Wake Me Up When September Ends

[Beefy]

I LOVE LAMP

[Alice]

I LOVE LAMPY

[Gamplayerx]

I LOVE GAMP

Awww.  I lubs you too, Beefy!

[Jessie]

Nobody listens to me, or you'd all be saying how amazing that video is.

[BigDun]

Hey! Am I nobody now?

[Beefy]

Nobody listens to me, or you'd all be saying how amazing that video is.

I tried to watch it, but MTV made Firefox cry.

[Jessie]

Hey! Am I nobody now?

You're so far above them that I didn't include you.

[Alice]

Sorry, I was going to watch it but then I got distracted by your bedroom eyes and superb discourse.

[Jessie]

Damn it, I forgot to take out my bedroom eyes and put in my work eyes again this morning.

[ignom]

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1617638

[BigDun]

Of the TFers who responded to that thread, I recognized SMH and Norb.

[ignom]

I submitted that thread. Jessie made me watch the video, and now I need closure, dammit.

[Beefy]

Okay, I just watched it.

Jessie, I love ya, but due to the subject matter I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

First of all, as much as I like Green Day, that song cannot hold the weight of the sentiment that the video is trying to convey.  If there is one thing Green Day is not about, it's depth.  Oh my God, let's set the first scene in a corn field, since that's what rural America is all about!  There are plenty of real scenarios that carry emotional and dramatic weight concerning war and the choice of enlisting.  Slo-mo shots and weepy teenagers do not inherently make something deep.

Second, the acting is pedestrian.  Whiny white teenagers.  Boo-hoo.  Give me a reason to care besides some generic white kids having angst.  Why the hell did he enlist in the first place, other than to over-emote "I thought you would understand, I'm doing this for us"? 

It sort of pisses me off that this the best grandiose social statement that can be made about something that deserves real consideration right now.  It's like the only way the youth generation can grasp important ideas is by dumbing it down to an intolerable degree.  I find it insulting to the folks who have actually had to make the choice.

I hope that dude gets shot in his peener and can never procreate.  And I hope a piano, strapped to a Buick and lit on fire, falls out of the sky and flattens his girlfriend.

Then maybe we can find a worthy way of addressing this topic.

My best wishes to the real folks overseas, who deserve better representation.

[Jessie]

I guess that for me, it hits rather close to home.  The, 'I thought you'd understand, I did this for us' sentiment makes perfect sense to me, as that's why my brother enlisted.  He enlisted to do something with his faltering life so that he and his girlfriend could have more of a future.

What I got out of it in the video was that he did it to have a chance at something more than what was offered in their rural town.  Maybe I read too much into it.  I don't know. 

As far as making a statement about what's going on right now...I don't know.  I know that Green Day is anti-war and anti-Bush and all that, and I'm sure you all know that I am, too.  However, I didn't see anything that was necessarily saying the war was wrong, but rather it seemed to give a glimpse of the reality of war.  I think that we tend to forget just how brutal it is over there.  We hear every day about soldiers dying, and we barely blink at it, because it's become so commonplace.  Of course I'm using broad generalizations here, and this isn't true for everyone. 

I won't even get into the BS recruiting practices that go on to get kids to enlist.

Anyway, I like the mini-movie style of video, and I liked this one.

[Beefy]

I figured why the video probably spoke to you, but I can't help but think that the weight you found came from what is in your own heart and mind, not what was actually displayed on screen.

And no, I didn't see a statement pro or anti war either.  I thought they were trying to make a statement about sacrifice.  But as presented, I found it empty and wrongheaded.

Regardless, my own reaction and reply to the video fell prey to the same problems that I had with the video itself.

So disregard.

[Jessie]

I refuse to disregard!

That's my protest for the day.

And I'm spent.

[ignom]

I need closure!!!

[Beefy]

[ignom]

So you're saying somebody dies during a rainstorm at the wedding?

[Jessie]

Ok, there are exceptions to every rule.

[Beefy]

So you're saying somebody dies during a rainstorm at the wedding?

No, I'm saying that before the dude has a chance to come home to his teenage paramour, Axl is going to sweep in and marry her.  Then, he'll beat the shit out of her, she'll divorce him, and she'll take half his shit.

[Jessie]

Someone has to drive a car off a cliff.