You can have your “19 years-old,” or whatever you are. I love being 33, because I can look back on everything that I’ve done, and smile. I’ve done it all, baby, while you were in diapers, literally.
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You can have your crappy music, stupid scenes, cliques, fashions or whatever.. I’ve sooo outgrown that, like a decade ago, when you were in elementary school. I’m a child of the 1980s. The “ME” Generation. I don’t really care about you. I am GENERATION X. I’ve been skateboarding since 1986, mosh-pitting since 1988, and wearing the same clothing style since 1990. Hell, I still have a buncha clothes from ’90 that still get worn regularly.. t-shirts, boots, jeans and belts… my trench coat is from ’88, my painted up leather from ’91. I have CD’s that I bought NEW in 1987. I STILL make “mix-tapes.” —Michael Sichok —I like being old, and would not change it for the world. (Michaek Sichock)
Mike has blogged for me in classes on literature and journalism. Recently he has written expressive and thought-provoking posts on his alienation from today’s youth scene, his comparison of the intellectual atmosphere at Seton Hill with that of two other colleges where he’s taking classes, and some citizen journalist coverage of an accident that happened outside his apartment. Some time ago he wrote a hauntingly beautiful tribute to his ancestral homeland, “Snow Falls on Mother Russia.”
I’m a few years older than he is — but just a few. In an alternate universe, where I might have been cool during the 80s and 90s, I might have written this entry myself.
Actually, during the 80s I thought most of pop culture was pretty stupid, and that’s not because I was pining for the 70s or anything. Star Trek, Star Wars, WarGames, Indiana Jones, Aliens, Little Shop of Horrors — these were the movies I saw in the theatres, with friends, rented on BetaMax, and bought the soundtracks on LP. I never was much into popular music (preferring to listen to news/talk radio or 50s/60s oldies). I vaguely recall being momentarily excited when I heard a rumor that Debbie Gibson was going to attend the University of Virginia, but just now, while Googling to refresh my memory of my favorite Debbie Gibson song, I learned that it wasn’t Debbie Gibson who sang “Eternal Flame,” but a group called The Bangles. I see from Wikipedia that they also did “Manic Monday,” and “Walk Like an Egyptian,” so I guess I knew some of their music, but the group’s name meant nothing to me.
When I went to college, I bought a few cassette tapes of classical music, simply to have something to listen to with headphones when I wanted to drown out competing noise that threatened my ability to study.
By the way — when Mike writes “I’ll always be in awe of a beautiful professor that had the chance to see Ginsberg perform a LIVE reading,” he’s not talking about me.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
