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Nikki M. Mascali
While reading the new Rolling Stone — with Green Day on the cover — I came across a brilliant ad for Zippo.
It says “The number of lighters in the air. How America’s rock idols should be chosen,” and shows a crowd of people at a concert clamoring around a hand raising a bad-ass Zippo with a skull and pentagram.
Hell yeah!
It’s no secret I love rock music — classic, metal, ’80s hair. I love it all, and I love it loud.
This Zippo ad hit home because I remember going to rock concerts and raising my very own Zippo or Bic to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” or “Something to Believe In” or “Fly to the Angels” and feeling camaraderie with my fellow Poison or Slaughter fans. To prove that, I have a burn scar on one of my fingers from holding the flame too long when I saw Poison in Hershey in 1991 and the lighter exploded.
Those were the days before everyone and their mother (except my Mom, of course) had cell phones, which now get thrust into the air at concerts instead of lighters. It was a time when you watched and listened to the music and all you took home was your ringing ears, maybe a T-shirt and a few pictures from the camera you smuggled in.
It wasn’t the days where people Twittered live (which I will totally do at my next concert when I get a compatible phone, by the way), or took their own videos they immediately put up on YouTube.
It was a time more innocent. It was a time more rock ’n’ roll because it was about the rock ’n’ roll and not the latest gadget. There’s just something about seeing a sea of orangey-yellow flames and hearing everyone sing in unison that you just don’t get from the white screen of a phone in the air.
Thanks Zippo, for reminding me about this 13-year-old girl’s concert war wound. I can’t wait to get another. Now excuse me, I have a devil horn to throw and a tongue to stick out.
About the Author
Nikki M. Mascali began her career at the Weekender as an intern in 2005 - and holds the honor of being the oldest intern the paper ever had. She received her degree in journalism from Luzerne County Community College in 2007 and joined the Weekender staff full-time in 2006 as staff writer/designer before becoming associate editor in 2010. In March 2011, she was named editor.
Nikki has interviewed everyone from Gene Simmons to Richard Simmons, and her articles have run the gamut from local and national theater to music and in-depth reports on the radio industry and negativity in NEPA.
Nikki enjoys writing, quoting movies, traveling and being a diehard foodie - which is why she pens our weekly food and drink column, "Dish."
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