In 1984, when I thought I was cool, I went away to college. My roommate and I bought two huge white sheets from Kmart, we grafitti'd them in neon-colored spray paint, and hung the sheets across our dorm walls.
Soon after, my mother -- my poor, poor I-got-married-in-a-field-in-front-of-a-peace-sign mother -- came to our room, took one look at our orange and green florescent graffiti, and asked me, "Honey! Is your roommate PUNK!?"
She was so excited for me. I think if anything, my roommate was sort of fashionably new wave. But whatever.
(Can I digress for a minute further regarding those sheets? Cause they were rockin'. When people came to our room, we made them write something on the sheets, or alternatively, they had to tape a memento up there: bar napkins, matches, old toothpaste tubes, senior pictures. Really, that was one cool decorating-on-a-budget idea. When Marvin Gardens comes home tonight I'll see if I can scan my dorm room picture to this blog.)
Anyway. This weekend Marvin Gardens joined a Clash cover band. For those of you who don't know -- like for example my mother -- The Clash were an English rock band active from 1976 to 1986. They were one of the most successful and iconic bands from the original wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. (I didn't just cut and paste that from Wikipedia or anything.)
Marvin Gardens getting a call from this cover band is very exciting. (Oh, and for my mother, a cover band is a band that doesn't play original music, rather they COVER -- get it? -- another band's songs.) It would only have been more exciting had he gotten a call from the actual Clash to be in their band, which I don't think is possible cause one of the members is dead.
So, now Marvin, who will be the bass player in said Clash cover band, is going around insisting that he needs new clothes. Clothes that look like whatever the bass player in The Clash looked like.
Now, seriously, does that sound very punk rock to you? Did Sid Vicious head out to Fred Segal for a new wardrobe when he started his band? No! He just put a safety pin in his nose, a needle in his arm, and headed out the door. New clothes seem like the LEAST punk reaction one could have to being asked to be in a punk rock band.
In response to my "you can't shop" command, Marvin G is going around the house with his hair spiked up, wearing polo shirts with the sleeves cut off and the collar turned up. He looks -- and I mean this in the most supportive way -- like a complete tool.
Should he stay or should he go (shopping) now? If he goes there will be trouble. If he stays with his turned-up collar there will be double.
(Yes, mother, those are words to a Clash song.)
Soon after, my mother -- my poor, poor I-got-married-in-a-field-in-front-of-a-peace-sign mother -- came to our room, took one look at our orange and green florescent graffiti, and asked me, "Honey! Is your roommate PUNK!?"
She was so excited for me. I think if anything, my roommate was sort of fashionably new wave. But whatever.
(Can I digress for a minute further regarding those sheets? Cause they were rockin'. When people came to our room, we made them write something on the sheets, or alternatively, they had to tape a memento up there: bar napkins, matches, old toothpaste tubes, senior pictures. Really, that was one cool decorating-on-a-budget idea. When Marvin Gardens comes home tonight I'll see if I can scan my dorm room picture to this blog.)
Anyway. This weekend Marvin Gardens joined a Clash cover band. For those of you who don't know -- like for example my mother -- The Clash were an English rock band active from 1976 to 1986. They were one of the most successful and iconic bands from the original wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. (I didn't just cut and paste that from Wikipedia or anything.)
Marvin Gardens getting a call from this cover band is very exciting. (Oh, and for my mother, a cover band is a band that doesn't play original music, rather they COVER -- get it? -- another band's songs.) It would only have been more exciting had he gotten a call from the actual Clash to be in their band, which I don't think is possible cause one of the members is dead.
So, now Marvin, who will be the bass player in said Clash cover band, is going around insisting that he needs new clothes. Clothes that look like whatever the bass player in The Clash looked like.
Now, seriously, does that sound very punk rock to you? Did Sid Vicious head out to Fred Segal for a new wardrobe when he started his band? No! He just put a safety pin in his nose, a needle in his arm, and headed out the door. New clothes seem like the LEAST punk reaction one could have to being asked to be in a punk rock band.
In response to my "you can't shop" command, Marvin G is going around the house with his hair spiked up, wearing polo shirts with the sleeves cut off and the collar turned up. He looks -- and I mean this in the most supportive way -- like a complete tool.
Should he stay or should he go (shopping) now? If he goes there will be trouble. If he stays with his turned-up collar there will be double.
(Yes, mother, those are words to a Clash song.)
9 comments:
Actually, they are a Clash tribute band...
Go with pajamas. A bass player I saw once wore a nice set of pajamas, and they looked really comfortable and interesting, given that everyone else was, of course, trying really hard to look cool. This guy just ~was~ cool, either in spite of, or because of, his pajamas, or maybe not at all related to his garb. But still, pajamas are inexpensive, and comfortable, and I bet chicks dig them. What I'm listening to right now: Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecelia" by the Esso Trinidad Steel Band (steel drums). They're the cat's pajamas, man.
OOOH he could wear his cowboy pjs
M.G. should wear his palm tree pajama bottoms with an Elmo T-shirt. Are they going to play Train in Vain? I bought that 45 when I was in the 7th grade.
And that Elmo t-shirt should have a small hole cut in it, on the upper back, like the Fonz in that one Happy Days where his Halloween costume was just that one small change to his t-shirt. That would be bomb-diggity. Just make sure to put it on the side that isn't covered up by his guitar strap.
Congratulations!
That picture is soooo adorable!
I vote for a powder-blue ruffle-tux.
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