In a Young Man’s Mind

This is the song playing when Dave, Zach, and Brian run into Mrs Kim when their car is stuck at the red light.

“In a Young Man’s Mind” is a song by the garage rock band The Mooney Suzuki, from their 2002 album, Electric Sweat. The song was released as a single in 2003.

Part of the lyrics say:

A kid with a guitar
What does he wanna do?
We’ll be like Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page, and Hendrix too
We’re gonna learn how to play
And practice it everyday
But I was really feelin’
I might come a lady’s way

In a young man’s mind
It’s a simple world
There’s a little bit of music
And the rest is girls

Something of a comment on the guys in the band!

When Mrs Kim asks what Dave is doing with these alarming-looking boys, he pretends that he is also in a Christian band, and they are his bandmates. Mrs Kim warns him that Lane has a crush on him, and says she is interested in hiring them some time. Dave gets away with it for another day, although the squeaks are getting narrower.

Sushi

BRIAN: Well, I’m sick of burgers, so if it could be a place that has more than burgers –
ZACH: What do you want, like a three-dollar sushi place?

Sushi, a Japanese dish of vinegared rice, accompanied by a variety of ingredient, such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is “sushi rice”. Although fermented rice has long been eaten in South-East Asia, the creator of modern sushi is believed to be Hanaya Yohei, who in 1824 invented the type of sushi most known today, in which seafood is placed on hand-pressed vinegared rice. It was the fast food of its day.

The word sushi has been recognised in English since the late 19th century, although Western-style sushi has variations which are rarely found in Japan itself. Sushi has been popular in the US since the 1970s, beginning in California.

Lord Jim

EMILY: Oh, and that attitude – I wanted to slap that monosyllabic mouth of his. And God forbid they’re in another accident together or his heap of a car breaks down and Lord Jim has decided cell phones are beneath him and they’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. How can you let this happen? He had a black eye. He belongs in jail!

Lord Jim, 1900 novel by Joseph Conrad. The novel features a young British seaman named Jim, who is working on a steamship where the captain and crew abandon the passengers when the ship begins sinking. Although Jim argued for the passengers being saved, he leaps into the rescue boat with the rest of the crew.

Wracked with guilt, Jim finds other jobs on ships, but leaves abruptly once his disgrace becomes known. After getting into a fist fight in Bangkok, Jim is offered the chance to redeem himself by becoming a trade representative in a village on a remote island that that is shut off from most commerce. He becomes successful here, and called “Lord Jim” by the villagers, but comes to grief two years later.

Jim doesn’t seem terrifically similar to Jess, and I can only think Emily is thinking of the fist fight (which Jess didn’t get into, but she thinks he did), and the life of disgrace which leads him to find sanctuary in a remote village (which is how she apparently sees Stars Hollow!).

Emily Lets Loose

Rory was so upset over her fight with Jess that she stayed with Emily overnight. When Lorelai asks to speak to Emily, Emily tells her what she really thought of Jess – she was horrified and disgusted by his behaviour, and thought he was abominably rude. She is also still angry about the car accident, which she completely blames Jess for.

Just as Richard saw Dean as not good enough for his precious granddaughter, Emily sees Jess as not good enough for Rory. But she is taking her own advice to be polite and welcoming to Jess, because she doesn’t want to alienate her granddaughter. And of course, it is all Lorelai’s fault for allowing Rory to date Jess!

Dean Martin, New York Mining Disaster

LORELAI: Then we picked the same Dean Martin song on the jukebox twenty-five times and people started complaining, so we picked the Bee Gees’ “New York Mining Disaster” and they begged for Dean Martin back.

Dean Martin, previously discussed. It would be interesting to speculate which Dean Martin song they kept playing – my guess would be his signature song “That’s Amore”, which begins, When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie. It makes sense that a pizza place would have that song on the jukebox. Unfortunately, it looks as if John’s of Bleeker Street doesn’t actually have a jukebox. Possibly the jukebox was somewhere else.

“New York Mining Disaster 1941”, the 1967 international debut single by the Bee Gees, written by Barry and Robin Gibb, and their first song to hit the charts in both the UK and US. It received a lot of attention, because rumours had been circulated that the Bee Gees were actually The Beatles, playing under assumed names. It went to #12 in the UK and #14 in the US, and was most popular in the Netherlands and New Zealand, at #3.

Barry and Robin wrote the song sitting in darkness during a power cut. The song recounts the story of a miner trapped in a cave-in. According to the Gibb brothers, the song was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan disaster in Wales. According to Robin, there actually had also been a mining disaster in New York in 1939, but not in 1941, and he thought “New York” sounded more “glamorous”.

Pizza at John’s in the Village

RORY: How’s it going?
LORELAI: Good. A lot of walking. We all had pizza at John’s in the village and wrote a musical.

John’s of Bleecker Street, simply known as John’s Pizzeria, is a historic pizzeria in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Founded in 1929, John’s is known for its graffiti-carved wooden booths where any patron can carve their name. It has been ranked as one of the best pizzerias in the US.

Moose Murders

ALEX: This is the worst piece of crap I’ve ever seen … I saw Moose Murders. This stinks worse.

Moose Murders, a play by Arthur Bicknell, self-described as a mystery farce. A notorious flop, it is now widely considered the standard of awfulness against which all Broadway failures are judged, and its name has become synonymous with those distinctively bad Broadway plays that open and close on the same night. It had its single performance (excluding 13 previews) at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on February 22, 1983.

Despite the scathing reviews and its bad reputation, it has been staged by community theatre groups a number of times – it’s possible Alex saw one of these, rather than the original Broadway show in the early 1980s, which seems a bit unlikely.

Big White Stetson

JESS: What if Dean had sucker-punched me and I had to defend myself? You’re not even considering the possibility that that’s what happened?
RORY: Dean wouldn’t do that.
JESS: Oh, no, he might get his big white Stetson dirty.

Stetson, a brand of hat symbolic of the pioneering West, made by the John B. Stetson Company, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1865. They quickly became associated with legends of the old West who wore Stetsons, such as Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Will Rogers, and Annie Oakley.

Later, cowboys in Western movies were invariably shown wearing Stetson hats – in film symbology, the “good guys” are often thought of as wearing white Stetsons, and the “bad guys” black ones. In actual fact, it isn’t as clear cut as people seem to remember this trope, but film and TV cowboys such as Tom Mix and the Lone Ranger must have helped cement the idea of the good guy wearing a white hat.

Wal-Mart

EMILY: So, Rory tells me you’re part of the Wal-Mart corporation .. They sound like wonderful stores … We’ve never actually been inside one, but we own the stock.
JESS: Thanks for the paycheck.

Wal-Mart, previously discussed.

A very Emily thing to say here – she’s never been in a Wal-Mart, but she owns stock in the business, she tells Jess, who works for Wal-Mart. Quite a way to put him in his place. We Gilmores own you, Mariano!

Big Rig, Bennies and Goofballs

EMILY: There was something with a big rig. Oh, those things, they scare the life out of me. And apparently, all the men who drive them are hopped up on bennies and goofballs.

Big rig, informal English for a large truck, an 18-wheeler – otherwise known as a semi-trailer truck, a semi-trailer, a semi-truck, or just a semi.

Bennies, slang for the drug Benzedrine, an amphetamine used recreationally since the 1920s.

Goofballs, slang for tranquilisers or sleeping pills, used as a recreational drug. Note that you can’t really get “hopped up” on sleeping pills, and taking them alongside amphetamines seems counterproductive, suggesting that Emily’s knowledge of the drug scene is limited. I think this is her attempt to seem cool and hip in front of Jess.