More posts tagged:
books / decline of civilization / MTV / music / rants
July 24th, 2001 @ 12:22 pm PDT
Some comments on something I read @ deadman:
Fans pretending to be fans of a band pretending to be a band?
I don’t know how much I want to get into this one … But I will chip in $.02 for the halibut. I was (am) a great big ol’ fan of Pearl Jam. I’m one of those guys that even likes all the new CDs. There is really some great music there. And of course there’s the whole Eddie-angst-rebelling-against-corporate-America blah blah blah K.C. why’d you leave us so soon? blah blah blah and all that. But if you listen … and I mean *really* listen … the Foo Fighters are a much better band.
Of course. I like Barry Manilow, too. And Elton John. And Linda Ronstadt. And Clapton. And the barenaked ladies. But f*ck, man! I love so much stuff that isn’t *crap*.
See, I saw a thing on MTV last night – I swear on my life I wasn’t in control of the remote – where they take a fan and get the fan to *be* the person (or band) that they just swoon over and pay people to act like fans. It was surreal. Here are these guys that are specifically *not* the Backstreet Boys. And they’re pretending to be the Backstreet Boys. And there are fans pretending to like them. And they all piled into a limo and drove away as if they were … well … the Backstreet Boys. And next week (or tonight, or whenever the hell the show airs) some girl gets to “be” Brittany Spears. What the hell am I talking about? I don’t know. I think the whole experience – watching fifteen minutes of post-1988 MTV I mean – was just really shocking.
A friend of mine recently commented that there was no “book” about my generation (Gen X? Shit. Why don’t they just call us Generation Nike? The “X” in Gen X should just stand for whatever corporation or advertising entity is ‘hot’ at the moment. Because it – us – we – the Gen Xers themselves – certainly don’t stand for anything.) like there is for, I suppose, previous generations. Would you say that the Baby Boomers had The Catcher in the Rye? Something like that, I guess, is what my friend was trying to say. And all I could think was that I don’t think that a) enough people ‘in my generation’ have the drive to pick up a book and read, much less ever actually WRITE one, and 2) that that’s probably the whole point.
We might be the generation that doesn’t get a ‘book’ but do we really deserve one? The not-having-a-book is so perfectly descriptive of ‘my generation’ that if someone *did* write one … well. I don’t know. Fuck. I should stop writing.
And no, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (granted: a heartbreaking work of staggering genius) doesn’t count.
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yeah, so, obviously I should have said something about how cool all this blogging all these GenXers are doing is, right? right. of course. so GenX sucks except for the bloggers. and Eggars. and all the GenXers that are *doing something*, right? well what the **** ?! what am I doing? what are you doing? what is doing? is anybody really doing anything? **** **** **** . rage! rage against the dying of the light, right? man. sometimes this stuff just makes me ache. “… it’s so hard to deal, with the one sweet real … you continually blow my mind.” and then the even scarier thought: is there something that I’m SUPPOSED to be doing but … but … but I don’t know what it is?!
and yeah, I know that there are a bunch of GenX writers (ha! how else would there be a new episode of The Real World every week?!) but seriously yeah blah blah blah we’re all writers everyone you know reads all the time look there are five books on my bedstand right now yeah yeah whatever.
well hell. and another thing: I was just thinking about guerilla posting like that. I posted it there, then posted it here. but they’re different posts, y’know? wtf?! maybe John was the last Jesus. that’s what I’m thinking lately. maybe the world is just too big now, or there’s too many people, or there’s – WTF?! – *too much* communication. and that’s the problem. we (GenX) were all born living under our parents view, right? that John and Paul (and JFK and RFK) were something that everyone was supposed to try for, to try to get to, to emulate … and because of everything else – cyber- **** ing everything and AT&T and Nike and world conglomerations and multi-global this and that and everyone’s **** ing blogging and we’re all talking but there’s just too much now and so you (me, he, she) can never get to that level … maybe there can never be another Jesus / Lennon because 15 minutes is not enough time to get anything to anyone real. maybe. maybe I’m just **** ing crazy.
I don’t know. maybe it has something to do with airplanes. saw this thing last night, some guy complaining about air travel. (note: hey, buddy, next time try taking a horse if you wanna get 3000 miles away quickly) anyway. he was saying that people are getting all pissy on airplanes and part of it is because flying is no beg deal any more. remember when we were kids? (we who? who the hell is reading this?) I’m thinking late 70s. that was pretty much the tail-end of people respecting air travel. when you would clap when the plane landed. and people dressed up to fly. am I the only one that remembers that kind of thing? and, am I right? is “that kind of thing” the point? what’s missing. or what’s changed. the reason – if there is a reason – that there won’t (can’t? might not) be another John / Jesus. because, well … who cares? or maybe just that *everyone* cares now. or everyone has the *ability* to care. so now that *EVERYONE* gets 15 minutes – even if the 15 minutes suck ass (see: Lewinsky, the guy who absolutely did not (whatever) blow up the Olympics in Atlanta) – those 15 minutes are useless. another time – how **** ing random is this? I watch MTV twice in the last ten years and I’m telling you about both times – this thing was on MTV: some sort of The Real World reunion or anniversary or something and they were going on and on about a guy who had AIDS and died on the show or something like that. and everyone was talking about how it moved them and how inspiring this guy was and how *everyone* followed his story and blah blah blah and all I could think was that I had NEVER heard of this guy, never knew anything about it. if this was such a major LIFE MOMENT (like the challenger explosion or JFK getting shot) that just *every* GenXer knew all about this guy and blah blah how could *I* have completely missed it? yeah, I mean, sure I was pretty drunk for most of the 90s but I read the paper and listen to NPR and it’s not like I never watch television so how does all this happen and I have no idea and if I have no idea – and am I not emblematic of the typical GenXer? – then really who else does? wtf? why does it seem like I can’t shut up today? anyway. so this guy that I don’t know and never heard of dies from AIDS during the damn season of real world and I don’t know about it and now ten years later (or 10 minus whatever season he was on the show years later) they’re doing all this looking back and I have nothing to look back on because I was out of that loop and I can’t cannot CANFUCKINGNOT be the only one who missed it, can I? or is this just like my high school reunion that I missed? anyway. so he died and yeah, of course that sucks and I feel bad for anyone that dies a long horrible death – even if they are showcased on MTV while it happens (irony) and change change change they were talking about how he *changed* all sorts of people’s views about HIV and positive sex and role models and safe sex and blah blah and did he *really* make a difference? did he? did Kurt? tell me. who has made a difference. a John / Jesus difference. since John. has anyone? Clinton? ha! gimme a break. in ten years will people say, “who was that president? you remember – the one that got the blow job and did the thing with the cigar with that fat chick”? probably they will. but in ten, twenty, thirty years will they say, “who was that one guy? remember … he was a beatle or something? wrote some cool music?” **** no. John is about as locked in as Jesus, y’know? you think in 100 years people will look back and say, “hey who was that guy that everyone worshipped for 2000 years?” I don’t think so. **** ! **** **** . I’ll shut up. seriously. sorry.
and hello how much of a statement is it that the only one ranting here in my ‘public’ comments section on this is me?”someday we’ll find it. the rainbow connection. the lovers, the dreamers, and me.” sing it, Kermit! yeah.
uh…. I just wanted to say.. nice job :)ok.. for years.. I have considered myself someone that likes alternative music.. I saw Pearl Jam in a small bar.. and many other bands as they were getting started.I used to think that for music to be good.. it had to be new.. and on the cutting edge….but.. then looking back.. some of that music was just plain crap.. and some was really good.. I love some of the old Clash stuff.. and always will.. heck.. I like Neil Diamond.. and Johnny Cash.. and U2…
Gen-X does not do books, we do movies. How many movies can you think of that speak for our generation?
I would have to say that Gen Xers do have a book (or book however you look at it). Specifically the first couple of books by Douglas Coupland (who more or less coined the phrase Generation X). Try reading Generation X (the book), Shampoo Planet or Microserfs.
I agree with you to some extent, there aren’t enough books that are written for the genXers out there… but then there’s not a whole lot of people who quite understand the whole genX phenomenon in the first place, let alone another genXer. *sigh* Kind of depressing… maybe I’ll write a book… or maybe the book out there hasn’t been read yet but is on the shelves. *shrug*
I think the book Generation X describes our generation, not defines it. Catcher in the Rye defined a generation of minds. I dont think the two compare. And dont even get me started on that verbose hack eggars.. His book reads like a weblog, not a novel. Its odd because I know there is a book that shaped our minds, our generation but for the life of me I cant think of what it was. I think you underestimate the amount of readers out there. I read 2-5 books a month and I know there are many more like me out there. To say we dont read as much is true, to say we dont have the same quality of writing available is a half truth. I think many people have lost the skills to determine truly gifted books from the stephen king novel of the week (he puts one out once a week right?). I think thats where the problem is. Why (as an average person) would I read a book full of words I dont understand describing ideas I dont get when I can watch fight club and have 2000 years of fringe philosophy fed to me in nice news-style bites. Quippy one liners that ring true but bare no fruit in the mind other than a concillatory nod of the head ‘yeah, **** starbucks, yeah!’ but they still go out and purchase the new cars and houses and drool over the ikea catalogue. What am I getting at here?Im just as mentally disorganized as DVG.. haha