Tidbits

This post may be a bit nerdy, you've been warned. I feel like it's all the little tidbits that we find in things that interest me the most; a reference in a movie, an homage in a book, and in this case, a song at the end of TV show. Stephen Colbert ended the run of his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, this week. I didn't watch it live, I caught the rerun the next day, excited at getting to see the massive celebrity-politico ensemble singing the host off the air. But, after that, at the very end, I was pleasantly surprised by one of those little tidbits I enjoy so much; someone chose to run the credits of the show--the part no one really pays attention to--accompanying the song Holland, 1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel:

This song is among my top 10 list, and the band was one of those bands that made it onto every iPod playlist I made while in college. At first listen, it sounds like just your average, slightly weird, garage rock song...nothing too special. But after a while it sticks with you, the lyrics are haunting, the delivery is intense and spiraling.

The song is about dreams that the singer songwriter had about Anne Frank after visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (hence the title). My thoughts around Colbert's use of the songs went as follows:

"Oh, he has some hipster on his staff who chose the song."

"Or maybe, as the song is largely about death and life thereafter, he's communicating some message about the end of his show?"

"Or, maybe he's making some commentary about violence and politics in the hectic world we live in?"

While all of these might have some truth to them, I found this article on this event on UPROXX.