THE WINNERS TAKE IT ALL, AND KATHERINE HEPBURN IS AWESOME, AND SO ARE STUDENTS WITH GOOD TEACHERS.

I walked past an empty classroom with an open door. Only it wasn't empty. It was filled with a morning blast of ABBA, and a teacher bobbing her head in time to Mamma Mia as she prepped for classes.

I have a rule in life: whenever someone is playing ABBA, I will stop whatever I am doing and go enjoy it for a few moments with that person. I have had some great moments as a result of this rule. So I stopped in and had a delightful five minutes of conversation about classic cinema, Katherine Hepburn and two of her most razor-tongued and entertaining films: Bringing Up Baby and The Lion in Winter. You want to know how to verbally stop someone in their tracks? Ms. Hepburn 101. It all comes back to Katherine.

Step turned to skip as I left. More ABBA, more Hepburns, more loud music, more

teachers who soundtrack a morning with classic Swedish pop. I will let you remain anonymous, Mrs. O.

ABBA
The Winner Takes It All
Super Trouper
1980

IN WHICH I SPEAK OF PRIEST, THE LAW, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING INSPIRED BY MUSIC.

When I first heard Judas Priest's Breaking the Law in the late '80s, I immediately recognized the Greatest Song Ever had a new unconquerable leather-clad biker queenking. Guitars like razors slicing through minotaur femur; Rob Halford's dictatorial precision an ironic military mantra of melodramatic rebellion.

Just listening to the pompous authority of the opening guitars will make you drop 300 calories like genetically-modified P90X. Intense. Know what Breaking the Law made me want to do? Guess.

Rob a bank? ...no.
Yell angrily at people in uniform? ...no.
Fight? ...no.
Drive really fast? ...no?

None of the above. It made me want to
A. air guitar like a maniac,
and
B. make stuff. Make art. Make music. Write. Draw. Create something.

That's what the best music does. Sometimes it makes you THINK with a different point-of-view. Sometimes it makes you FEEL deeply. And sometimes (in this case) it inspires you to JUMP into the creative maelstrom YOURSELF.

Despite the parental fears of every generation about contemporary music and its adverse effect on its youth, there's gotta be room for a little iTunes insurgency. No danger, no excitement, no revolution in the occasional music, and the law-breaking's gonna (sometimes) come out in less healthy fashion. Sometimes it's not about the message. Sometimes the melody* is the message. And music has the capability like no other artform to kickstart the creative spirit off in high gear.

Let there be music, and let it rock with apathy-breaking thunder.

And then go use your turn signal.

****

*melody is used very loosely here

****

Judas Priest
Breaking the Law
British Steel
1980