Out of Control

I was driving to school this morning when "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo came on. Anyone who knows anything about my musical loves should know that "Little Girls" is probably one of my most favourite songs ever, by one of my most favourite bands ever. I was ecstatic.

I got to my parking spot, pulled out my headphones (for the first time in, well, a very long time), and walked to class listening to Oingo Boingo. I was in heaven. I hadn't listened to Oingo Boingo in I don't even know how long. Boy, do I love me some Oingo Boingo!

But that's not the point of this post. See, Oingo Boingo has this song called "Out of Control." This is better than "Little Girls," though not as hilariously creepy. This song, as most don't know, is where the title of Without Direction came from.

It's a not-so-well-known tradition of mine to use lyrics from songs as titles for things like plays. There's a line that says, "You're out of control, and you move without direction, and people look right through your soul." The song's always touched me, but I really felt, after writing Without Direction, that it was the right song to get the title from.

Oingo Boingo's songs tend to be pretty funny, but underneath the wit and charm, there's this small hint of profound messages in a lot of their music. I felt like Without Direction took a similar approach: it was pretty much entirely a comedy, every dramatic moment was so overdramatised that it became parody rather than a serious representation of life. But underneath all the comedy, the characters, to me, all fought horrifying internal battles.

And so "Out of Control" became this sort of unspoken theme of Without Direction to me. There's a "theme song" for Where the Wild Berries Grow too, and a whole story behind it, but I'll save that for after the show is first performed and then closed.

To me, the "theme songs" are just this really personal thing between me and the play, between me and the characters. It's not the driving force behind it or anything, but more of a something that months, maybe years, later will bring me right back to the play and the characters. Like an "our song" almost.

Yeah, I think my characters are real. So what? :P

P.S. Two good writer friends of mine just started blogging too, apparently influenced in part by me! Way super cool. Check them out: Aimee and Jeremiah.