So he started rocking, ain’t never gonna stop
Gotta keep on rocking, someday gonna make it to the top

And be a juke box hero, got stars in his eyes
He’s a juke box hero
He took one guitar
Juke box hero, stars in his eyes
Juke box hero, stars in his eyes
He’ll come alive tonight

Since I have been on a ‘Jack Black’ blog kick, I might as well continue with it because I have more to say. I am basically in love with him. No, no, this is not a confessional blog-moment to let my partner know through oblique (and embarrassing) means that I am no longer satisfied with his lovin’ because he is just not AS ‘rockin’ as the Black. Indeed, he is not as rockin’ in that rock sort of way. But I am really in love with the idea of Jack Black, of what he represents, as opposed to the flesh and blood of the Black, which actually does not do much for me (sorry mr. black, I know this news will disappoint…).

You see, friends think that I am infatuated with him just because I tend to love dorkorific movies and tv shows. And they are so right. At some level, I love him for the inane mindless fun he provides and I am sure I will never ever be able to adequately convey the joy I receive from sub-standard slapstick movies. But in this case, there is more than beholds the eye. You see, Jack Black is on the outside of the institutional milieu of rock and this is where his power, intrigue, and appeal lies.

He is a fringe figure who is not connected to the glam, to the lifestyle, to the pressures, and privileges of what is social membership in the Halls of Rock and Roll. And he is aware of his outsider status, always sort of trying to get in, but also continuing to rock with total passion, gusto, and bravado, even when he so clearly is running in place; he is gets no where, he gets little prestige, yet he rocks ON. Who knew when Foreigner wrote
Juke Box Hero that THAT HERO would be Jack Black?

This outsider status puts him in a position of a peculiar type pf reflexivity, which leads him to do whatever the hell he wants, so that in fact, he lives true to the spirit of Rock in Roll in a way that those in the inside, can never really fully or at least always do (I mean there are some exceptions like Black Sabbath, the Who and Journey (Journey??!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I am sorry, I like cheese rock)). He is not bound to the II, the Institutional Imperative, whether it is reputation, profit, you know the bull that comes with being part of any discrete social world that defines the permissible and impermissible, the aesthetically pleasing and displeasing, and the morally right and wrong. He does as he pleases, taking the essential form of Rock and Roll, of what it is supposed to represent and do, and belts with freedom as there is NO consequence in doing so. At times you are not sure if he is tauting it or actually loving it but you know he wants to go further than any Rock and Roller has ever gone even though really he never goes makes it ahead.

It is the ambiguity of play and performance, of his desire and taunting, of his creation and degradation, that I find so appealing about the Black. He can do things, that you know, would not necessarily fly if he were part of the establishment. Perhaps I am so obsessing over him and what he represents at the point when I inch a little closer to a professional life as an academic (though I have serious doubts right now if this will actually happen or if I want it to happen for that matter). Being a student, though it is surely still part of the ‘blishment, is still not totally quite there. There is more license to move, to be daring, to slack, to follow your inner paths and interests, you know do what the Black GOOF OFF and just ‘be’ in your learning and exploration and have fun in a way that I am afraid I will have to give up (it seems so to me, I can be totally wrong as I have never been on the other side of the moon).

And yes, I know savvy readers, what I think the Black represents, is just a mass-media construction feeding off the American myth of individual independence and freedom from [X] contraint. I mean I know the DUDE has actually MADE IT! He is