The conclusion I have reached after watching this video every day for a week.
I self-imposed this assignment because things are pretty quiet show-wise for awhile, and to be honest, my mind goes downhill pretty fast in those times. It’s a silly task, I know. Especially because I definitely have posts I have to catch up on for concerts I just went to. Also because these song choices Metallica made are hilarious more than they are inspiring. But if you’ve been reading, it’s clear my passion for this video is not about the songs themselves so much as the backstory that makes it so meaningful to me.
I didn’t have anything in mind about what I hoped to learn about myself by making this wonderful performance part of my daily routine, except whether or not I would get sick of this video. By the way, I have not. If anything I want to watch it more and, on some days, watched a second time later in the day. But despite not having any goals with this, there were some things that came to light in the past week.
One thing was that it did matter to have this as part of my plan when I woke up each day. I knew I had something to look forward to, even though it only took up a few minutes of my day. It prompted me to go deeper on this band than I already had before this. Plus writing about what I love makes me happy, even if no one is going to read it. I have too many thoughts in my head at all times and it’s nice to get some of them out on paper and make sense of all of it. But sometimes someone does see it and connects with it, which adds to the whole experience for me too. So if you’re a fellow Metallica freak reading this, I hope you enjoyed it.
Another thing was that this video made me seek out as much Metallica as my day could handle. I mean I was a fan before, going back to the Black Album. But now, I want to catch up on tours or interviews and anything else I missed before I really started keeping up with what they were doing. That didn’t happen until the turn of the Century when I saw them at Foxboro Stadium with KORN and Kid Rock. During these binges, I’ve really gotten educated on how much they changed as humans for the better. We knew this from “Some Kind of Monster” (and of course “Behind The Music”). But it’s cool to see footage of the era before that, especially since YouTube contains bunches of uncut footage of conversations. I was mostly looking up what transpired around the time of Load, because it’s a really interesting phase they were in at that time (which I go into on Day 4 of this series).
Finally, besides affirming my rage towards people who get physically involved with things happening on the stage (especially if it includes a sunflower apparently), I’m in a place where I want to do better for myself. I mean, I felt like that going into this, but in the past week I felt a little more proactive. Whether it’s improving my diet because James looks so fit in this video, or being less afraid to go against my nature and stand up for myself in a situation that’s not working for me. Or even allowing myself to do something goofy in front of internet eyes like this altogether. Witnessing their rebellion in action definitely had on effect on me. At least this week!
In closing, I will say that I’m glad I did this ridiculous experiment. I don’t know what I would have done with my time otherwise. But I’m sure I wouldn’t have made a few key changes short term that will matter long term. I know that slowly absorbing Metallica’s attitude into my system definitely did something to me. I hope it keeps up. If it doesn’t, I know what YouTube video to visit to set me right again.
