The sun’s finally out and the air is buzzing with electricity. Dad’s at work. You’re still home because school’s on a modified schedule for finals. You’ve just downloaded a new way to listen to music, the mp3, using your dial-up MSN connection and a free copy of Napster. The track in question? Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” burned onto a CD-ROM you made yourself, you rock star. The mid-day bus just pulled up. Today’s your last Regents exam before the summer. Didn’t make sense just to live for fun. Your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb. The idea of streaming sounds like science fiction in this era. Like living on the cusp of Gen X and the Millennials, technology pivots between data and physical media. If you could have made a Spotify playlist for that summer, it might sound a lot like this. So much to do, so much to see, so what’s wrong with taking the back streets?

You’ll never know if you don’t go. You’ll never shine if you don’t glow.

(RIP Steve Harwell)