SPIRIT WEEK Intro: Freaks & Geeks
So I made a cheesy anti-war video with my friends Dean and Jon. We spliced atomic bomb footage with Hendrix playing the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock, then finished up with gory scenes from Vietnam set to "Happiness is a Warm Gun." We called it Proud to be an American, with a dramatic question mark fading in to punctuate the title. Pipilotti Rist, move over. For some reason our video production teacher, a wild grayhair hippie named Ron, wouldn't stop raving about it, wanted to send it to festivals, showed it to all his classes. Dean moved to Boston, I went to boarding school, and Jon is now the cover story of the Palo Alto Weekly, wrapping up a short film with his NYC-based film crew. In the article he credits our junior year video class as the reason he decided to pursue film.
Some of my friends call our hometown "Shallow Alto." I'm sorry they had such awful childhoods. While it's true that most Paly students drive better cars than their teachers, it's also true that more Nobel Prize winners come out of the Bay Area than anywhere in the country. We grew up in one of America's hotter cultural crucibles, and I, for one, am grateful. So in true Viking spirit, this week's music piracy project will be five of the more famous bands to come out of Paly High. But first check out these Spirit Week pictures and video, taken by my friend Nick's kid sister for the Webby Award-winning Paly Voice (Columbia College took a close second place). Good job, Nell.
Starting tomorrow we'll go backwards in time with some bands that walked my hallways. Today we explore those halls with the theme song from "Freaks & Geeks." The fictional McKinley High was loosely based on my alma mater; with the same open-air campus, gym uniforms, school colors and mascot. Freaks star James Franco graduated from Paly in 1996, the year I started. I tried desperately to find his yearbook photo, but all I got was this interview with his brother Davey, who admits to getting laid a lot.
Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
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