--- info at pulpculture.org wrote:
> At 03:30 PM 1/26/2006, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> >
> >>its in-your-face shock value
> >
> >Woj, are you aware of how often you just sound like
> a grumpy old fart?
> >
> >Doug
>
>
> it's just for the shock value.
Let me be honest - I am 53 years old - an old fart if you will, and I do not need to act like a teenager and follow the flock to feel worthy and appreciated. I do not really need to put hair implants in my balding head, buy a red corvette, blast hip hop music and date teenage girls to feel that I am still a human being that has something to offer.
I can also quite honestly say that I tried many things in life, probably more than most people, and always tried to keep an open mind about them. I also learned a thing or two in the process which is basically what distinguhes a geezer from a, infantile adolescent. One of those things that I learned is that proper balance of ingredients is what makes all the difference in the world.
It is like with food. When all you can have is bland hamurgers on buns, a little bit of spice can travel a long way, and more spice can get you to culinary heaven. But if you overdo and all that you have spice and no beef - that makes you puke - and a bland hamburger on a bun start sounding like an interesting proposition.
Same with culture. A little bit of dada amidst victorian stiffness traveled a really long way, and the bohemians who acquired that taste got themselves into cultural heaven. They became cultural heroes. But this worked as long as bohemianism and counteculturalism was just a tiny dash of spice, and exception available only on special occassions. However, when everyone jumped on the bandwagon grew llong hair, put baggy cloathes on and started chanting the few same tunes - it became nauseating, like a flock of sheep. Today, you can see more variety of dress, taste and life style in the corporate ranks than in the s0-called counterculture wher eeveryone wears the same baggy or slutty garb and hears to the same tunes that sond like a carbon copy of one another.
In a dialectical way, the hip became the square and what used to be square is start looking more and more intersting. Old fart, you say? Perhaps. But I never followed the flock and did what was hip - so I do not see any reason to chang ethat when I am 53. In fact, I always said what I thought - not to impress someobody, but because I thought that I have something to say. So when I think that waht others consider hip is nothing but clowning around - why should not I be able to say so? Should I go with the flock to be popular and accepted? Frankly, I do not need to be popular and accepted - in fact all my life I felt alone and learned to deal with it, and even appreciate it. There is some value in it, against which the bombastic blah that the silly shallow US culture is oozing to the world sounds like a big smelly fart.
Wojtek
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