A Marvelous Time Will Be Had By All.
I'm fed up with being an adult. There, I've said it.
I got away with adolescent behavior for all of my 20's, and even the first two years of my 30's, since I was in grad school. Now, there is no denying the fact that there is no more school left to me unless I pursue some other sort of advanced degree. I'm not sure what I would seek a PhD in... perhaps Japanese Anime Theory? Generation Blah impact on consumer culture? I call my generation Generation Blah since we are really too young to be X'ers (they're getting to be 40 now) and we are too old to be Gen Y. So, here we are, listening to our Older Brother's REM tapes, driving his hand-me-down Ford Taurus, and wondering what's next, and if it has any meaning anyway. Just feeling sort of, well, Blah.
Actually, we probably drive Priuses and have Ipods, but you get the drift. The bands that I associate specifically with my peers (and my de rigeur high school radio show) - The Primitives, Transvision Vamp, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss me -era Cure, have all been relegated to the bargain bin, if they are even remembered that far. OK, Transvision Vamp, isn;t a good example, but you know what I mean. New Order's amazing record Power, Corruption, and Lies was already like five years old when I got my hands on it. We won't even go near The Smiths, it just hurts too much.
We seem to be the conduit group through which those bands went from being Alternative acts that play places like the 40-Watt club to being the megabands that took over MTV in the early to mid 90's. Remeber the B-52's circa Rock Lobster? And Strobe Light? And then there was Love Shack. Which was a fun song, totally. I also think that song (or video) is the reason why RuPaul hit big, and if you know why that is, bully for you for paying attention to your television screen.I think perhaps some of the reason why my generation seems insistent on dragging their heels so much into the future is that we have simply been allowed to. You know that ad that's on right now with Dennis Leary talking about how the Hippies are going to re-invent retirement? You know why they are?
Because otherwise they have to admit they are going to die.
Now, I know it's totally expected to blame one's parents for one's craziness, but I am going to take it one step further. I am going to lay the blame squarely on an entire generation. The selfish, self-absorbed, mostly annoying baby boomers.
After having been told for decades that they are the most important thing to come along since photosynthesis and Jesus Christ (TM) are we really surprised that they find the idea of getting older odious? Their idea of mortality is being killed in a war in Vietnam, or by being murdered by a sex maniac in movies like Klute, Looking For Mr. Goodbar, Dressed to Kill, etc. etc. That sexual bit of navel gazing seems mostly to center around the thrill of being caught with your pants down when you are doing something naughty, or at least naughty in the minds of their parents. On a related (no pun intended) note, that's the generation we've been told was the greatest generation ever - over and over and bleeding over again. Apparently WW2 was really bad , and here's another movie about it. Meanwhile, let's talk about how your 60 year old mother is going parasailing because American Express has told her to. I'd like to submit that maybe Mom shouldn't parasail as osteoporosis does not care whether or not she saw Hendrix at Woodstock. This is the anethema presented to the Boomers. And we, as their children, are the best way for them to hold onto their youth. If we never, grow up, then they are still our caretakers, and so thereforem they must not be getting older either, right? It's the only thing that makes sense to me. That as much as it kind of freaks me out, we want them to stay as self-absorbed as they are, becayse if they are still our parents, our requirement to assume adulthood is put into forbearance like so many student loans.
And another thing, when "our generation" had a "Woodstock" I thought it was more evidence of how our parents' generation had commodified their own sincere, genuine experiences and hawked a watered-down version to their kids through MTV and Pay-Per-View. I'm also going to go out on a limb and bet that most people at the original Woodstock thought that being naked and dirty was pretty lame after the LSD and Shrooms wore off. Granted, even the "new Woodstock" was a decade ago, but I still think about it now and again. And I guess that's the point.
I need to ruminate on this more, but I have to help my dad learn to surf.
I got away with adolescent behavior for all of my 20's, and even the first two years of my 30's, since I was in grad school. Now, there is no denying the fact that there is no more school left to me unless I pursue some other sort of advanced degree. I'm not sure what I would seek a PhD in... perhaps Japanese Anime Theory? Generation Blah impact on consumer culture? I call my generation Generation Blah since we are really too young to be X'ers (they're getting to be 40 now) and we are too old to be Gen Y. So, here we are, listening to our Older Brother's REM tapes, driving his hand-me-down Ford Taurus, and wondering what's next, and if it has any meaning anyway. Just feeling sort of, well, Blah.
Actually, we probably drive Priuses and have Ipods, but you get the drift. The bands that I associate specifically with my peers (and my de rigeur high school radio show) - The Primitives, Transvision Vamp, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss me -era Cure, have all been relegated to the bargain bin, if they are even remembered that far. OK, Transvision Vamp, isn;t a good example, but you know what I mean. New Order's amazing record Power, Corruption, and Lies was already like five years old when I got my hands on it. We won't even go near The Smiths, it just hurts too much.
We seem to be the conduit group through which those bands went from being Alternative acts that play places like the 40-Watt club to being the megabands that took over MTV in the early to mid 90's. Remeber the B-52's circa Rock Lobster? And Strobe Light? And then there was Love Shack. Which was a fun song, totally. I also think that song (or video) is the reason why RuPaul hit big, and if you know why that is, bully for you for paying attention to your television screen.I think perhaps some of the reason why my generation seems insistent on dragging their heels so much into the future is that we have simply been allowed to. You know that ad that's on right now with Dennis Leary talking about how the Hippies are going to re-invent retirement? You know why they are?
Because otherwise they have to admit they are going to die.
Now, I know it's totally expected to blame one's parents for one's craziness, but I am going to take it one step further. I am going to lay the blame squarely on an entire generation. The selfish, self-absorbed, mostly annoying baby boomers.
After having been told for decades that they are the most important thing to come along since photosynthesis and Jesus Christ (TM) are we really surprised that they find the idea of getting older odious? Their idea of mortality is being killed in a war in Vietnam, or by being murdered by a sex maniac in movies like Klute, Looking For Mr. Goodbar, Dressed to Kill, etc. etc. That sexual bit of navel gazing seems mostly to center around the thrill of being caught with your pants down when you are doing something naughty, or at least naughty in the minds of their parents. On a related (no pun intended) note, that's the generation we've been told was the greatest generation ever - over and over and bleeding over again. Apparently WW2 was really bad , and here's another movie about it. Meanwhile, let's talk about how your 60 year old mother is going parasailing because American Express has told her to. I'd like to submit that maybe Mom shouldn't parasail as osteoporosis does not care whether or not she saw Hendrix at Woodstock. This is the anethema presented to the Boomers. And we, as their children, are the best way for them to hold onto their youth. If we never, grow up, then they are still our caretakers, and so thereforem they must not be getting older either, right? It's the only thing that makes sense to me. That as much as it kind of freaks me out, we want them to stay as self-absorbed as they are, becayse if they are still our parents, our requirement to assume adulthood is put into forbearance like so many student loans.
And another thing, when "our generation" had a "Woodstock" I thought it was more evidence of how our parents' generation had commodified their own sincere, genuine experiences and hawked a watered-down version to their kids through MTV and Pay-Per-View. I'm also going to go out on a limb and bet that most people at the original Woodstock thought that being naked and dirty was pretty lame after the LSD and Shrooms wore off. Granted, even the "new Woodstock" was a decade ago, but I still think about it now and again. And I guess that's the point.
I need to ruminate on this more, but I have to help my dad learn to surf.
posted by tony m. at 12:30 PM
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