Bollocks to the Middle

There's an advert currently showing on TV here, I know it's for a reduced calorie spread made from vegetable oil -- as most are -- but what brand it is for, I can't remember.  I'm not its target market, so the advertisers could care less if I remember the specifics. 

They would probably be pleased that I am going to devote a blog post to it, however.

The ad says how wonderful "the middle" is, in that their product isn't "full fat butter" or "skinny marg".  I only know that these spreads aren't margerine from once working on an account doing PR for one such brand -- and having to explain to journalists that it was a misconception.

But it's got me thinking; is the middle really all that great?

We are taught as children it is.  The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, other than being about trespassing or squatting, is about finding that elusive middle area, where things are "just right" -- not too hot or too cold and all the rest.  And sure, moderation is a wonderful thing -- but only in moderation.

You know what the middle says to me?  Middle of the road.  Bland.  Boring.  Inoffensive.  I say here's to the extremes.

Here's to Iggy Pop's album Raw Power -- apparently originally produced by the rock iguana himself.  The story goes that he would be pointing out dials to the sound engineers and demanding to know why this one or that one wasn't in the red.  The album is Iggy Pop at his best, in my opinion -- full throttle, no-holds-barred, and filled with a kind of apocalyptic passion.  It's not the Iggy Pop of today who advertises car insurance.

Here's to not taking things easy sometimes.  Here's to burning the candle at both ends of the day, every once in a while.  Here's to going out late when you have work early the next morning, or planning on one quiet drink and stumbling home in the early hours.  Here's to going to see the Sex Pistols, getting completely trashed, completely missing the support band, part of the start of the Sex Pistols, standing so far back that it could have been anyone on that stage, and being generally so completely out of it that you can barely remember the show at all.

Here's to reading a book cover to cover in one sitting.

Here's to procrastination and leaving things until the last minute.

Here's to the days where it isn't just right out -- but instead cold, incredibly cold, run from the bus stop cold, or the other end of the spectrum -- the days where washing hung outside is dry practically before you get back indoors.  And how on both days you don't want to leave the house.

It isn't always about excess, either.  It can be here to going out on the town on a Friday night and not drinking at all -- not drinking in moderation, but nothing at all.

Here's to being early for work. Hell, here's to being early for anything.

Here's just approaching life as all-or-nothing, sometimes.