music: The Beatles- Rubber Soul
I got a call from an old friend the other day with the most unlikely of messages: “I was just watching MTV and I saw you on it.”
are. you. serious.
I have very little desire to be on MTV and would never go out of my way to squeeze my face on the screen of the world’s most notorious dictator of pop culture. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, how the hell my face ended up on MTV. My friend did the detective work for me: he traced it back to my college roommates.
I lived down the hall from Rami Freshman year. We became friends, along with Rami’s roommate and another set of roommates on the other end of the hall. I introduced the group to Josh in the cave of the Ratty one day. Josh was this other guy I met on the Main Green-he started talking to me because we were both wearing Phish t-shirts on the first day of class. Josh already knew one of the crew from back home, and quickly slid into the mix. The six of us became great friends and lived together Sophomore and Junior year, and split three and three for Senior year. These guys were my inner circle in college. Haven’t seen much of them since, unfortunately. Rami and Josh, always active with music, formed a band after college was over, and apparently been quite successful at it.
Their band is apparently catching the eye of some folks high up in the industry. Something For Rockets was featured on MTV’s You Heard It First recently, which is where my friend saw it. Apparently they had a three minute spot on the tube. Apparently all this is happening to my old college roommates, and apparently they did one of those brief histories of the band complete with pictures from college, in which I am found. So there you go. Rami and Josh on MTV, and me next to them, probably just outside the highlighted part of the picture. Modest schoolteacher lands two-second spot on MTV thanks to his outrageous and talented college roommates. I saw it coming. I’m not all that surprised, but I still find it hysterical to see these high-profile artsy shots of the two of them plastered all over the internet. And the long hair…I used to get such crap from them about my long hair…
All the best to my old buddies. While the creation of music is a worthwhile life pursuit (and theirs is of substantial quality), the pursuit of everything else that goes along with it is better left to guys like Rami and Josh. I’m content to smile at a distance, observe their path into the entertainment industry, and go to open mics and basement jam sessions. It makes me happy that they have stayed independent and still own their own art, that they produce and manage themselves. That they are getting the sort of media attention that they’ve been seeking is awesome. That I was unintentionally dragged along for a quick cameo on MTV is hysterical. Completely hysterical.
Posted by davidtaus at December 22, 2004 10:45 PM