In the immortal words of K.C., “I’m worse at what I do best, and for this gift I feel blessed, Our little group has always been, And always will until the end.” He later goes on to say “Here we are now, Entertain us, I feel stupid and contagious, Here we are now, Entertain us, A mulatto, An albino, A mosquito, My burrito, Yea.” I guess what I’m saying is, that means something to me. It means a lot to me. There was a time when I thought it should mean something to the whole world, but that time has passed. You see, I’ve reached an age where for the first time in my life, there’s a new generation of competent, intelligent adults younger than me who have their own anthems of revolution, their own Black Albums, their own Mario Brothers, their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (although I guess they’re coming back, so that doesn’t count). A part of me has always held to the notion that those things that changed my life were somehow the most influential things the world would ever know, and that time would prove them, and thusly my generation to be the last word in social evolution. D’oh. I think what really drove the point home was Ryan Shupe telling me that upon popping his treasured Dave Matthews Band CD into the player, the response elicited from his travel companion was not “righteous” or “sick” or “radical” or even “cool”, but instead “Old School”. Dave? Satellite? Crash? Ants? Say it ain’t so. Which brings me to this: We only change the world by doing one thing that leads to the next. I suppose my whole life has been one small change leading to the next, and I like where I’m at now, so why shouldn’t I view the world the same way? No, things are like they were in 1983 (Is John Mayer still cool?), but that’s OK. 1983 played it’s part, and now it’s time for 2007. I’m here now, and I’m happy and honored to be playing my part. May we all play our parts well, and may they always be funky and cool.
