Before you wave flags...

Back when I was attending Brookline Highschool I befriended a kid name Peter. He was one of the most centered people i had met at that point and age in my life and I have tons of respect for him even then. He was Straightedge, for those who don't know it's a movement or subculture which ideological foundation is their anti-drug stance... this is a brief definition, and by no means the long of it. Also, straightedge is closely related to the Hardcore/Punk movement with bands such as Youth of Today, etc etc. I apologize if i have some of these facts wrong...

He played me a tape from the AMAZING band H2O, and at the end of it one of the guys said: "Before you wave any flags, you better know what you stand for" Easily one of the greatest and most meaninful lines I have heard in my time. Even before I heard it I thought strongly about a person's character, practicing what they preached etc etc. I remember when I used to skateboard how I would have this thing, a parcticularlly venezuelan skateboarder thing, of calling other skaters, who didn't "look" the part, POSERS... looking back it was both stupid and silly, but funny at the same time... Specifically i remember havings this "hatred" againsta rollerbladers, yet months later i was playing street hockey in them, and conveniently forgot my poser rants... pfffff.

In music i was a little more open minded... I never particularly disliked any type of music, and very very few bands or artists have made me say: "I hate____" . When THE NOISE came up, one of the pioneer Reggaeton groups, I hated it... i thought it was neither musical nor meaningful, yet i knew all the lyrics.

Now that I live in another country, I have often found myself loving things I hated, because they remind me endlessly of my life back in Venezuela... of course there are many of these examples, too many in fact. For example going back to Reggaeton... i'm not particularly a fan of the whole movement, but songs like Rakata and Cachorrita bring me back to my days in Caracas last year, and specific moments come to mind. Yeah, they're not "good" songs, they are AMAZING songs, cuz they just have a meaning of their own and noone can't take anything away from it.

I have been influenced by bands like H2O more than say John Coltrane... in my mind and heart I think there is no difference, cuz they (h2o) were important TO ME, regardless of the overall impact in the music industry and who is pretentious enough to consider something better if the other element holds such a deep meaning??? I have been influenced by Waking Vision Trio more than Pat Metheny, Megadeth more than Hendrixx, etc etc not sure if i'm making myself clear... i hope so.

The bottom line is that i now know better not to say I "hate" something and always be open minded cuz you never know what life brings and you can end up looking like a damn fool and a hipocrite.