Questions Designed to Provoke Light Discussion of Death, Money, Love, Loneliness, and Pop Music: A Reading Group Guide For Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy

Please enjoy this complimentary Reading Group Guide.

1. What is it that makes Dan Kennedy (untraditionally) handsome, interesting, an outdoor type, a good listener/non-drinker/non-smoker? Female members of discussion group should break off into pairs and discuss.

2. How did you feel after reading Rock On, then discussing question number one and basically admitting that you would probably fall in love with Dan Kennedy if his current girlfriend reads this book, realizes he can't hold a job, and subsequently dumps him? For this one you simply email your answer and contact information to dskmail@earthlink.net.

3. Did you know that these questions were written by a professional marketing person who works in the publisher's offices, and not by Dan Kennedy, and therefore aren't inappropriate or odd in that regard? Discuss.

4. Here's one for everyone in the discussion group: Have you ever felt like you had to set yourself aside, almost become someone else, in order to succeed in an office environment? And did it leave you longing to simply get back to being the person you set aside, the person who used to feel certain ways about the world outside and notice small details like, say, the way the late morning light became perfect in the kitchen when the windows were a little bit dirty, diffusing the sunlight? Where did the real you go? Is it all just part of growing up, setting aside the person you thought you had become? Or is it that the world a place that requires a certain amount of discipline and effort from one who expects to continually see the small details and romance in the little day-to-day stuff, much less be inspired by it? We long for who we thought were, yet we expect certain growth and transformation; we long for greatness, but is it fair to expect it to come without any measure of pain, change, desperation? And without the haunting feeling that every own we've lived in and every person we ever loved is fading faster than we can build the things that are supposed to fill h space they will leave in us? Are we all expecting too much? Goddamn these days we find ourselves in. On the other hand, what a gift. Jesus - what's the question again?

5. If you had to pick just three thousand MP3s to be stuck on a desert island with, what would those three thousand songs be? And give a reason why you chose each particular one when you read the titles of the songs to the discussion group.

6. As people, we veer so oddly between thinking it's too late for the likes of us, and then in the next moment thinking we're at the beginning of it all. I'm going to give you the answer to this one: True.

7. Okay, let's see . . . Would you consider starting a band in your 30's, 40's, 50's or even later in life? Why is the act of playing music taken with such an ambitious careerist forethought by most people? Granted, it gets kind of sad when it's people, say, Dan Kennedy's age (dskmail@earthlink.net) get drunk on sensible wine at a dinner party and someone decides, "Hey let's have a jam session and drink more wine!" And when someone goes, "Oh, I don't play an instrument" the others say, "Oh, that's okay, just play." But what would the crime be in forming a decent band at, for example, age thirty or forty or . . . ? Really, is that a crime? (Last part of question is rhetorical. Obviously not crime, per se.)

8. In Rock On the new boss who was promoted to head of the department wore sunglasses in the morning marketing meeting. What's the most grossly and sadly ego-driven behavior you recall from a former boss at a day job?

9a. Would you consider listening to the albums Engine or California by American Music Club? Terrific. But be careful, it's kind of heavy stuff. It's almost funny how heavy and sad it gets. Don't take it too seriously, but, man, what beautiful songs from way back. Is it wrong to advocate albums that came out eighteen years ago? (Correct answer: "No, it is nothing to be embarrassed about. Don't worry.")

9b. If you're trapped in the melancholy of the AMC songs, maybe counteract it with an antidote of something hopeful and stable from The Replacements, Built to Spill, Guided By Voices, The Pixies, Queens of the Stoneage, Tommy Stinson, Arcade Fire, or Brian Wilson.

10. There is more love and money in the world than you could ever imagine. There was a nature show once where this guy found a bluff in New Mexico where these snakes were mating. Swear to god, no exaggeration, there were easily a couple hundred thousand snakes in just the one little patch of the bluff that he was standing next to. They were stacked, like, four feet deep. Who could even imagine that many snakes, even if someone told you about seeing that many? Anyway, don't you think that's the way it is with love and money, too? Seriously, don't you think so? You know, like, there's so much of it and one just has to find it? This has nothing to do with the book, but, honestly, there must be an unbelievable amount of abundance in this world that we can't even begin to imagine. Almost like we shouldn't bother trying to imagine our futures if we really want them to b beyond our wildest dreams and imagination. Then again, they say to meditate and visualize things, so...whatever, it's all screwed up out here, nobody knows what the hell is going on. Right? Discuss, but get back to talking about Rock On by Dan Kennedy at some point.

11. Damn. It's late. I've been on a plane for the last eight hours and have that plane thing going on where, like, you'll see an advertisement for antihistamines on TV and almost start crying at all the things the voice over guy was saying about life being beautiful and how we all deserve to breathe freely. Is this all just crazy talk? It feels like, "Will it be weird for us now after this?" I kind of doubt the publisher will actually put this discussion guide in the book.

12. Book groups and book clubs and discussion groups are important, though! Anything besides going to the office, coming home, going to the office, coming home, is an important use of time. It's amazing how little effort it takes to enrich our day-to-day lives. Read a book and schedule a time to meet and discuss it, and you're ahead of, like, 80 percent of the populace in terms of mental stimulation. Um . . . let's see here, right . . . we need a question in this one. Okay, so: What was one thing you, uh, liked about the ending of Rock On? Break into groups of three and discuss.

13. There's this Nappy Roots lyric that goes, "String beans, pork chops, what's fucking with that?" Sorry for the profanity, but that one little line might be one of my favorite rap lyrics of all time. I honestly hold it in the same regard as "Things Done Changed" by Notorious B.I.G. Is profanity necessary in expressing oneself? Would this lyric be nearly as fun, entertaining, sincere without profanity? Like, would you rather it were left as is or changed to one of the following:

A) String beans, pork chops, who's to say these foods are wrong in any way?
B) String beans, pork chops, hoorah.
C) String beans, pork chops (silence).