Should I rewind?

I heard the new New Kids On The Block song Summertime last week. Because of work and social constraints I haven't had the time to sit down and give this song the attention it deserves.

Before I go on, I should state for the record that when I was 11/12, NKOTB was the sun that my world revolved around. My bedroom was plastered, from floor to ceiling in photos pulled from teenie-bopper magazines (My sister has a photo that she's holding onto for a prime blackmail opportunity of me sitting in the middle of my shrine, holding a photo of Donnie Whalberg, smiling an embarrassingly large smile at it all). I knew every breath of every song, knew every dance move and had the superlative moment of my 12-year-old life at their concert in Ottawa (which my very kind future blackmailer sister took me to). You know, just like every other girl at that time. :)

I'd like to be too cool for school here and be embarrassed of being part of that collectivist idolatry experience, but I am, in no way, ashamed. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Like Sapphire in Almost Famous said "To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts." While NKOTB was in no way about loving the music, I was still very much in love. Love as a 12-year-old girl understands it.

Now that I've listened to Summertime about 100 times in the last week, I think the new song Summertime is brilliant. Not musically brilliant, but totally market savvy. NKOTB know that their fans have grown up. Many of them married with kids in their early 30s, working hard, lots of responsibility and lots of reality. Putting out a song teeming with nostalgia, set in the most carefree season of the year is very clever.

I know it appeals to me that way. There's a bit of horror in my heart as I've now joined that demographic that can be appealed to through nostalgia, but I'll forgive it. And not to suggest that I long for a different time in my life, cause life keeps getting better as I get older and there's no way I'd go back to adolescence, even if you paid me. But something about the song makes me feel like an ex-boyfriend from way, way back in the day got in touch to say "We weren't meant to be, but it was a great moment in my life." It was summer; it was carefree; it was all about fun.

So to the lads I once adored from Beantown; right back at you, boys! It was a good time and I commend you on coming back in a way that makes it a pleasure to reflect on the past without tainting those oh so precious memories. While thinking of those days doesn't make me crazy per say, it does give me an embarrassingly large smile.

HRH

Fond memories

It seems there's a kind of closure on the whole HNIC theme song situation. CTV has purchased the perpetual rights to the theme. And as a private broadcaster, they have the means to. If the CBC had ponied up $2.5 million for the rights to the song, many a Canadian tax payer would have their hands up in ire. I mean there are a LOT of things that the CBC pays $2.5 million for that I raise an eyebrow at, but I digress. Maybe that amount isn't outlandish, but that's the argument I'm using to help keep my chin up about it all.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad the song will live on. I'm glad that the composer is being well paid for a song that left an indelible mark on the country. I just feel like it has a little less magic to it now. As Graeme said so well, HNIC was the whole package. The theme was part of the format that everyone under 40 grew up with. It was part of what made the experience of crawling out of hibernation in the dead of winter to watch the Leaf's get smoked (even though you always hoped they'd prevail) with your friends. I think everyone has had moment where they've sung along to it or perhaps done a little dancing in their seat. And yes, we can still do that... just not on Saturdays. Just without Ron and Don. Without the cheesy HNIC logo. Without my favourite part "Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland". The part that speaks to the history of HNIC and the CBC. Two legacies in a young country generally short on legacies.

I kind of feel like I felt when I found out that Santa wasn't real. Christmas was still fun, I still got to make cookies, get presents and decorate the tree, but the magic was gone. I still celebtrate Christmas to this day, just like I'll still watch hockey. But in both cases, there is, and will be, a tiny part of my heart that will ache for what was.

HRH

I think it's what I want to be.

The muppets were recently reintroduced into my world and it made me think of days of yore. Like the yore of when I watched the muppets as a child and would sing along to muppets songs while my mother played them on the piano. There was a point where I would sing this song every single day. Bless my mother for her patience.



The muppets also got me thinking of the yore of when I worked with the other person out there who, like me, is the embodiment of two muppets: Beaker and Kermit. And I miss her so much.

It's not easy being green.



HRH