Anyway, the blog title comes from a Jawbreaker song about two intelligent people who are romantically drawn to each other but can't get it together because of their needlessly pessimistic and "realistic" attitudes towards what could possibly happen. The narrator of the song, convinced that he's "too dumb" to talk to someone who's "too quick to listen" to him, turns to simple divination and ritual in an attempt to win the heart of the one he admires, becoming a "superstitious hyperrealist" by pragmatically adapting a highly whimsical approach to reaching a goal.
I think the song is about the shortcomings in overthinking the risk in every situation, as well as thinking about the future rather than the moment. The narrator longs for and also fears losing rain and road, Egyptian ruins, and first kisses that haven't happened yet. Meanwhile at present, both he and the person he's into are both alone separated only by 20 blocks. The narrator, in his own cynicism, calculates that a vaguely passive superstitious attitude is the only viable option to make this work, when really walking down 20 blocks and telling the other person what's up would probably be the best way of going about it. However, it takes a lot of confidence to do that, to put oneself in such a vulnerable position where both success and failure are immediate.
As much as I wouldn't like to sound like a life-coach or a stockbroker, risk taking behavior can be rewarding, especially when the risk actually isn't that high like in a romantic situation. "Who Dares Wins" is the motto of the Army Rangers, a unit who historically have scaled cliffs and dropped into warzones from helicopters. They confidently face risk when injury and death are involved. Love is not as threatening, so I think it's reasonable to adapt that motto to it. I think superstition as a supplement to a risk taking approach is also reasonable. If you think saying "rabbit rabbit" on the first will make life easier, go for it, just don't rely only on that.
I haven't seen a lot of in depth discussion about Jawbreaker both in person or online, even though they are a band that a lot of people like. They have a strong feminine appeal for a gruff sounding pop punk band. The biggest Jawbreaker worship band is arguably Lemuria, a band fronted by a woman who takes the noisy and melodic guitarwork of Blake Schwartzenbach even farther. A lot of the people playing Jawbreaker covers on youtube are women, and in the forum buzz surrounding the essay "Emo: Where the Girls Aren't" by Jessica Hopper, a lot of women cited Jawbreaker as an all male band who didn't make women out to be one or two dimensional (I never understood the rhetorical distinction between these two) in their lyrics. That's actually really cool from a sociological standpoint.
So in conclusion, don't exclusively rely on Wicca or Satanism or Tarot to get what you want in life. Be more daring. Also, talk about Jawbreaker with your friends.
