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Last night around 9:30 PM, I got a call from my older sister. One of the more troubled members of the church youth group, name of Tommy, had not been shown up to an expected appointment. Worse, the youth pastor had taken an anonymous call from someone who claimed the boy had died in a fire.
My sister wanted me to come with her to Tommy's house to investigate, and failing that, to check with the Soup Truck crowd to see if anone knew of his whereabouts. Altough just barely 18, he lives on his own for a variety of reasons.
We headed off downtown about 10 PM, and were unable to locate his house. My sister was very nervous and anxious, and I believe this had something to do with her inability to navigate. Still, she kept a brave face on things, singing snippets from the musical "Tommy." Which, on reflection, is just kind of creepy and funny at the same time.
We had no luck finding his house, and ventured off towards the soup truck... as we drove, she spotted Tommy in a phone booth. He was surprised to see us - even more so when he realized why we were looking for him!
However, I must admit that I'm a little suspicious. I don't know this kid very well, and I wonder if he placed the call himself as a joke, or in an effort to see what response the news would have... for now I'll just assume he has a friend with a bad sense of humour.
I've been thinking a little bit about style lately, about what is "cool," in very general terms. Perhaps I'm getting old, but I don't understand the attraction or appeal of raver or clubber fashion, which seems to be all the thing with young hep cats these days. Candy bracelets? Stickers from cartoons you're too young to remember? Low slung pants? Bell bottoms? Infantile fetishes?
And then there's this nonsense philosophy that has been latched onto the raver scene, some drivel about Unity and Spritual Connections. You know, you could dance for 4 hours to Big Band and get the same damn thing - the high of physical activity that the Quakers and Dervishes also based a philosophy on.
*rummages on net*
"...people can come together to share and celebrate through the music, leaving behind our differences on race, color, national origin, age, social status, creed or religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any kind of social intolerance or antagonism that do nothing but to lower the quality of the human spirit. In a rave you are supposed to leave your attitudes outside, and join your fellow brothers and sisters hoping to participate in a mind expanding experience, in unity with all. "
"We are creative, dynamic, young, peaceful, evolving, beautiful people. We are the next level. Keep it alive, you are the underground!! We are the children of light... Prove to those who would like to poison and kill your young spirit, that we are far beyond their pathetic destructive negativity. We are the cyber children of the Millennium. Dancing the groove with everyone instead of one. Spread the joy around you with the heart of a child. "
Yeah, and Rock and Roll will Never Die, Disco is Forever, and everyone would all get along if they'd only sit down and really LISTEN to the MUSIC, man. It's just another set of kids assuming their adolescent dance floor epiphanies are some kind of insight for the ages. Interesting to note there's already been a break between the "old school" ravers and the glitter kids, with the younger ones often accusing the older of being jaded and biased. You just can't build a philosophy on musc, or feelin' good.
Might as well make a religion based on eating ice cream.
Gygax's britches... don't these kids realize that all their jaw about unity and warm fuzzies lovin' through dance parties is going to look about as dated and mentally deficient as the same philosophy of 'power of music' expressed by the disco generation? Go watch Xanadu - I dare ya! - and replace the disco with trance or techno or bebopabilly or whatever. You'll see! Lousy punk kids probably don't even know what Xanadu was. Not that I blame them.
Give me the days of angry bald men with gravelly voices singing about the Blue Sky Mine and Burning Beds, with a nice bass beat in the background. I can grok that jive! I can bellyfeel that, hipsters!
Part of my antipathy for raver and clubber culture is no doubt tied to the fact that I cannot see the appeal in any kind of current youth fashion. Avril Lavinge, for example, looks like a crack whore with Jan Brady haircut. At least baggy rapper attire is on the way out.
In my mind, the absolute pinnacle of cool would be Annie Lennox circa "Here Comes the Rain" riding in a zeppellin with the Chrysler Building in the background, and a sound track by, say, The New World Symphony.
Like I say, I'm getting old. But compare, if you will, the height of cool circa 1983...
http://kinga.topcities.com/2pictures/eur/sd3.jpg
http://kinga.topcities.com/2pictures/eur/lias1.jpg
So they're both of Annie Lennox. Sue me. I was looking at Eurythmics page.
With what's "in" in 2002...
http://dexters7.tripod.com/rave_pictures/images/brocknbrian.jpg
Nice pacifiers, kids.
Join me next time, when I complain about Dragonball Zed attire and Pagans. Tommorow night I'm driving the soup wagon, so I'm sure I'll be a foul dudgeon on Friday morning.
∆
My sister wanted me to come with her to Tommy's house to investigate, and failing that, to check with the Soup Truck crowd to see if anone knew of his whereabouts. Altough just barely 18, he lives on his own for a variety of reasons.
We headed off downtown about 10 PM, and were unable to locate his house. My sister was very nervous and anxious, and I believe this had something to do with her inability to navigate. Still, she kept a brave face on things, singing snippets from the musical "Tommy." Which, on reflection, is just kind of creepy and funny at the same time.
We had no luck finding his house, and ventured off towards the soup truck... as we drove, she spotted Tommy in a phone booth. He was surprised to see us - even more so when he realized why we were looking for him!
However, I must admit that I'm a little suspicious. I don't know this kid very well, and I wonder if he placed the call himself as a joke, or in an effort to see what response the news would have... for now I'll just assume he has a friend with a bad sense of humour.
I've been thinking a little bit about style lately, about what is "cool," in very general terms. Perhaps I'm getting old, but I don't understand the attraction or appeal of raver or clubber fashion, which seems to be all the thing with young hep cats these days. Candy bracelets? Stickers from cartoons you're too young to remember? Low slung pants? Bell bottoms? Infantile fetishes?
And then there's this nonsense philosophy that has been latched onto the raver scene, some drivel about Unity and Spritual Connections. You know, you could dance for 4 hours to Big Band and get the same damn thing - the high of physical activity that the Quakers and Dervishes also based a philosophy on.
*rummages on net*
"...people can come together to share and celebrate through the music, leaving behind our differences on race, color, national origin, age, social status, creed or religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any kind of social intolerance or antagonism that do nothing but to lower the quality of the human spirit. In a rave you are supposed to leave your attitudes outside, and join your fellow brothers and sisters hoping to participate in a mind expanding experience, in unity with all. "
"We are creative, dynamic, young, peaceful, evolving, beautiful people. We are the next level. Keep it alive, you are the underground!! We are the children of light... Prove to those who would like to poison and kill your young spirit, that we are far beyond their pathetic destructive negativity. We are the cyber children of the Millennium. Dancing the groove with everyone instead of one. Spread the joy around you with the heart of a child. "
Yeah, and Rock and Roll will Never Die, Disco is Forever, and everyone would all get along if they'd only sit down and really LISTEN to the MUSIC, man. It's just another set of kids assuming their adolescent dance floor epiphanies are some kind of insight for the ages. Interesting to note there's already been a break between the "old school" ravers and the glitter kids, with the younger ones often accusing the older of being jaded and biased. You just can't build a philosophy on musc, or feelin' good.
Might as well make a religion based on eating ice cream.
Gygax's britches... don't these kids realize that all their jaw about unity and warm fuzzies lovin' through dance parties is going to look about as dated and mentally deficient as the same philosophy of 'power of music' expressed by the disco generation? Go watch Xanadu - I dare ya! - and replace the disco with trance or techno or bebopabilly or whatever. You'll see! Lousy punk kids probably don't even know what Xanadu was. Not that I blame them.
Give me the days of angry bald men with gravelly voices singing about the Blue Sky Mine and Burning Beds, with a nice bass beat in the background. I can grok that jive! I can bellyfeel that, hipsters!
Part of my antipathy for raver and clubber culture is no doubt tied to the fact that I cannot see the appeal in any kind of current youth fashion. Avril Lavinge, for example, looks like a crack whore with Jan Brady haircut. At least baggy rapper attire is on the way out.
In my mind, the absolute pinnacle of cool would be Annie Lennox circa "Here Comes the Rain" riding in a zeppellin with the Chrysler Building in the background, and a sound track by, say, The New World Symphony.
Like I say, I'm getting old. But compare, if you will, the height of cool circa 1983...
http://kinga.topcities.com/2pictures/eur/sd3.jpg
http://kinga.topcities.com/2pictures/eur/lias1.jpg
So they're both of Annie Lennox. Sue me. I was looking at Eurythmics page.
With what's "in" in 2002...
http://dexters7.tripod.com/rave_pictures/images/brocknbrian.jpg
Nice pacifiers, kids.
Join me next time, when I complain about Dragonball Zed attire and Pagans. Tommorow night I'm driving the soup wagon, so I'm sure I'll be a foul dudgeon on Friday morning.
∆
