WORD

Caution: This post contains feelings.

Hi. I’m Jessica, and this is my First Blog Post.

If you’re reading this, chances are we’ve met. (I say this because my friends are a kind and supportive bunch ... and because most of them are musicians, so they don’t really have shit to do during the day. Besides, who reads blog posts written by strangers? But more on my friends later.)

In case we haven’t met, I thought I would use this First Blog Post to introduce myself and tell you a little about me. (At this point in my rough draft I started writing down the usual list of fun facts - I hail from Arizona, I like rules and other boring things, blah, blah - but then I was like, “No.”)

So instead, I’m gonna tell you about one of my favorite words, because I think introducing you to one of my favorite words is gonna tell you a lot about me. You ready for this? My happy-place word is BANGARANG.

Do you know this word? Sure you do. Look, take a moment and watch this clip from Hook in which the main character, Peter Banning, goes through some intense physical and mental training, courtesy of his old cronies, the Lost Boys:

Did you catch that there at the end? “Be bangarang!” the Lost Boys chant, trying to jog their formerly glorious leader’s memory on what it was like to be Peter Pan. You don’t yet know what “be bangarang” means, but you know that Robin Williams’ character is not being it.

Anyway, Peter eventually gets it, and his Peter Pan identity is restored to him. Remember that moment later in the film when Banning is so bangarang?

I know. My feelies are fuzzy too.

But there it is ... BANGARANG: the "aha" moment, the proverbial light bulb, the realization of "oh yeah, no shit." Maybe it’s because it’s related to one of my favorite novels, Peter Pan, that I love this word so. Maybe it has to do with that sweet ass food fight. There’s really no way of knowing; knowing is not a science. All I’m saying is that once in a while when I forget where I’m going (second star to the right, and straight on till morning) or what I'm doing, or who I am, it’s nice to be reminded by a raucous and supportive chorus of friends: “Be bangarang.”

And then I’m like, “Yeah, I got this.”