happen and it’s so BIG! There is so much that you feel like you’ll almost miss everything. We decided that it’s not for us this year, but maybe another year. No problem then. Today is just a basic Saturday. Let me just make my weekly search.
Wait…wait…I need to adjust the “Search Tools” to search only the latest in the last month. Ok, it’s working now. Oh hmmm that’s cool.
Wait! What? What’s that? There it is! There it is!!!!!! Samantha! There it is! The words I’ve been waiting for! And they’ve been waiting for me for nearly 4 days and I didn’t know it. The talk of something new. Not based on a movie. Not based on an assumption. But crap your pants proof that something is coming. It’s an article about posters going up all over SXSW. Maybe not exactly “crap your pants”, but pretty damn close. It’s proof! Something is happening! Why am I not at SXSW!!!?
Then I find out about an SNL ad that ran during last weeks episode… I’ve just crapped my pants. Where have I been these last weeks!? Why do my parents who watch SNL every week subconsciously know about this and I don’t. They probably didn’t even see the ad. They probably were looking down at their dogs who just pee everywhere. Don’t waste your ad there. Waste it on me!
I’m so excited. While writing this I put on a YouTube playlist and just let it run. Oh man my hopes are so high, and hate having high hopes. You don’t want to set your heroes up to fail. Nobody wins. This is why I refuse to watch movie trailers. Nothing ruined, no expectations. They’ve blown my expectations out of the water every time. They’re so beloved by so many groups including the groups that hate “main stream” and these guys ran an ad on SNL. They’re last  shows have been seen as some of the best in the world and I just want to be apart of it.
