Almost Famous- a film that has ignited the spark of interest of journalism in my overcrowded, adolescent mind to a flare of curiosity and wonder at the opportunities and freedoms it offers. And even now, as I sit hastily scratching my deepest and most fleeting impulses into this notebook, I can't help but simply marvel at the embodiment of one of my dizziest daydreams into a full-blown flight of the mind.
It has come to my understanding that the film is loosely based off the life and times of it's director, Cameron Crowe, who payed his tribute to Rock and Roll as a journalist/music critic to Rolling Stone Magazine. He toured with various famous rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Eagles.
I have always viewed and appreciated music as an escape; a way to lose yourself in your deepest state of consciousness, and to travel anywhere through time, space, or mind you please. And after watching 'Almost Famous', nothing seems a better alternative than combining the music to which I so desperately cling and the writings to which I dearly pledge my time. However, the time for Rock and Roll has passed. Today's music is that of overblown, overheated celebrities whose songs are cracked plastic taped together by computer-generated drum beats and shallow lyrics. The music that Cameron Crowe critiqued and lived with was genuine, and while majorly drug-induced, it spoke to people. It conquered the hatred and hostility of enemies, the femininity of women, the masculinity of men, the pain of life's consequences, and the truths of life's rewards, and brought together a population of dreamers.