Talking Sweet About Nothing

Does anybody remember Dr Pepper Gum? It was one of those liquid-filled gums in the '80s. It was purple with Dr. Pepper syrup in the center. Man, that stuff was good.

Speaking of the Doc, the battle is back on over at Dr Pepper I Love You. Chelsea won't even know what hit her.

This is a fascinating 15 minute video that traces the history of break beats, particularly the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a 1969 single by The Winstons. It looks at its use in early hip hop and as the foundation for several dance/techno subcultures, also touching upon the current attitude towards the ownership of culture and art.

Can I Get An Amen? (Click to open in a new window)

It's really quite brilliant, and I highly recommend you taking a look at it when you have the time and bandwidth to spare.

You can't being to imagine my sadness. I couldn't tell you how many times I've gone there, and each time I discovered new details that made it that much more amazing. One of my favorite things to do was to take new friends there. I loved to talk about the history, the urban legends; sorting out fact from fiction.

Yesterday I spent the day with Katie. We parked by the river. She knew where we were going, but not what to look for or expect. Walking up the staircase, I got the same mix of chills and adrenaline that I had each time before. Now try to imagine what was going on in my mind as we walked up the hill and couldn't see anything through the trees except for blue sky. "It's not there." That's all I could say. Where does a massive red brick building disappear to? Before we went any further, I already knew what had happened. We continued up the final staircase, where one would previously emerge right below the main entrance to the building. At this point, we still couldn't see anything. The entire hill top was empty. As we walked the small paved road around to the right and came up to the top of the hill we could see the bricks. A footprint of the entire building made of red brick and concrete rubble. The main structure, the garage, the greenhouse; all of it now leveled.

I knew it would happen someday. I knew that eventually, somehow, I would meet Bruce Springsteen. Well, it finally happened last night. Who cares that it was only in a dream? It sure felt real, and it affected me nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I don't remember quite as many details of the dream as I usually do (or at least ones that I'd share in this public forum). I'm not exactly sure where we were. I know we met outside and then went over to his house. We never talked about his songs, or music in general. We talked about life and girls. It was actually more like hanging out with a character from a Springsteen song than with the man himself...a character from The River or Born to Run. One of those idealized, romantic, rock and roll characters that's caught up in love or struggling to find his way.

It reminded me of that scene in High Fidelity (the film) when Rob is deciding to seek out the rest of his Big Top 5 List..."Just see 'em and talk to 'em. You know, like a Bruce Springsteen song." I love that he uses an imagined Bruce to justify his thoughts and his actions. "Good luck, Goodbye. Thanks, Boss."

Post Script
So my interpretation of this is that I've adopted Bruce as my conscience...my own Jiminy Cricket speaking to me what I already know to be true, but need to hear from another perspective.

Post Post Script
I talked to my mom, the psychologist, about this and she seems to think that it's not a conscience, it's my "higher self." Yeah, she said that. Her differentiation is that a conscience only talks to you as you as you're making choices or afterwards. Your higher self helps to raise awareness of things to come. It's a more forward-thinking facet of your mind. I kind of like the idea that Springsteen embodies my higher self.