My New Year's Strategy
Paniots Nine - Joe Maneri (Blast from the Past Sunday)
Well, it’s officially the last day of 2023! It was a pretty great year for me, and I hope that you can say the same. When I reflect back on these past few months, I see a lot of joy and good times. However, I believe this type of rose-colored look back can really only be achieved by having the proper outlet for when you do get annoyed at things. For me, my number one outlet for any bad feelings I have is to listen to music, and no song is better for this than 1998’s “Paniots Nine”, recorded by saxophonist Joe Maneri.
I first heard this song in March when, on a sick day off from school, I decided to watch the movie American Splendor. “Paniots Nine” has one of the best uses of a song in a movie ever — as an intro song that’s switched on right when the younger version of the main character, exhausted and annoyed at life, proclaims “Why’s everybody gotta be so stupid?!”. Every time I hear the song, I’m reminded of that line, and it turns me into a curmudgeon for its duration. It’s really one of my favorite activities!
“Paniots Nine” certainly is a song that supports curmudgeonly behavior. It’s a song that almost seems to outpace itself, with racing drums and stand-up bass, all punctuated by a saxophone that almost sounds like it’s running out of breath at points due to the weird time signature. All of that makes it a perfect jazz song, at least to me.
So, before you go to your New Year’s Eve parties tonight, I recommend listening to “Paniots Nine” and airing out all the grievances in your mind. It’ll take three minutes and twenty three seconds to get rid of all that animosity, and then you can start your 2024 in the best way possible. Happy (almost) New Year!
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