Goodbye MCA, Thanks For The Smiles

A lot has happened in the world during the last few days. France has elected a president who wants to take the country (and continent) in a new direction. Greece, which has been in dire straits for a long time now, has elected a cluster-f**k of extremists thereby proving the old adage "It can always be worse," Putin is no longer pretending that he's not the only real person in charge of Russia, Syria is holding a farce of an election, blind chinese dissidents are suddenly on everybody's radar and...well, the list goes on and on.

But I'm going to leave all that to the political pundits, human rights activists and economists. What I want to talk about is the great loss the world experienced on Friday, the loss of The Beastie Boys' MCA.

I know MCA's death doesn't even compare with the tragedy of what's happening to Syrian protesters or anything but the fact is that the Beastie Boys have been a part of most of our lives for decades now. I distinctly remember blasting them and Offspring at college parties. But while Offspring is now making a comeback, the Beastie Boys never left. From the moment they told us to fight for our right to party they have been hot. They were on my radio when I got my first car at 16. They were on my radio during my college years, their new releases were playing while I was planning my wedding, and also when I was filing for divorce. They were coming out with new hits when my son started kindergarten, when I was getting my first book deal and so on and so forth. Everyone between the ages of 12 and 50 thinks of the Beastie Boys as a band of their generation. If you think about it, that's pretty amazing. And I think their secret is that their music is just inherently fun. Not only is it catchy, clever in it's incorporation of bits of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin and cool to rock out to but their sense of humor is clearly present in each one of their singles. They never take themselves too seriously and that just makes us love them more. They don't have to be musical geniuses, they just have to make us smile. And they always do.

Saturday I went through yet another break-up (with the same person I've broken up with two times before...long, pathetic story). I went to my friend Robin's house to lament my state of affairs. She listened and said all the things friends are supposed to say in such situations; you know, the girlfriend-standby line:  "You're 100% right and he's totally crazy" Always good to hear regardless of the details of the situation. But it was what she did next that turned the day around for me. She pulled out an old Beastie Boys' CD and blasted it...and I mean blasted it at a nightclub/frat-party volume and she danced with me. We spent at least a half hour or more dancing around her living room screaming. "No sleep till Brooklyn!" and "Listen all of y'all it's sabotage!" and...well, you know the songs.

And suddenly the day wasn't so bad. It was silly and fun. As they had so many times in the past, Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA made me smile.

So yes, I realize the loss of MCA doesn't qualify as a global crisis but I and so many others owe them for providing us much needed distraction from the world and its problems (as well as the problems of our own personal life).

MCA, you will be dearly missed.


Kyra Davis
 Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series, 
and 
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING

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