How To Celebrate Rex Manning Day, Part 2

Hullo, all! Or, rather, “Empire Records, ‘Open Until Midnight!’ …midnight!”

I hope you had a lovely Rex Manning Day, full of Empire-y goodness, “deep fried in a vat of hot oil and served to our first hundred customers!” As promised, here is the list from my last post, and what I did in order to celebrate Rex Manning Day as best as I could:

1) Watch the film
Yup, totally did this with the husband, who also loves Empire Records. I actually didn’t know that until after we got married (kinda shocking, I know), so, hey, “The couple that Empires together, stays together.” Or something like that.

2) Play the tunes from the film
I actually work in two different locations, and thankfully my location today allows me to listen to MY music, as in, it’s quiet, secluded, and I use a laptop. So, you’d better believe that I was rocking out to Empire tunes all day! Bonus – I set my alarm on my cell to wake me up to my Empire Records playlist. Best wakeup ever!

3) Call your boss “Joe” for the day
As cool as both of my bosses are, I’m on a… “sillier” basis with the one at my other location, so I could have called him Joe. Not the boss from today, no. (Watch me find out later that he loves Empire Records…)

4) Chose 90’s/Empire-y clothing
The only thing I had to wear was something plaid, a scarf. My husband doesn’t own navy undies (although, really, he should, right? Blue IS my fave colour), I very much doubt he'd wear a purple silk shirt (Correction: apparently he would "maybe" wear one...huh...) and I don’t own a red bra…yet… As for buttons, I have cool ones, but I’ve put them on my purse. So yeah, I still give this item a checkmark for completion!



5) Eat foods/drink beverages used in the film
Pizza, check. Brownies WITH mini M&Ms, check. Peanut M&Ms, check. Cupcakes would be a little overkill at this point (and I make them all the time anyway). Didn’t have a red solo cup, but I drank my beer in a Star Wars cup, and Star Wars has Han SOLO, soooo…yeah? I drink coffee every morning, but I don’t like it too sweet (especially since I knew I’d be eating kinda junky today…well, I had sushi and salad at lunch!)

6) Make a choice with M&Ms
I had no pressing decisions when I opened the bag of M&Ms, so I used them to decide what I’d eat for lunch first – salad, or sushi? Salad won, with “o-range!”

7) Tell someone you love them by 1:37 PM exactly
Yup, did this. Told a few people, actually. It seemed a little silly (maybe because it had a deadline?) but I truthfully meant it when I said it to each person. I think this should really be a daily practice, saying and MEANING “I love you” to others. This world can be really harsh, and we don’t always get to dance on the roof with our friends while “This is The Day” by The The plays. Be the bright spot for someone, you never know what it might mean to them.

8) Be philosophical
In writing this post, I’ve had to get a little “deep.” (See Item 7, also see Item 10.) Plus, I’ve given some advice to a friend (also an Empire Records fan), so I feel this item is covered.

9) Take a chance with your money
I, uh...I failed at this. Just ran out of time today! Meh, just giving me money is taking a chance...ha ha ha, I kid, I kid...

10) Find a way to Damn the man, and save the Empire
This was kind of tough, since I am not aware of any corporations taking over something I’m close to. (Well, ok, I MIGHT consider Undertaker losing to Brock Lesnar as something similar. I've already unLiked and stopped following WWE on all my social medias. What a joke.) So, I scaled back, and thought, “What was at the core of this saying?” Fittingly, I think it’s the same idea from a well-known song: “You gotta fight for your right to party!” Nothing worth having in this life comes easy. The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Any way you slice it: work hard for what you really want, stand up for what you believe in, fight the good fight – by yourself or with a like-minded group. I had a fairly typical day today. I can’t point to something today and go, “Oh, hey, I really raged against the machine here." I think what should be most important is that WHEN “the man” gets you down, you take a stand. Also, in the same vein as telling people you love them, if you see someone struggling because "the man" has got them down, come up beside them so they know they aren’t alone. Be the person that covers for Lucas until things get sorted, and when they do get settled, go dance on the roof together. It doesn't matter what "the man" represents to you or someone else - if it's in the way of happiness, progress, positivity, whatever, do what it takes to overcome it!

11) Bonus Entry!!!!
I actually changed my phone notification to Mark yelling, “Damn the man! Save the Empire!” during his interview after Warren "shoots up" the place. It’s been pretty sweet any time I get a text.

Well, that’s Rex Manning Day 2014. Special thanks to @LinerNotes for quoting my original post in his post about today, which you can read here. I agree with his thoughts about Record Store Day, and was actually thinking about how Empire Records is becoming more and more important, and even more culturally relevant, as the years go by. In a world of insta-EVERYTHING, downloads of any music you could want, streaming, and file sharing, going to a record store maybe doesn’t seem so appealing. I’ll be 30 this year, so I still remember how excited I’d get when I got my allowance and could go to the record store to buy the next CD I wanted. I’ll admit, a lot of my music is downloaded, but there’s a fair chunk that’s ripped from the actual CDs. I refuse to own an entire album by downloading it – I’d much rather physically have the CD if I’m going to listen to the entire thing. It’s also become more of a cause for me since my husband and I have friends that are in bands (and my husband has dabbled in recording as well), and you see how hard they work just to play a gig or get some airplay.

Anyway, that’s all for now, my friends. Until next time, keep rockin’!

How To Celebrate Rex Manning Day, Part 1

We’re just gonna ignore the ridiculous time span between this post and my last post, ok? Ok.

Today is one week away from “Rex Manning Day.” Rex Manning Day is the day that the film Empire Records takes place on – well, MOST of the film does. It starts the night before, and presumably ends after midnight on Rex Manning Day. Now, I apologize, but if you’ve never watched the film, this entire post will make no sense/sound pretty silly. So, if you want, head to posts you haven’t read! I have a lot about cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes?!

As a fan of the movie, you’re probably eager to celebrate Rex Manning Day, most likely by watching Empire Records for the billionth time. But, if you’re like me, you like to put a little effort into things that mean a lot to you, so JUST watching the movie feels like you’re, well, kinda phoning it in. Fear not! I have come up with some ideas to make Rex Manning Day as Empire-y as possible. This post is gonna be the “A-side” and I’ll complete the “B-side” next week with the items I did do. Alright? Alright.

1) First and foremost, watch the movie at least once. If you own the DVD, watch all the special features, too.

2) I’m going to make an assumption here – risky, I know. I’m going to assume you have at least one song from the movie in your music collection. Take time to listen to the music featured in the film! Listen to the soundtrack, listen to the songs you had to download because they weren’t on the soundtrack, listen to your comprehensive Empire Records playlist. Bonus points if you get to play “Money (That’s What I Want)” on the PA system at your workplace, use “If You Want Blood (You Got It)” to relieve some stress, or dance with your friends on the roof while “This Is The Day” plays.

3) If your boss isn’t named Joe, ask him (or even her!) if you can call them Joe, just for today.

4) If you can, wear something plaid, a black turtleneck, or a sweet purple satin shirt. Men, how about a pair of Jockeys, navy blue? Letting someone guess the brand and colour is up to you. Ladies, rock a red bra. If you feel so inclined, take it off halfway through the day and leave it on your lunch table. (SIDENOTE – Uhhh, don’t blame me if you get caught for indecent exposure or something. Corey took it off UNDER her shirt, remember?) If you have access to a button-maker, or you have some sweet buttons, make/wear them!

5) Eat pizza, brownies, cupcakes, and M & M’s. Drink beer in a red solo cup. Drink coffee with enough sugar to cause a diabetic coma.

6) Before you eat your M & M’s, make at least one decision by assigning different outcomes to different colours. Whatever color you pull out of the M & M bag first is what you do!

7) Tell someone you love them by 1:37 PM exactly. Even better if it’s your secret crush!

8) Try and spout some philosophical, deep thoughts during the day. Tap into your inner “Chinese guy from the Karate Kid.” If you’re having a brain fart, simply quoting Lucas will suffice.

9) Play a game of Craps, or whatever you wish – Poker, Roulette, or scratch a lotto ticket. Take a chance with some money, preferably yours. You could try and use the bank deposit from your workplace, buuut you’ll probably end up in jail.

10) Last, and certainly never least – find a way to damn the man, and save the Empire.

That’s what I’ve got – if you have any other ideas, please feel free to share! Until then, always remember, “Play with their minds…”