What I’ve Been Doing
This weekend I led a Cub Scout campout, which went pretty well overall. Tent camping with Cub Scouts is always an adventure. During the day, it’s all fun and games, but once the sun goes down and the woods start making woods noises, things get interesting.
Nature can be a little spooky at night when you’re eight years old. Owls were hooting, bugs were buzzing, branches were creaking, and every mysterious sound immediately became either a bear, a monster, or a bear-monster. Fortunately, nobody was eaten by wildlife, and everyone made it home with stories to tell. The kid who really didn’t want to sleep in that tent but was ok sleeping in a vehicle at least enjoyed shooting the BB gun, we had to pull him away from it practically. By Cub Scout camping standards, that’s a successful trip. Our fishing activity was kind of a bust, ruined by swarming gnats who were residing on the fishing pier and wanted us to GTFO. I hope I didn’t scar anyone for life with that one. Oof, those gnats were everywhere.
I may have scarred myself in the process, though. I borrowed this enormous tug-of-war rope from camp because I became absolutely convinced that what this campout needed was a massive tug-of-war on the activity field. I don’t know why I got so invested in this idea, but I did.
The problem was that nobody else seemed nearly as excited about it as I was. So naturally, I doubled down and hauled this giant, heavy rope across camp mostly by myself. My back would now like to formally register a complaint. I suspect I’ll be sore for the next week because of a game that lasted about ten minutes.
The girls ended up winning, which may have put a slight chip on the boys’ shoulders. Welcome to life, boys. Girls are pretty good at things a lot of the time.
Am I creating problems by encouraging a little friendly competition? I don’t think so. Honestly, competition seems to be one of the few things guaranteed to instantly capture a kid’s attention these days. Sometimes you have to sprinkle in a tug-of-war between the nature lessons, wild turkey spotting, and discussions about what to eat and what not to eath out in nature in a survival situation. It’s all part of the educational process. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself while I ice my shoulder.
What I’ve Been Watching
I started watching the NASCAR race from Nashville on Sunday night, but apparently NASCAR has forgotten that some of us have jobs on Monday.
I gave it my best effort. I really did. But at some point the combination of a comfortable chair, a late green flag, and the looming reality of a workday won the battle. I tapped out before the finish.
Sunday night races are fine when you’re twenty. Once you hit middle age, anything that starts after dinner feels like a personal attack.
What I’ve Been Listening To
I’ve been enjoying the new Sublime material lately.
For anyone who somehow missed the story, Brad Nowell was the voice behind Sublime’s most famous work before his death in 1996, when his son Jakob was just one year old. Now Jakob has stepped into the lead singer role, and it’s honestly kind of wild how much he sounds like his dad. It doesn’t feel like a tribute act. It feels like the same spirit and vibe that made the band special in the first place.
Of course, discussions about the band online seem to get overshadowed by the fact that the drummer wore a MAGA hat at one point. Personally, I don’t get too wrapped up in political purity tests when it comes to things as meaningful to me as art, music, and family. What matters more to me is whether artists can leave politics out of the work itself.
That’s one reason I’ve continued to enjoy Staind over the years. Aaron Lewis is unapologetically conservative, and he’s put out plenty of solo material expressing those views. But he largely kept Staind as a rock band rather than a political vehicle, and I respect that distinction. I still love Staind. As Staind, anyway.
That said, I won’t pretend I never listen to political music. If a song resonates with me, it resonates with me. Willie Nelson has been releasing plenty of politically charged songs lately, and I’ve found myself listening to him a lot more because of it. The week after the last presidential election, my “Protest Jamz” playlist got a serious workout.
Turns out I’m less interested in whether musicians have political opinions than I am in whether they’re making good music. If the songs are great, I’ll hit play. If the songs aren’t great, no amount of political agreement is going to save them.