Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
flash mob
Some things written below are mistakes I knew I was making...
I would have been there flashing and mobbing. Our small Midwest college town was at least 2 hours from anything urban. My friends and I labored to stay current with the changing “aesthetics”. We tried hard to look disheveled, subscribed to appropriate magazines, and read the right books. We went to geeky movie premiers and talked about our likes and dislikes in near empty coffee houses. Under the influence of things that were happening elsewhere, we often felt like outcastes in our own neighborhoods.
Occasionally we understood what was happening when we arrived at “shows”. We carpooled to Chicago or St louis to visit places like the Metro, or Mississippi Nights (god rest her soul), or the Fireside to find hundreds, sometimes thousands of people who looked like us, talked like us, and apparently listened to some of the same music as us. It felt like a flash mob. We congregated for a specific purpose, stood for hours facing the same direction, bought the same t-shirts and cd’s then went on with our lives.
A few years, marriages, and jobs later none of us are doing any of the above things. Some might still download music, or keep a magazine subscription alive for nostalgia’s sake. I have not read a book in common with someone for at least a year and my buddy Jake shops at the mall now.
Acceptable dress during those few years would have been second hand khaki’s, Dickies of any color, or an older pair of jeans (not excessively baggy or too many holes), a band t-shirt, a beat to hell T-shirt saying something out of the ordinary would get approving nods, and the hooded sweatshirt. We were probably of the Weezer genre of the larger hipster set.
Magazines? HM Magazine, Spin, Paste, and Alternative Press, affectionately known as “AP”.
As for books, we read or re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy because the movies were coming out in succession. We were huge fans and did not want to pose as only movies of the film. Some of us moved on to the Chronicles of Narnia, while others read more Tolkien (the Silmarrilion, or the Hobbit). I moved to Europe around this time and started reading Dave Eggers. I have read everything he has written and tried to recommend it to all of my buddies. However, while my life was still fluxing and jetting, they had wives refining their tastes and were reading mainstream Christian publications that made me wince. We separated ways and I found some new friends who would read what I was reading and would share with me books and ideas that they had found from books…Kerouac, Anne Lamott, Pirsig. Then I started reading shit that church fathers had written because Andy wanted to be a monk and I didn’t know if I should support him or not.
In addition to the Lord of the Rings movies, we were caught up in the new Star Wars trilogy, anything done by Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) or the up and coming Wes Anderson (at that time we just liked Rushmore). I don’t remember anyone ever referring to movies as “films”, but we would’ve if we knew better.
We had rules for taking road trips to the cities, Micah drove his van, and no girls were allowed. Then one day Kirk drove. Then Kirk wanted to bring Cristina. Then they made-out in the back of the van while I drove the rest of the way home. We dubbed their relationship “Kirkstina” to be funny. Little did we know that we were nearing the end of an era. Cristina turned out to be a bad idea, so Kirk found “Amanda”. By this time Matt had found “Bethany”, Jake had found “Lana”, I had found epic world travel and gave everything I learned and found (in spirit) to my friend Andy, and Micah bought a trailer.
All this to say; we wanted to be caught up or flash mobbed. We were willing to blog (Make-outClub.com) and network electronically if it meant having our lives mean something in common with so many others. Nevertheless, Wasik’s efforts failed to reach my friends and I when we were together and now that we are apart, we would settle for an afternoon together with Andy, Kirk, Matt, Jake, Doug, and Micah.
I would have been there flashing and mobbing. Our small Midwest college town was at least 2 hours from anything urban. My friends and I labored to stay current with the changing “aesthetics”. We tried hard to look disheveled, subscribed to appropriate magazines, and read the right books. We went to geeky movie premiers and talked about our likes and dislikes in near empty coffee houses. Under the influence of things that were happening elsewhere, we often felt like outcastes in our own neighborhoods.
Occasionally we understood what was happening when we arrived at “shows”. We carpooled to Chicago or St louis to visit places like the Metro, or Mississippi Nights (god rest her soul), or the Fireside to find hundreds, sometimes thousands of people who looked like us, talked like us, and apparently listened to some of the same music as us. It felt like a flash mob. We congregated for a specific purpose, stood for hours facing the same direction, bought the same t-shirts and cd’s then went on with our lives.
A few years, marriages, and jobs later none of us are doing any of the above things. Some might still download music, or keep a magazine subscription alive for nostalgia’s sake. I have not read a book in common with someone for at least a year and my buddy Jake shops at the mall now.
Acceptable dress during those few years would have been second hand khaki’s, Dickies of any color, or an older pair of jeans (not excessively baggy or too many holes), a band t-shirt, a beat to hell T-shirt saying something out of the ordinary would get approving nods, and the hooded sweatshirt. We were probably of the Weezer genre of the larger hipster set.
Magazines? HM Magazine, Spin, Paste, and Alternative Press, affectionately known as “AP”.
As for books, we read or re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy because the movies were coming out in succession. We were huge fans and did not want to pose as only movies of the film. Some of us moved on to the Chronicles of Narnia, while others read more Tolkien (the Silmarrilion, or the Hobbit). I moved to Europe around this time and started reading Dave Eggers. I have read everything he has written and tried to recommend it to all of my buddies. However, while my life was still fluxing and jetting, they had wives refining their tastes and were reading mainstream Christian publications that made me wince. We separated ways and I found some new friends who would read what I was reading and would share with me books and ideas that they had found from books…Kerouac, Anne Lamott, Pirsig. Then I started reading shit that church fathers had written because Andy wanted to be a monk and I didn’t know if I should support him or not.
In addition to the Lord of the Rings movies, we were caught up in the new Star Wars trilogy, anything done by Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy) or the up and coming Wes Anderson (at that time we just liked Rushmore). I don’t remember anyone ever referring to movies as “films”, but we would’ve if we knew better.
We had rules for taking road trips to the cities, Micah drove his van, and no girls were allowed. Then one day Kirk drove. Then Kirk wanted to bring Cristina. Then they made-out in the back of the van while I drove the rest of the way home. We dubbed their relationship “Kirkstina” to be funny. Little did we know that we were nearing the end of an era. Cristina turned out to be a bad idea, so Kirk found “Amanda”. By this time Matt had found “Bethany”, Jake had found “Lana”, I had found epic world travel and gave everything I learned and found (in spirit) to my friend Andy, and Micah bought a trailer.
All this to say; we wanted to be caught up or flash mobbed. We were willing to blog (Make-outClub.com) and network electronically if it meant having our lives mean something in common with so many others. Nevertheless, Wasik’s efforts failed to reach my friends and I when we were together and now that we are apart, we would settle for an afternoon together with Andy, Kirk, Matt, Jake, Doug, and Micah.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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