January 8, 2013

1. I think this week’s TIME magazine cover is remarkable: “40 YEARS AGO, ABORTION –RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WON AN EPIC VICTORY WITH ROE V. WADE… THEY’VE BEEN LOSING EVER SINCE.”

2. I think Pink, more than any other artist today, captures the essence of what lies inside the hearts of teenage girls. Let me explain.

            My opinion is based upon reading the most intimate thoughts of high school seniors and college freshmen–as expressed in their spiritual autobiographies and reflection papers for the past 12 years. Reading how some of these of these girls saw themselves, and reading about their wounds, makes you feel for them profoundly.

            As for Pink, here is a warning: warning: she can at times be profane and crude. Still, she is speaking to these girls. Her songs express their battles with low self-esteem, eating disorders, and reveal the pain they feel in their hearts. Here are some examples of her lyrics from a song her recording company cleaned up for radio:

You're so mean when you talk

About yourself, you are wrong

Change the voices in your head

Make them like you instead

Done looking for the critics 'cause they're everywhere

They don't like my genes, they don't get my hair

Strange ourselves and we do it all the time

Why do we do that? Why do I do that? Why do I do that?

Ooh, pretty, pretty, pretty

Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel

Like you're less than, less than perfect

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel

Like you're nothing, you are perfect to me

You are perfect to me

            Everything is spiritual. I hope Pink can someday know the Lord.

3. Last week, I was drinking coffee in a Dallas Half Price bookstore when a funky song came on that haunted me. It must have been stuck in my subconscious mind. Fortunately, I pulled my handy iPhone out, which I stuck next to the speaker. The app identified the song as “Time to Pretend.” The group MGMT released it in 2008.

            The song is a masterpiece in that it critiques the 1960s psychedelic drug culture. The band performed the song on Letterman in 2008, ending it with a riff from Jim Morrison's “Light My Fire.” There was a reason for this. No one epitomized the decadent lifestyle of the sixties more than the Doors’ lead singer, Jim Morrison. Listen to these lyrics:

This is our decision, to live fast and die young.

We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.

Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do.

Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute.

Forget about our mothers and our friends

We're fated to pretend…

I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms

I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world

I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home

Yeah, I'll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone.

There's really nothing, nothing we can do

Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew.

The models will have children, we'll get a divorce

We'll find some more models, everything must run it's course.

We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end

We were fated to pretend

To pretend

We're fated to pretend

            You may know that Jim Morrison traveled to Paris, dated models, shot up drugs, and died in a hotel bathtub in 1971, choking on his own vomit, after injecting himself with heroin. He was 27.

            If you care about these things, Rolling Stone lists the song as number 493 of their 500 greatest songs of all time.

            The video of the song is on YouTube. The one crude word in the song is silenced. Remember these are young rockers, they are not Christians. That is what makes the song’s critique so compelling to me. Incidentally, if you watch the video, you will see psychedelic artwork that evokes memories of the sixties. What I like, though, is their reference to the classic novel “Lord of the Flies”—probably a fitting symbol of the sixties. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/MGMTVEVO

4. I'm sticking with my preseason prediction of Houston and San Francisco facing each other in the Super Bowl. However, I must admit my confidence is lagging. I'm also the guy who predicted halfway through the season that Dallas would make the playoffs and play well. Obviously, I was wrong there. Having said that, I thought the Cowboys played amazingly during the stretch drive. They had a terrible toll of injuries, and in spite of this Tony Romo was magnificent—interceptions against Washington notwithstanding. Wait until next year!

5. Alabama, you have my respect. Especially, you, Nick Saban.

*Thanks to Peter King for the inspiration for this title.