I MADE YOU A POEM

Photograph by Dimitar Denev.

I've been trying to write an essay about Generation X and popular culture since I saw School of Rock in 2003, but it always eluded me. Then in a fit of insomnia, it came to me as a poem for some strange reason (I'm an English major, but I'm very picky about poetry and don't like most of it). So here it is, enjoy.

Song of the Aging Gen X-er

I'm old and I'm tired
Of defending what I like.
Once it was too odd
Now it's too popular,
Yet still weird somehow.
But why wouldn't I like it?
We put weird on the map.
We gave you the "graphic novel",
I'm not gonna see the movie version?
Once it was "Psychotronic" --
King Fu, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic.
Now they get awards.
And why ever not?

Some of us are mad.¹
We had to work so hard to find it.
Scour second-hand stores, send away by mail.
Self-addressed envelopes.
Ask for a ride to the city.
"Is the new L & R in yet?"
They say, "Death to the Internet!"
But I don't want it that way.
Let the kid in the boonies
Find what makes her happy.
Let the boy on library Internet
Find his club of weirdos.

Some of us were sad ²
We only got a few years of pandering
Instead of two decades.
Then came the millennium.
Clean-cut teen pop, clean-cut teen soaps,
Clean-cut teen comedies.
We thought that the wholesome
Would last forever.

But guess what?
Twelve turns to thirteen
And cool big sis comes in,
Or that fun young uncle
Sends you a mix.
We fill the credits, live behind the scenes, make the taste.
We have the keys, baby,
To the shadow factory.

Maybe we didn't invent it,
But who does really?
As Mr. Sturgeon says, ³
Most of anything is crap.
It's all about keeping it going
(The good stuff).
We are a small cohort, but
What we lack in size,
We make up for in tenacity.
Just like those in the past who
Bought The Velvet Underground & Nico,
then started a band.
Just like those "90s kids" who
Will build on our bones.

Maybe you don't want anything
After your "golden age".
That's so sad.
Maybe you missed it the first time,
That's too bad.
Maybe you were born too late.
Oh well.
But's it still all there for you.

You're welcome.

Notes:

1. Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die" -Patton Oswalt.

2. "Sturgeon's Law" - TV Tropes.

3. "Generation Ex" - Eric Weisbard.

Comments

The Dale Wardens said…

I'm imagining this as a rap...
:)

4:32 PM

ash966 said…

I'm trying to record it on Garageband as spoken word with musical background, it I can't stand to listen to my voice.

7:00 PM

MY BUBBLE

This is real heavy metal, by the way . So, this guy whose name I swear I'd never heard but appeared to have gone to my high school tried to friend me on Facebook. His main interests were the band Stryper and Republicanism, so I didn't add him. I mean, really, Stryper ? I thought teens in the 80s only listened to them because they liked metal and their parents forbade any other band as a direct path to the worship of Satan. When you leave home, you throw away their records and listen to real metal. But then I read this article that said we are all getting trapped in a bubble of like-minded people who parrot our ideas back to us, due to social networks and rss feeds and apps only giving us the people/opinions/stories we want to hear. And I thought--maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I'm OK, because I do have a lot of weird interests that make it pretty hard to find people who are on the same page with everything. I have social network connections with people around roleplaying game...

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant. That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens. I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity: swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra...

TOP MUSIC GENRES FOR YOUR CYBERPUNK GAME

So I guess cyberpunk is hot again. I don't play those newfangled video games, but all this fanfare made me remember my old Cyberpunk 2020 days, when I was Jael Furoshiki, Japanese/Jewish survivor of of a destroyed South China Sea pirate pack trying to make a living in the Minneapolis Red Zone as a bodyguard/food delivery technician (yes, both a pirate and an ninja). Later she got ported to Interface Zero , which got rid of some of the anachronisms and C2020's crazy-high fatality rate (there used to be a page dedicated to players' favorite deceased characters, sadly now lost to even the Wayback Machine). Anyway, one time I made up musical genres my character would listen to--can't find my old character sheets, but this gives you the idea... TOP MUSIC GENRES FOR YOUR CYBERPUNK GAME: Cambo-Punk Robo-Funk Post-post-post-post-post Punk Really New Wave Black Klezmetal Danish RaiZulu Techno-Jive Country & Western & Gabber Lo-NRG Goan Garage Garage...

Odd Obsession

Search This Blog