#also when a band/song gets mentioned i literally pause the ep to go look it up. i have discovered so much good music thru this show somehow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ruinitpop · 4 years

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2500+ mostly unedited words on why I love Simple Plan

Here we go, I’ll try not to ruin it:

Come with me back to my childhood. Far enough back that you might not remember when you first saw something that is extremely important to you, for me apparently that’s 2002. The live-action adaptation Scooby-Doo comes out that summer and it has what I like to call “kick ASS pop-punk soundtrack”. I remember liking the movie so much that my friends and I definitely tried to reenact the entire thing on the playground one day. Anyway, Simple Plan had a song on the soundtrack, It was Grow Up and it plays over an establishing shot of Spooky Island. Yes, I’ve seen the movie several times and I know the song by heart.

Go forward a year and another movie comes out with a “kick-ass pop-punk soundtrack”. It was 2003...anyone have any guesses? Steve Martin fans in the room? It was Cheaper By the Dozen, a movie kind of about a book that I don’t know if anyone has actually read. But the movie is great, I love it. You may not think so but I reserve the right to life things that are objectively bad. (See my love of the live-action Scoo-Doo movies) Anyway, Simple Plan had a song on the soundtrack. It was I’m Just A Kid and it plays over the scene where all the kids have their first day at the new school and some preppy asshole shouts “MY LATTE!”.

One more year passes and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed comes out and it, for a period of time, becomes MY FAVORITE movie. Like, I went on a trip for a kinda nerdy thing I did in 4th grade and we watched Scooby-Doo 2 easily 4 times over the course of that one week trip. AND I’m pretty sure this trip is the first time remember listening to No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls from beginning to end. Anyway, again, Simple Plan had a song written for the film on the soundtrack. It was Don’t Wanna Think About You and it’s seriously...just...so good! It’s emotional, and it like perfectly accents what’s happening in the movie! I cry when Shaggy says “They’re like totally having a montage in there without us Scoob”

Now I’m just gonna rattle off a ranking of their soundtrack appearances as they appear in my brain:

Don’t Wanna Think About You from Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Because duh

I’m Just A Kid from Cheaper by the Dozen.

Kinda scandalous for this to beat Grow Up but I like the scene it plays over better

Grow Up from Scooby-Doo.

This could be purely nostalgia-driven but I just love the movie so much and it was basically where so many people first heard them and there is a huge significance to that in my head.

What’s New Scooby-Doo from the show of the same name.

This song is awesome and I remember seeing them play it for what they claimed was the first time in over a decade in Santa Anna California in 2016 and I remember Pierre doing a little intro but not saying what song it was and I looked at my sister and said “holy shit they’re about to play What’s New Scooby-Doo!” so that’s why it’s on this list even though it’s TV and it’s my list I’ll do what I want. That memory warms my cold heart

Christmas List from the Unaccompanied Minors soundtrack

Full Disclosure I still haven’t this movie (what kind of movie guy am I?) but the song is also a bonus track and also full of dated pop culture references like PlayStation2 and DVDs which I love to chuckle at to this day. When I got my first MacBook in early 2012 one of the first things I did was use garage band to split the bonus track off as it’s own track.

Vacation from New York Minute

I had a weird interaction a little over a year ago where a Gen Z kid was randomly singing it and I was like “How do you know this song?” and he was like “oh some Mary-Kate and Ashley movie” and I said “So it is Vacation by Simple Plan. Accept I know it because I love Simple Plan. To this day I have never seen that movie but I know it’s from that movie and this little memory gives that song a special place.

Happy Together, a cover that was produced and on the soundtrack to Freaky Friday

This song it the top cover because it’s actually good AND the movie has grown in a significant tentpole of pop culture

Can’t Keep My Hands Off You from Disney’s Prom

This came out in 2011, I haven’t seen it. I imagine it’s not great but seeing as how the song is pretty good on its own and I have no other attached feelings it goes here on the list. But even this movie appearance isn’t as unsatisfying as...

Surrender from the Fantastic Four (2005)

We all remember this movie, people have mixed opinions. Mine are basically that the movie is fine, there are definitely better superhero movies now but this doesn’t necessarily deserve to be panned at trash or anything. It was 2005 and it’s at least as good and Sam Rami’s Spiderman.

Apparently there is a site for this but it doesn’t include New York Minute but it does include Clockstoppers. A movie I know I’ve seen but I don’t remember noticing there was a Simple Plan in it. There was a cool scene where they pause time next to a sprinkler and they push the droplets around and stuff. I just found this out after I typed my list. You can look at the link but it doesn’t have my opinions on it so why would you?

So, if you’ve read this blog before or maybe even know me in person you know I’m a big movie buff so it’s no surprise that I kinda discovered my love for them through movies. However, Simple Plans music nostalgia goes really deep.

I remember my first MP3 player. It was terrible, I’m going to date myself a little here but it only has physical buttons, it worked like a flash drive so if you didn’t organize your file folders properly it was basically impossible to navigate, and it only held like 100 songs. In comparison, my old sister had a Microsoft Zune. (You know Zune? The thing that Star Lord gets and the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which was directed by James Gunn; the same guy who did the screenplays for both the live action Scooby-Doo movies that introduced me to Simple Plan in the first place! Which is part of why I’m writing this post!! If that dumb full-circle moment doesn’t give you warm and fuzzies you can stop reading) She had a pretty substantial library already and I had to carefully pick and choose what to put on it and I remember one the first songs was My Alien which isn’t a super popular track but it spoke to middle school me. There were definitely more of their songs from NPNHJB and Still Not Getting Any because self-titled Simple Plan didn’t come out until 2008. Eventually, I got an iPod nano with a whopping 16gb of storage and my life changed! I could hold basically all the music I wanted and that included all three of the Simple Plan albums that were out at the time. I have a very clear memory of making my mom listen to them a few times on the way to/from the orthodontist (which was a 40 minute drive because everything is far away in rural America) and she told me that I was just as good as a singer as Pierre. There’s no way, Pierre is an icon.

Over the course of the last decade, a few Simple Plan experiences have occurred around my birthday and I’m convinced they must know when my birthday is. The first time this happened was 2011 when they released Get Your Heart On! Which might be my favorite album if I was going to pick one but they’ve literally never written a bad song so why actually pick favorites? I remember a friend saying “This sounds like their old stuff and I love it” and I was offended. Like, how dare they slander Still Not Getting Any and Simple Plan like that?

As high school went on I started to have a very stressful Junior year. I bit off more than I could shew academically and one day I had a massive stress attack and I basically shut down but Untitled really got me through, I listened to so much Simple Plan that night but Untitled really helped me calm down and relax enough to get my head straight. While I’m talking about the song I’m gonna mention it was a charity track and the music video WILL make you cry but it’s super important and you should watch it.

Forward a couple more years and I’m in my first semester of college. I had chosen the wrong path at the time and I was in the process of fixing that by completely changing up my education including changing schools and giving up a rather big scholarship. I was feeling pretty good but uneasy about what I was doing at the time and what do you know? Right when I needed something comforting Simple Plan gave me an early Christmas present and released the EP Get Your Heart On - The Second Coming and every track on the EP reached into my soul and helped me process. I also started to GYHO again heavily and Gone Too Soon helped my deal with how much I was missing home and how much I missed a lot of my friends (I know the song isn’t really “about” that but it helped).

At this point in my life, I’ve mostly given up hiding my fandom. I started following the band members on social media and I was VERY closely following the release of the next album. Which I was sure was going to be released by my birthday. (this is the second time a birthday coincidence happened) The band had another plan, which was to hype me up for an album drop and then only release a non-album single Saturday that wasn’t even on the album that came out later! I accepted their gift though because I wanted more songs so desperately! I was so thirsty for Simple Plan content that I also listened to an episode of the Lead Singer Syndrome podcast with Pierre and learned so much about the band and their careers together, it warmed my heart! The album Taking One For the Team wouldn’t drop for almost an entire year! But when it did they also announce their first tour in the US in years!

In early October 2016, I finally saw then live for the first time. I already talked about this, it’s when they played What’s New Scooby-Doo! The place where my sister and I chose to stand was near a stantioned-off area that looked VIP. Before the band went on their families came out escorted by security and watched the set right behind me! That trip was so fun! It was also my first concert ever, I had been to Warped Tour the previous summer but I choose to call that my first festival.

The tour I saw them on kinda just morphed into the 15th-anniversary tour for NPNHJB. Remember when I went on about Scooby-Doo? Yeah reader, it’s been 15 years. I saw Simple Plan for the second time in April 2017 and I was able to convince a bunch of Set It Off (great band) fans to come with me because they were also playing. My roommate at the time said that seeing me at the concert was one of the times they’d seen me happiest. I thought that was very sweet and I’m glad I was able to have that experience with those people. Weirdly enough though, I had just started a new job and my new boss was also at the show. There isn’t much more to that particular story but I still think it’s funny.

After this I closed a chapter of my life by leaving the fraternity I was a part of for most of my college experience. At the alumni ceremony, people often do personal things for those leaving, gifts, speeches, etc. For me, a few of my Brothers played Welcome To My Life. It was one of the sweetest things anyone could have done.

The next time I saw them was on the final Warped Tour. I was so excited! I took time off so I could go and see them in San Diego because it was closer to (this is the 3rd coincidence) my birthday! I drove to San Diego alone and stayed in a hotel alone and had a couple of meals alone and saw a movie alone all so I could see Simple Plan. I did meet up with some friends at the festival on the day of and it was amazing! One of the people is very close to me and we shared a lot of music that day. I waited in line for over an hour at the SP merch tent and I was going to have sign some stuff with a happy birthday but they ended up having to leave the tent to get ready for their set and I nabbed a quick picture with Pierre. They closed their set with Perfect and everything felt melancholy but very “right” you know?

Most recently I saw Simple Plan alone in Phoenix. It was awesome! I was uneasy just seeing a show alone but being in that room with people who probably have a ton of stories just like this one (though probably not so many words) was exhilarating. They definitely had the best set and this time I noticed some of the things they kinda always do at shows. Like Chuck crowd surfing or the same call response to their most popular songs and another rendition of What’s New Scooby-Doo!

This pretty much brings us to the present, thanks for taking this 2500+ word journey down memory lane with me. Currently, I’m feeling upset that the tour planned for this summer was called off because of the COVID-19 epidemic and I kinda have no idea when the album might drop. I am in no way diminishing anything that has happened to anyone else but for me, the current way of the world has taken a lot of what makes me happy away. My career is on hold, I can’t go to movies, and it even took away Simple Plan. Writing this has been mildly therapeutic and that was the point. If for some reason this post reaches the band I just want to thank them all. Pierre, Chuck, Seb, David, and Jeff. You guys are unbelievably amazing! Thank you for being somehow integrated into a lot of things that I really hold dear but most importantly thank you for the music! I can’t wait for more! Now, I’ll leave this train of thought before all this nostalgia makes me sick (get it?).

I tried not to ruin it but this is almost 2600 words so I probably did.

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hoopslab · 7 years

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Game of Thrones S7 Ep 4 The Spoils of War: Stark Family Reunion

SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 4 OF SEASON 7. I said, SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 4 OF SEASON 7.

"Dracarys.”

Yo, I’m not even going to lie...that episode was FUN! I could just as easily have put ‘Dracarys’ in the title, then led with the Stark Family reunion down here. Both events have been YEARS in the making, and offered a tremendous payoff for the viewer. And they both happened in the same episode...and a mid-season episode at that! The first few episodes of the season were solid as well, and moved pieces in to place, but on Sunday we started reaping rewards as the show moves into it’s final 10 episodes. Let’s go through it.

Jamie & Bronn’s bro journey

Jamie Lannister is a much more fun character when Cersei isn’t around. When he gets out in the field, be it with Brienne of Tarth or Bronn Stone, he turns into an almost likable guy. With Bronn, in particular, he plays off as the straight man to Bronn’s sarcastic wit. In episode 4, fresh off sacking Highgarden (but being secretly gutted by the Queen of Thorns’ dying confession that she murdered his son Joffrey), Jamie is in a mood as he hands Bronn a sack of gold as payment for his services. Bronn, knowing something is wrong but not what, proceeds to work on Jamie the way one would on a brother, trying to get him to tell him what’s wrong. When he can’t, he starts in on Jamie about how he promised him a castle, forcing Sir Gold Hand out of the doldrums through sheer cheekiness.

Jamie, incredulous: "That’s a lot of money I just gave you.”

Bronn, deadpan serious: “It’s not a castle.”

Cersei redefining “efficient” as creepily as possible

Cersei starts the episode basking in the glory of her successes, promising to give the unctuous leg-breaker from the Iron Bank his money back with the Tyrell gold. The banker guy is practically drooling, eating out of her hands. He can’t remember ANYONE paying back a debt so large, he feels that Cersei is even more efficient than the paragon that was her father, and he hopes the bank can support her on her next venture. That venture? Take it away, Queen:

“My only venture at this moment is reestablishing control over this continent and every person in it.”

WOW. EVERY person? Scary much?

Anyway, after that exchange, I thought the biggest takeaway was that the Iron Bank guy hedged his bets that all of his gushing and support was based on him getting that gold back. I thought that meant that Dany (or someone) might hijack it before it got to King’s Landing, which doesn’t seem to be the case. However, another sneaky nugget in that exchange was that Cersei wants to hire the Golden Company of Essos to join her war, a band of famous mercenaries from the neck of the woods where Dany was before she came to Westeros. Where Day left her own band of mercs, led by her now estranged lover, in charge. Might Cersei’s recruitment effort see Daario brought to the continent in future episodes? Hmm.

Arya kicks in the door, waves in the 4-4

When Arya rides her horse up the hill and looks over to see Winterfell...maybe it was only me, but I heard Biggie Smalls in the background. Yes, it was a touching scene as she was completing her long trip home. But she was also the last Stark kid to make it home, which means that the unit is complete and ready for war. Thus, in my head I heard murder music as her theme song.

Her whole sequence was just fun. It’s a testament to how much she’s gone through and done, that when the idiot guards tried to deny her entry I was almost scared that she would kill them. But instead, the bumbling guards just provided comic relief as a foil to Arya’s awe at her homecoming. Her scene of looking around at Winterfell in appreciation, as the guards nattered in the background, was well done.

Sansa’s face was perfect, as well, when the guards mentioned that the “impostor” asked for Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrick. In fact, Sophie Turner (Sansa) and Maisie Williams (Arya) both just nailed their performances this week. Conveying pages of dialogue with the nuances of their faces.

The sister reunion in the crypt sent a tingle down the spine. Sansa and Arya, remember, “hated” each other as kids. They were rivals, but more the were opposites. Each was everything that the other wasn’t. Would the reunion be tense?

Arya: “Do I have to call you Lady Stark now?”

Sansa: “Yes.”

Then a slight pause, before the sisters come together with a heartfelt hug that lacked the hollywood dramatization of Jon and Sansa’s reunion last season, but had more feeling, especially after the dud of Sansa hugging robot Bran last week. Speaking of robot Bran, Sansa’s hesitation and dread in telling Arya that her little brother was also around was pronounced. Which made sense, because Bran was busy...

Bran & creeps out Littlefinger (yay) & Meera (sad)

Littlefinger has pretty much just lurked around in corners, giving Sansa side-eye, all season. But he approaches a bed-bound Bran and magnanimously offers him he Valyrean steel dagger that was once used to try to assassinate Bran and his mom. It’s unclear what Littlefinger’s angle was, but it seems that he dramatically underestimated the Three Eyed Raven. Littlefinger preachified about how much Bran had seen, how far he’d been, and how it was sad that he returned to such chaos, only to have Bran shut him up by delivering Littlefinger’s own words from an old conversation that he had with Varys in season 3:

“Chaos is a ladder”.

Lord Baelish’s face was priceless.

Unfortunately, the Three Eyed Raven wasn’t done. And he was just about to fumble the very opportunity that Grey Worm had spiked for a touchdown two episodes ago.

Meera Reed, fresh off dragging Bran on a liter across an entire continent, in the Winter, and thus proving her love and loyalty on an absurd level, feels like she should go home. The TER, being clairvoyant, knows it’s coming. Meera obviously doesn’t want to leave and obviously wants Bran to ask her to stay, the same way that Missendei really hoped that Grey Worm wouldn’t really just leave without saying goodbye. But while Grey Worm came through with the “you’re my weakness” speech that led to Missendei smiling weeks later (see below), Bran did this:

Meera: “You don’t need me anymore”

Bran: ”No, I don’t”

OUCH! Party foul! FUMMMMBLLLLE!

The TER says that he can remember being Brandon Stark, but he remembers so much more now. Hopefully, in the future, someone can help him remember his humanity.

All three Stark kids together!

Even though Bran gave Arya the patented robot hug in greeting, seeing all three Stark kids together was awesome. In addition to the emotional payoff, they are a power-packed three-pack right now. Like he did with Sansa and Littlefinger, Bran reveals that he has seen Arya in visions, this time when she was at the crossroads about going to kill Cersei.

I think my favorite part of that scene, though, was when Bran confirmed that Arya hadn’t been joking about having a list of people to kill. Arya looked back at Sansa almost defensively, but clearly Sansa LOVED it. Again, Sophie Turner killed the scene with her facial expression.

Bran also gave Arya the Valyerian dagger, which completed the months-long watch and speculation that began when Maisie Williams posed for a magazine cover with the dagger on her hip. Before the episode is out, we start to see how potent Arya can be with that dagger (below).

Oh, and if you’re emotional like that...the scene of the three Starks walking through Winterfell’s courtyard, with the big sisters pushing their little robot brother in a wheelchair, was almost a tear-jerker.

From Grey Worm to Jon

Small blurb, but Missendei’s wide and unquenchable smile when she talked about her now weeks-old experience with Grey Worm brought a “young love” smile to my grizzled old face. The timing of the scene was also interesting, as Missendei was trying to girl-time confess to Dany that it went all the way down, and Dany was all innocent/shocked...then had the conversation interrupted by Jon Snow, excusing himself into two blushing young women. Followed immediately by...

Tunnel (cave?) of Love...but Bend the knee, tho

I’m not a shipper, so I don’t have a dog in the fight of Dany and Jon potentially hooking up. Kinda icky that she’s his aunt, but a) they don’t know it, b) pretty much all Targeryens ever married family (which is part of why “The Mad King” was so crazy), and c) this show has been rocking twincest since the first episode, so an aunt or cousin barely even compares.

That said, Jon taking Dany into the cave/tunnel, gushing over all the dragon glass, then bringing her through all the hieroglyphics about the Children of the Forest joining Man to fight The Whitewalkers...it felt like a first date. And just when it seemed Jon had a shot at his first kiss, Dany caught him with the “Bend the Knee” curb. Dany’s consistent “Bend the knee” messages to Jon are ridiculously meme-worthy...I don’t know whether to beg that she stop, or secretly hope the showrunners start spoofing it themselves.

At the very least, Dany does seem like she now cares about Jon’s opinion. as she asked him straight out what she should do after her latest defeat. Jon talked her off the ledge of going and burning the whole castle, but either he or she DID come up with a really fun plan (more below)...

The Big Lady vs No One

Even with all of the stuff in this episode, probably my favorite scene was when Arya jumped in to spar with Brienne of Tarth (or “The Big Lady”, as Hot Pie calls her). Brienne started off trying not to hurt the tiny Arya, who was fighting like her sword dancer teacher from season one and pretty much moving faster than the eye like The Red Viper (pre head-crushing, of course).

The fact that Arya is a badass and would have killed Brienne like 11 times if they were fighting for real was cool. But what I loved about the scene was how much fun the two women were having in that spar, both of them rocking huge smiles even as they swung live steel at each other. That scene felt like I must look when me and my best friend play 1-on-1 basketball...like we’re both going for the jugular, but loving the comraderie of going your hardest against someone that can bring it back just as hard.

Another hidden gem in that scene was the look on Sansa’s face, as she looks on. Sansa has been established as the best ruler of the Stark kids, but for the first time she seemed jealous of all of the things that Arya is, that she’s not.

Dracarys, and Jaime’s doomed charge

OK, this is running long, so I’m skipping the scene where The Onion Knight jokes that Jon has been staring at Dany’s “good heart”, as well as the one where Theon comes to shore and freezes up when he sees Jon (I was SURE Jon was about to punch him in the face). But, let’s get to the walk-off home run of the episode: Dany, her Dragon, and her Dothraki reigning havoc (and fire) all over Jaime’s crew. First, the memes:

Tupac weighs in

Horse-surfing cowboy

The memes about cover it. Mega payoff for those that have been waiting since Season 1 (or, like me, 20 years since Book 1) to see Dany’s Dragon(s) in action in Westeros. Also, seeing the Dothraki come in and absolutely wreck shop while doing rodeo archery tricks and talking trash (”Your people can’t fight”) was worth the wait as well.

Dr. Frankenstein’s dragon-killing crossbow was a little nerve-wracking, especially since Bronn was the one firing and I didn’t really want him to get killed either. But Drogon took the quarrel like a G, and still wrecked the heck out of the crossbow.

Then, Jaime decides to charge a dragon with a spear. Yes, he saw Dany standing there and thought that if he took her out, the war was over. But still. Did I mention that he was charging a DRAGON???

I’ll let Tyrion say it

Episode ends with Jaime (and presumably Bronn) taking a swim in armor, which doesn’t seem like it’d end well, but if the showrunners were planning to let Jaime die they could have just let him get barbecued. So, here’s assuming that there’s an epic rescue by next week. And speaking of next week...

In the previews, sure looks like Jon comes face to face with a dragon (with Dany riding). Can it finally be time for the Dragon’s second head to be revealed? I guess we’ll soon see.