As I was laying in bed yesterday, being super productive around 3:30 in the afternoon, I came across Randy Johnson’s mullet on ESPN Classic. Normally, I never watch this channel because HD TV is now a thing and the grainy, old footage doesn’t grab my interest. Yes, I am tough talking a television channel. Plus, its usually old NBA games, 1970’s bowling championships or sad stories about people I do not know. Moving on… I’m very selective with which baseball games I will watch because there is a certain cutoff of players names that I know and have followed in the past. Pretty much, if I see an umpire with a shield, any game involving the Oakland A’s, players with uncomfortably tight baseball pants or this guy, I am not sticking around. In this instance, I was intrigued, not just by Randy Johnson’s total disregard for personal appearance, but for the fact that the Yankees were going down in this replay of the 1995 Divisional Series. Secretly (now not so much), I felt compelled to watch this game to get eerily closer to the Braves’ championship team of ’95, because I am a sick, sick man/fan (manfan?).
OK, so the reason for this post hasn’t even been brought up yet, just setting the scene, don’t you give up on me! As the game was coming back from commercial, the Big Unit was throwing some warm up pitches to the sound of a familiarly hilarious song. I would be lying if I told you that I knew the title/artist responsible for this at the time of this game (or even now…googling), but upon hearing the chorus for a brief moment, my mind was instantly thrown to the scene of a house party with green beer and the absence of Gold Slick Vodka. To not keep my countless readers in more suspense than necessary, the song was of course I’m Your Boogie Man by KC & The Sunshine Band.
On the surface, this post makes no sense (that will happen), but this leads to the point that movies have had such a profound effect on me personally and socially, that I feel it has to be brought up (awkwardly, of course). I realize that I am not unique with that statement because in some conversations with people, movie lines are what keep us from asking “what are you doing tonight?” for the eighth time in four minutes. Just the other day in class, my friend was trying to explain to the professor that his homework was “in the computer,” and thank god other people got it so I didn’t look as ridiculous as I could have, being a 24 year old male, giggling uncontrollably during Accounting. Over the years, I have realized that it is not just movie lines that stick anymore, its the songs that are playing during certain scenes. Whether it is an incredibly moving scene in Friday Night Lights, with Explosions in the Sky’s ‘You’re Hand in Mine’ playing or the insightful lyrics of Savage’s ‘Let Me See Your Hips Swing,’ from Knocked Up, each scene flashes before me whenever I hear these songs outside of the movies. I like to think that this is not a problem worth looking into, but more of something that we should celebrate. Either way, my job from here on out is to convince you to think like me, in turn hammering these songs into your heads until you picture these scenes…or me. You decide which is worse…