Thursday, October 21, 2004
none of this is real
Isn't it odd how music triggers memory? Like when I hear Metallica, Alice in Chains or Jane's Addiction I can't help but think of high school. Maybe that's why I don't listen to them anymore.
Recently I stumbled upon an CD of mine by Infected Mushroom with a song called "None Of This Is Real" (sample can be heard here). Infected Mushroom is basically a couple of guys in Israel with some keyboards and sampling equipment. I hadn't listened to the song in a while, but I was instantly returned to September 11, 2001. It seems that I had been listening to these guys quite a bit at the time. Only now do I realize that this song just happens to be a perfect soundtrack to the feelings I get when I remember this tragedy. The song's only words are a sampled voice frantically saying, "This isn't real...none of this is real." I've never been able to accurately describe music in words (Maybe that's why I work at a mortgage company, and not Rolling Stone), but the two words that come to mind every time I hear this song are "haunting" and "beautiful." Haunting, just like the pit we all had in our stomachs upon hearing of the evil that hit our world that day. Beautiful, like the acts of the rescue workers who sacrificed their own lives for the sake of others, and the way Americans (even Democrats and Republicans!) united under a common mission. And the words: "This isn't real." How many of us felt like the whole thing was just a bad dream, and that we would soon wake up and things would be back to normal? How perfect...
I know that after 9/11 happened we Americans vowed "We will never forget." But I think many of us have forgotten. The country is as divided as ever. We seem more concerned with getting to the "truth" about George W. Bush's National Guard service in 1972 than locating Osama Bin Laden and bringing him to justice. The memory of hearing hundreds of members of Congress on the Capitol steps sing "God Bless America" has been supplanted by news of lawsuits to remove "One Nation, Under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. The day we listened to President Bush pledge to fight terrorism, as tears welled up in our eyes, is a distant memory. I have my own personal reminder in my CD player, and, much like the event itself, it is both haunting and beautiful.
¶ monger187 wrote this on 10/21/2004
Recently I stumbled upon an CD of mine by Infected Mushroom with a song called "None Of This Is Real" (sample can be heard here). Infected Mushroom is basically a couple of guys in Israel with some keyboards and sampling equipment. I hadn't listened to the song in a while, but I was instantly returned to September 11, 2001. It seems that I had been listening to these guys quite a bit at the time. Only now do I realize that this song just happens to be a perfect soundtrack to the feelings I get when I remember this tragedy. The song's only words are a sampled voice frantically saying, "This isn't real...none of this is real." I've never been able to accurately describe music in words (Maybe that's why I work at a mortgage company, and not Rolling Stone), but the two words that come to mind every time I hear this song are "haunting" and "beautiful." Haunting, just like the pit we all had in our stomachs upon hearing of the evil that hit our world that day. Beautiful, like the acts of the rescue workers who sacrificed their own lives for the sake of others, and the way Americans (even Democrats and Republicans!) united under a common mission. And the words: "This isn't real." How many of us felt like the whole thing was just a bad dream, and that we would soon wake up and things would be back to normal? How perfect...
I know that after 9/11 happened we Americans vowed "We will never forget." But I think many of us have forgotten. The country is as divided as ever. We seem more concerned with getting to the "truth" about George W. Bush's National Guard service in 1972 than locating Osama Bin Laden and bringing him to justice. The memory of hearing hundreds of members of Congress on the Capitol steps sing "God Bless America" has been supplanted by news of lawsuits to remove "One Nation, Under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. The day we listened to President Bush pledge to fight terrorism, as tears welled up in our eyes, is a distant memory. I have my own personal reminder in my CD player, and, much like the event itself, it is both haunting and beautiful.
¶ monger187 wrote this on 10/21/2004
