"Chalk White and Oh-So Frail."

I really lucked out in elementary school. I was a super scrawny, goofy redhead with a temper and a bad mouth. In theory I should have gotten way more kicks to the ass than I recieved. Marin Elementary was pretty friendly though. I was a class clown and only the real assholes hated me for being the absolute worst kickball player they ever played with. At school I spent a good long time getting to know everyone, so I wasn't judged solely on my pale, brittle exterior.
When I started going to the Berkeley JCC after school in the 3rd grade, things changed drastically. I was the shy new kid. No getting-to-know-me period, that's just what I was. I'd be walking down the hall and the bullies would spot me. Boom, headlock. I remember once getting locked in a full nelson right in front of my dad when he came to pick me up. My dad asked me about it on the way home, and I told him not to do anything about it because I felt like it would just make the situation worse. Classic bullying.
They picked on me for weeks. I was pretty much exiled from the outdoor area after a game of soccer where I proved to be a devastatingly ineffective goalie. I hated the way they pushed me around and I wasn't going to take it anymore! So did I wise up and tell an adult? Better! I ran and hid.
One of my favorite ways to avoid bullies at the JCC was to chill with the lazy counselors who kicked it in the little indoor lounge area while the big guys played sports. Inside was where the snack was kept, and there was a radio that I was free to tune to any station I wanted. So I would eat chips and salsa (sometimes for snack they just set out a huge pot of cold white rice. What?) and do arts and crafts while rocking out to The Z: Z-95.7.

Eve 6 |MTV Music

Trends Spotted: Crazy bright colored set pieces.

I remember this song well for several reasons: First of all, it's catchy as hell. The chorus just stuck with me. Also, they played the crap out of this one. One time a counselor asked me if I just brought in a tape with this song every day and put it in the radio. Nope, the DJ at the Z loved him some Eve 6.
Also, they played the video a bunch on MTV's Say What? The show where they had a side-scrolling bar of the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. This show was doubly awesome because you could learn the lyrics AND have a little 30 minute karaoke session in your room once you knew the song well enough.
The final reason this song and video sticks out in my mind so well is at the time, my brother and the lead singer looked fairly similar. The faces weren't an uncanny match but my brother used to have short red hair like the guy in the video. I remember telling him this as our mom drove us home one day, and he just kind of shrugged it off like he didn't want to hear me say that. I meant it as a compliment because I thought the song was cool. Later in life, I would come to realize that he reacted the way he did because it's simply never fun for a guy with red hair to be given the news that he looks like someone else with red hair. This is because there are no handsome red heads. It very well may come from a sincere, well meaning place in your heart as a compliment. But the truth is we already know we're all just goofy looking. So save it and just tell your ginger pal that he's got cool sneakers on or something equally harmless.