There's a song by Little Big Town called 'I'm With the Band.' Why is that such a cool concept? Well it doesn't take much to figure that part out, considering most of us dreamed of one day being a music superstar but the reality is the closest most could ever possibly get is to be a roadie or a tour manager or a water bottle fetcher, so even while the position is relatively low on the totem pole, doesn't matter because, sing it with me, 'I'm with the band.' But besides clasping onto the fragments of diluted childhood dreams, there has to be something else about that feeling of being back stage during a show, or wearing the big yellow lanyard with the gigantic plastic VIP pass, or carrying some equipment in through the back door, that makes us vibrate with a combination of elitism, overall excitement, and the idea that everybody wants to be me; see also: envy. It feels great to be envied. Even the most humble and masochistic human will feel a sense of we'll say accomplishment or pride when they find out they're being envied.
But it's not just being with the band, it's any time, as Dobie Gray sang, 'I'm in with the in crowd' (also, that song was made in 1965, proving that this is no recent phenomenon). Any time you are part of the group that gets the inside jokes, that holds a little power, that has stuff the average person doesn't have access to, it's fun.
The first memory I have of this feeling was in 6th grade. In our elementary school, 5th and 6th grade were combined, and typically you repeated teachers, so by the time we were rolling to the first day of school in 6th grade, there were no surprises. I had my little crew: Justin, Lauren, and Kate. We were all sitting together, and when our teacher, Mrs. Kravitz, was going through her spiel on rules, regulations, expectations, policies, restrictions, schedules, and general taking care of business type syllabus chatter, we thought we were so above everything. Cracking jokes, mocking the teacher, not paying attention, thinking we were better than everyone in class, that these rules didn't apply to us, or that these rules would never be enforced anyway. C'mon, we were 6th graders, what was there to be scared of? I even remember going home that day and telling my mom about it. The conversation is as vivid as 1080P.
Looking back, we were just a quartet of kids who didn't know shit about shit, but for that day, we felt like we were running the class.
In more recent years, the examples are just as few and far between. You have a certain level of elitism wearing your baseball jersey to high school, there was a sense of leadership and power and camaraderie among C.A.R.E. facilitators senior year of college, and it was definitely a position of envy to host bar crawls and be a sticker monger. Is this really just one more in the face of redemption? Years of envy built up, all set to be released because I wasn't hanging out with Randall Floyd and Fred O'Bannion? A rebuttal, a I'm going to take what's mine because I spent so many years on the outside looking in? A turning of the tables? Maybe. But I don't think it goes to that extreme.
I just see it as it's cool to be included. Call me vain. These days, I could employ some of the same tactics (athleticism, education), but really it starts to come down to who you know. Which leads me to, well, a lot... We're three days into spring, and I'm turning a new leaf. With considerably more free time these days, now begins my commitment to get myself, my name, my words, and my art out there. I want to be exposed. I want to be connected. I want @SeeLazz to gain momentum because I'm saying clever and witty things (follow me, and stuff, if you want). I want to be visible. I want to be more than just another guy. I want people to know when they've read something by me or seen something I've created. It's lofty, but these days, what do I have to lose?
So this will begin my first invitation to come see the 'new' me. On April 17th, I'll be featured at an art show hosted by Rebel Bar and Grill (3462 N. Clark St.). The show starts at 6pm. I will have about two dozen pieces up for sale, ranging between $15-75 dollars. All the items are pictures I've taken and gotten printed on canvas. Some are stretched and stapled to a wooden frame, others are sprayed to a foam board and tacked to an open back frame. I invite you all, and everyone you know to come support me in my endeavors, buy some sweet art, and join me in this era of connectivity, openness, exposure, visibility, transparency, and most of all, fun. Here's to being 'in with the in crowd.'
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