“Art is the Weapon”

“Art is the weapon against life as a symptom, defend yourself. The aftermath is secondary.”

My Chemical Romance

“Art is the weapon. Your imagination is the ammunition. Stay dirty and stay dangerous. Create and destroy as you see fit.”

Gerard Way

These two quotes came back to the surface of my memory recently. With all of my time off, I have found art, -wether it be music, photography, dance, etc. to be important. For me, personal expression is a crucial part of how I live my day to day life. Music, as you can probably tell, is a huge part of my life. If I’m not listening to music I’m probably sleeping, and even then it’s playing in the background of my subconcious.

Falling back into playing guitar in the past couple of days has made my mental health get back on the rails a little bit more in these uncertain times. Songs like Paperweight by Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk, Angela by The Lumineers, and Pajamas by Gnash have brought me peace in these uncertain times. Who knew that recording Teenagers by My Chemical Romance with my girlfriend would make me so happy. It wasn’t perfect by a longshot, but it was ours.

Not really knowing what to do with myself since the stay home executive order, I’ve been journaling a lot more in addition to playing the guitar. Between that, going on walks, bike rides, and taking photos in my backyard, I’ve been bored. My music selection has fallen back slightly to bands I used to listen to but hadn’t gotten back around to. Paramore’s Riot, Black Veil Brides We Stitch These Wounds, My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and the original broadwat cast recording of Hamilton have been playing on repeat and I am in love again. I honestly forgot how good this music was and now I have finally had time and been in a mindset where I needed those albums again. They were some of the first albums I fell in love with and now I remember why; they bring me comfort in a time of uncertainty. Whether that’s in eigth grade just trying to figure out the world, or in times like these when the entire world is on lockdown. I know it’s important to find things to hold onto and I think I can say that I’m trying. Having time to digest some music definetly has given me a little more rope to grasp onto and pull a little bit of my life back into my dry, cracked, and weathered hands.

The line, “create and destroy as you see fit,” from the quote above is really striking a chord with me right now. I think the whole point of art and the purpose of it is to create and destroy as we see fit. Art is simply creation. Again, whether it’s music or photography or whatever else, it’s creating new things all the time while destroying others in the same breath. In My Chemical Romance’s concept album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, there is a song titled Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back. This song has incredibly insightful verses followed by an inspiring chorus. Of these lyrics is the line,

“It ain’t about all the friends you’ve made
But the graffiti they write on your grave.”

In my opinion, this is turning something tragic into something of beauty -not to be confused with the romanticization of death which I think is all to popular nowadays, but that’s a whole other discussion. I think they’re talking about the fact that it’s not about who you meet or who you make an impression on. It’s about how they remember you. How they make your memory live forever or lack therof. Anyway, my point is it’s a great song that has been insightful for me recently.

• 

• 

Some snapshots from my journal the past couple of days.

Hope everything is well as we continue to struggle with this new normal, I know I certainly am.

Wishing you all the best

Stan