Friday 5: Mayday! Mayday!

1. What does it take to make your way in the world today? Money.
2. Where do you go to take a break from all your worries? I turn to my husband and friends, maybe get a hug from my kid because he’s a good hugger.
3. Where does everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came? (or where did everybody know your name and were always glad you came?) In our 20s, there was this bar across from cousins’ house–it’s still there, just under a new name and ownership–where the owner knew us. These days, there’s a barista in a local coffee shop who knows my husband and I, but I think that’s about it. We’re not really consistent regulars anywhere.
4. Which no-longer-in-business establishments are you nostalgic for, and is nostalgia generally a positive or negative emotion? That aforementioned bar! There was also a great Italian restaurant in town we really loved that shut down. Also another Italian place we used to go to a lot when we were kids that’s no longer in business, and subsequent owners have struggled to keep the place open. To be fair, it’s in a weird location. As for nostalgia, I think it’s generally positive and fine, but I do definitely think it can have major downsides and have you thinking of a time with rose-colored glasses, as they say, where you’re glossing over the negatives and see something a little differently from how it really was.
5. Which television shows have great opening theme songs with opening title sequences? I like the spooky ones, like The X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries. WordPress is being a bitch about me italicizing The X-Files up there, and I’m mad about it. I also really like the Community theme song and never skip that title sequence when I watch it, although to be fair, it is pretty short. I think the coolest opening sequences I’ve seen were in the anime Blood+, and anime still has a bad reputation, I think, but if you like horror and weird, spooky shit, definitely watch it. I’ve also been known to make fun of anime opening and closing sequences because they tend to be really long. Blood+ had four, although I can’t find one that shows the actual art and not just the music of all four in one video, but they sort of helped to break the series into parts. Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure is also great at closings in particular. I’ve never cared for the openings so much, but it wonderfully used “Walk Like an Egyptian” for a closing song for a time and also “I Want You” by Savage Garden. Excellent choices, no notes. It’s also worth noting that as I went gathering the links to those anime openings and closings, my husband was snoring next to me and woke up from a dead-ass sleep and was like, “Ah, you’re listening to the Blood+ theme,” and then again after I told him what I was doing to point out “Walk Like an Egyptian” was a closing, not an opening.

From Friday 5.