Here is a great article I ran across while looking for the exact wording of the Lester Bangs quote in my last post. The author took the words right outta my mouf. Bangs was perfect in his ability to just be authentic, something that is inexplicably harder than it seems.
href=”http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/how-lester-bangs-taught-me-to-read.html” title=”Great Lest Bangs Article” target=”_blank”>
Before I was a parent I was both a less patient person and a more patient person. I was less patient with things not being the way I wanted them or had imagined them to be. I was more patient with other people. I’m not sure what happened but pretty much as soon as I brought The Viking Princess, my daughter, home from the hospital I stopped having ANY tolerance for other people’s bullshit.
I think there’s something in the urgency of daily needs when you have kids that allows no time for the decadence/narcissism/martyrdom of anyone else. I just don’t care. I never really did actually but I was able to at least be polite about it. Now not as much.
Maybe it’s an evolutionary adaptation. You need to be able to withstand some pretty gnarly manipulation by your kids so they don’t grow up to be assholes. I can spot instantly when someone is trying to manipulate me, guilt me, or coerce me. In kids it’s part of learning how to deal with other people. In adults it’s embarrassing.
Its actually pretty awesome. Having a family makes you think about and wrestle everyday with what is actually important and necessary. It releases you from caring about stupid things. It excuses you from giving a shit about reality tv, or your acquaintances lame Facebook posts, or what everyone else is doing. It galvanizes what you believe and how you wanna live because you have to impart that to someone else now.
And you know what? Not giving a rats ass about anyone else and being committed to your vision is what rock and roll is, in its very essence.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is an attitude, it’s not a musical form of a strict sort. It’s a way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock ‘n’ roll, or a movie can be rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a way of living your life.”
― Lester Bangs
Well.. I have been caring for two sick snotty and CRANKY toddlers for about a week now. Sometimes as a parent what you think you need when the going gets tough is relaxation. It’s not. What you need is escape. Like total, don’t need to even think about, hear, care about anything escape. Other than drugs and hot sex, the only other way I know how to do this is with music. I know it sounds a little corny but trust me. Get reeeeeaaallly comfortable, turn the light down, and put in those earbuds baby so you can listen to it loud. And listen to the whole album!. Mind blowing, I know. The art of the album has come to be so underestimated. Take it all, drop out.
And so without further ado, some of my best choices for escaping your family:
1. Led Zepplin- Led Zepplin
Let me just say that listening to “dazed and confused” has lent me some psychological stability at times. As sad as that is…
2. Blunderbuss- jack white
This is a great album for when you are feeling frustrated and beat down but know there’s hope. And it rocks of course.
3. Nirvana – unplugged
Ok ya got me. I’m a 90s kid. It’s still a great album to listen to with your eyes closed.
4. Blue- Joni Mitchell
If you wanna squeeze out some quiet tears and pretend you’re a poet too, then this is it. Again, a beautiful album – even Zepplin loved it.
5. Trout mask replica- Capt. Beefheart
Let me be clear- this will take you somewhere else for sure. I know I am weird.
So that’s a few to start with.
What do you guys escape with musically, I wanna know.
I don’t know about you but there are days where I feel like my kids have maybe finally broken me. Like I could not be more beat down than I am at that moment. This moment typically comes as a one year old is hanging on my leg crying while I am cooking and the three year old is writhing on the floor screaming for juice while a diaper containing something unholy languishes on the sofa cause I’ve been too busy for 2 1/2 hours to properly dispose of it. The thought about being broken follows the thought about the possibility of the dog eating the unholy diaper, which in fact sort of adds to it.
Anyway- I thought it might help to imagine what some of these parents might do in that situation- or how they would manage to avoid it. Really I just want to look as cool as they do while watching my dog eat that diaper. So-
COOL ROCK PARENTS:
I love you Robert Plant.
I am not the hugest beatles fan but Paul McCartney and his bebe are damn cute.
Yeah you know it. Frank Zappa and the Moonunit.
So I realized that I have been secretly wanting a worn in cut up trashy logo shirt like the ones in the “savvy” department at Nordstroms. Here’s the thing though, there is no f*ing way I’m payin $80.00 for one AND looking like a poseur cause its obviously the smanshy version. BUUUUT… It would look awesome with the free people superflares I just got. So I found this hack and some killer old tshirts ay st Vincent de Paul and its all happening.
..
how rad is that ok.? Well maybe not tat it’s a damn cheer leading shirt with glitter on it but picture it with a worout black skull tshirt ( I scored!) or perfectly worn in weirdo thrift store shirt. Throw that baby on with some jeans boots and crazy hair and I call it rockinrollmama.
Also here’s a cool trick for those lame thick newish shirts that have a great image
Where to begin…? Well Im Stacy. I stay home with my two little kids, I like classic rock, gardening, swearing, good food, thrifting and not a whole lot else. Well, that’s not entirely true. But I am a malcontent trying to raise two thoughtful but contented children- and have a pretty good time.
This is my blog.
To me rock n roll is about doing things the way you think they should be done, never mind if its popular. Rock n Roll is not about crafting an existence to show others but about having genuine experiences and style to make life what you want it to be. Rock n Roll is using what you’ve got to wring every last drop of awesomeness out of life.
So I say to you… ROCK ON.
Rock and Roll Parenting 