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Music

Your Favorite Band: Jarvis Cocker

The confusion on Jarvis' face was apparent. He looked for answers that I could never give. As I looked upon him I realized that Jarvis Cocker wasn't a rock star. He was still a common person and I liked him that way.

In this final installment of Your Favorite Band, Chris Connelly of Hot Panda emotionally and physically travels through time with Jarvis Cocker.

His lit fag could be seen from across the room, ashes falling, dripping from the shadowed silhouette of a limp wrist swaying back and forth to the sounds of a Lee Hazelwood record permeating the room. I studied him closely, with eyes peeking out from behind my rum and Coke. I was able to make out his thick, black rimmed glasses, that gently caged his  seductive eyes which were now fixed on me. This had been a long time coming.

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I had moved to London one year ago. I was accepted into the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. I was majoring in sculpture, but secretly I was there to study much more.  The school was simply a vessel for my escape, not just of Greece, or Thessaloniki, but from a pampered, predictable life of posh isolation. My Dad was loaded, and I had inherited his family name, synonymous with high tech industry, panoramic views of Aristotelous Square, sailing the Mediterranean. I turned my nose up to these things, I yearned to color my life with chaos of trouble. To explore the dirt, the seedy stench of depravity that oozed from lives of the common people who's stories echoed throughout the shelves of my record collection. I yearned for London.

The music had faded into the background, drowned in a rising silence. Ice cubes clinked against against glass as I lowered my beverage.  "Jarvis?" I inquired, "Isn't it strange how closely our story resembles your song "Common People?" His body tightened up and the silence stiffened. "I'm sorry if I've offend you, but surely you've noticed the similarities?" His forever youthful face emerged from the shadows. "I came from Greece, I have a thirst for knowledge? I'm studying sculpture at St. Martins College? It's a lot like your song Common People." His words finally parted the silence. "I thought you said you were a fan?" I nodded, "Then what album are you talking about? "Separations?" "Freaks?" "It"?" Because I don't know what you're talking about."

The flood gate opened, and a great realization washed over me. "Common People" had not yet been written! Was I the character in the song?  Had I somehow inspired the song that I loved. How could that be? At that moment the fog began to lift. My memory sharpened, narrowing in on a single moment.

I pushed my way through red tape, through red signed doors boldly warned me not to trespass. Caution was set on fire and thrown into the wind. I was not going be stood up by my father. Not on the eve of my departure to London. I was going to see what kept him so busy, what he was working on that was so important that he couldn't see his only child. That's when I found it. Right. There. The time machine. It was time to really escape.

The confusion on Jarvis' face was apparent. He looked for answers that I could never give. As I looked upon him I realized that Jarvis Cocker wasn't  a rock star. He was still a common person and I liked him that way. Maybe things didn't have to change? I could stay with him like this forever. But the seed of the song had already been planted. I knew I couldn't stop it. But maybe I could get someone else to beat him to the punch. Maybe "Common People" could be written by someone else instead… I needed to find William Shatner!

Previously: Your Favorite Band: Bryan Ferry