“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again”
This was my pick for this evening and I picked the song itself because I was trying to be cute with the above lyrics and this next theme of “The Dark Days.” I picked this version because the band is called Disturbed, duh.
Larry’s Perspective:
First, a hat-tip to Simon & Garfunkel for such an amazing song.
We're moving into a new theme titled "The Dark Days" and Shannon thought it would be appropriate to kick things off with this song. I'm not sure why she selected it, but for me, I share this perspective.
I was born in 1970 - so I lived the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, 10's and now the 20's. Throughout that entire span of time - which includes my teenage years, the cold war, maturing(?), marriage, children, careers, a fucking global pandemic, etc. and I say this with all sincerity - I have never been as anxious about the state of the world as I am right now. And it's justified. And the terrible thing is, it doesn't have to be this way. So although The Dark Days theme is intended to touch on our past 30 years, I can't side-step the fact it somewhat feels like I am living dark days right now.
These lyrics focus right to the heart of that sentiment:
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
We are drifting too far apart...and when words/diplomacy fail bad things happen. All the vitriol is talking but not speaking; too many people are vomiting words just for the sake of vomiting words.
As I'm typing this one of the very first scenes of the original Red Dawn (CLIP) is playing in my head. The teacher is speaking about Ghengis Khan and how they operated. What popped into my head is the line "they had worked themselves up into a pretty good frenzy". To me that perfectly describes the situation here in the states - people have worked themselves up into a frenzy.
That frenzy then prevents people actually listening; they're just selectively hearing and "waiting for their turn to talk" (Fight Club reference).
Deep breath; reset. Now on with the show...
P.S. Fun fact - Simon & Garfunkel's studio audition of this song is what led to their record deal with Columbia.
P.P.S. Red Dawn was the first film to receive the newly created PG-13 rating. That opening invasion scene will stick with me forever as it shocked me like you would not believe...
30th Anniversary
Our Story - Shannon's Perspective
Our Story - Larry's Perspective
Ghost of a Chance (Rush) and why?
Ghost of a Chance 