Zeitgeists Reconsidered

I used with an unusual grace the word ‘zeitgeist’ today in a conversation I can’t quite remember the details of. Some while back, I noticed the word on Wordoftheday.com; a habit I try to keep up with but never seem to retain any words from. The definition is something like “The spirit of the time”, I’m sure Webster’s and the trusty old Oxford have slight variances, but as discussed in a couple of blogs past, I prefer applying my own logic and definition to intellectual standards – it makes me feel more smarter.

Coincidentally, the word ‘zeitgeist’ was presented a perfectly reasonable outlet again this evening, as I struggled to define the feeling invoked by listening to music from my youth. My closest neighbor is a huge fucking ogre of a man, not especially tall, but thick like a rugby player holding high rank in the scrum. I’ve witnessed him lift boulders the size of laundry hampers with just one anaconda-like arm. Mike and I were drinking some beer one day on the back porch and he too witnessed the outrageous display of might for himself.

Back to my blunted point: This evening, Tia and I sat on the porch listening to the whistle of burgers on the grill and the Alice In Chains: Unplugged coming from the Ogre’s lair. The music was unusually loud coming from his direction, very crisp, and a more-than-welcome element to the evening. Music, for me, has always seemed the very best mental epoxy for securing memories and “the spirit of the time”. The music seemed to shave 10 years away like Ricky Martin had never happened and flannel had never gone out of style. For a few minutes between eruptions of misfit barking, it was a beautiful moment: a moment which provoked me to further tickle my memory with other songs and albums from years ago.

My addiction to iTunes and subsequently – my iPod, has made me somewhat of an eclectic music junky, willing to huff, puff, snort, drink, shoot, slam, and smoke just about any track I can get my grimy little digital hands around. Tonight I uploaded the 2nd album I ever purchased; The Tea Party’s – Splendor Solis (a Canadian band who somehow missed the American “big-times” of rock n’ roll success in the early 90’s). Somehow the album had even missed its honorable mention on my iPod for the several months I’ve cared for the little white box, until tonight that is.

Listening to the album, as I’m doing right now, takes me back to my bedroom in Qualicum Beach as a 13 year old with a reputation for going ape shit on his older brother for petty reasons. The album was my escape, my down-to-Earth contention against the hip-hop, metal, early techno, laughter of punk teenagers, and dope fumes which wafted out of my brother’s bedroom across the hall. I’d play songs like “The River” and “Raven Skies” as loud as my little Panasonic piece of shit stereo could play them, to drown out the sounds of exactly what I’d be listening to and doing in a few years after I emerged from the haze of early adolescence.

As much as I thought I hated those days while I was experiencing them, I think back on them fondly and with a smile on my face. It’s strange how the “zeitgeist” can redefine itself after closer consideration and analysis from a safe distance in time.