There's always a post-holiday letdown following the 4th since it's such a big family holiday for us, kind of an mild aimless depression that comes with having to fall back into a routine. Today was really the first day of the summer I felt kind of bored. But it was a pretty busy weekend, so that's to be expected.
Album of the Day - "American Idiot" by Green Day. This was the album that made the band superstars when they were hard on the road to being a washed-out 90s has-been. It really is a strong album too, which I probably don't have to tell too many people because it sold millions of copies and it's probably the best-known Album of the Day I've written about. Yeah, it's got a couple of 9-minute songs on it, which most people would consider pretty epic in length, and it had quite a few hits on it. But this became a landmark album for me due to personal reasons.
American Idiot was released about two months before my sister died. In the time between when I bought the CD and when she died, and likely for months afterward, this was the CD that was in my car. And even though "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is about memorializing someone's death, that wasn't the draw. The album is a loose concept album that follows characters through the frustrations of living through George Bush's America in 2004; it came out just months before he was elected to his second term. Green Day, I think it's safe to say, are not and never were fans of President Bush; the album is fierce and angry without apology.
I remember the election was something we were aware of at the time, but it was way, way in the background as my sister's condition grew progressively worse in those weeks. I didn't relate to the political anger of "American Idiot" as much as I did just the pure anger of it. Listening to this album over and over and over and over and over in my car gave me a powerful outlet for the anger and frustration I was feeling about what my family was going through.
If I listen to it now, as I am while writing this, I can still hear echoes of my own anger and isolation coming out of these songs. But luckily they're just echoes and I can still appreciate it for being a pretty great album.
Didn't start the triathalon today. The blister I had as my souvenir from the amusement park was enough to keep me from even trying to do anything athletic. But tomorrow will be a different story. I am determined to finish this thing off, even with a one day late start.
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