"this is your time to do what you will do"

stick with me on this for a minute. last night, for reasons I'm still not clear on, I watched five hours of clips from the tv show scrubs, and the comedian tom cavanagh was in several of them. this got me to thinking about his series ed whose theme song was "your life is now" by john mellencamp, which led to my watching a number of mellencamp videos this morning.



I remember when he was john cougar, and to show I am even older, I remember his guest appearance on sctv in the early 80s in which martin short's ed grimley turned into him in a pastiche of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. I didn't care much for his early work until around the time of "pink houses" and "jack and diane." some songs from his scarecrow and lonesome jubilee albums give me goosebumps, as do his later key west-inspired tunes. it's probably that his take on aging--"I'm not that young kid that I used to be so I pushed the hair back outta my face"--is similar to mine.



but this isn't about my enjoyment of mellencamp, or not just about it. the soaring trills of his infusion of underground rock n roll into traditional country and blues melodies thrills me, as does his find in lisa germano, his use of accordian (can anything equal john cascella's and germano's mingled highs in the middle of "check it out"? I don't think so), and even the fact his drummer kenny aronoff looks like someone's painfully unhip dad. what appeals to me even more is the background world of his videos.



mellancamp's vids posit a world in which mixed race couples, same sex couples, and punk and transgressive couples are the norm. these relationships stand out for their assumption--their legitimate assumption--that this is how the world is made up or how a part of it is composed. this is thrilling. it is a reflection of both contemporary inclusiveness and tribal reality. it is both a target to aim for and how some of us live now.