2007-01-16
ignorance is bliss
|When I was around 15 I was in the car with my mom scanning the radio for something to listen to. I ended up on some kind of Pink Floyd song and I remember my mom asking, "Who sings this?" I told her who it was and she said, "That's a strange name for a band. I wonder why it's not Purple Fred." We both laughed and I thought, 'Mom you're so out of it.'
She was 56 at the time and preferred to listen to CKLW a rockin' AM station that played Golden Oldies from the 1940s. I appreciated her willingness to listen to "my" music instead of her own, but I did wonder briefly what the gap would be like for me, when I got older. I never really believed I would be "out of it" though.
So I remember what a shock it was to me when I started to lose hold of popular culture and then retreated into my own version of the Golden Oldies. It was when the boy bands started to emerge, you know, N'Sync, Boyz II Men, etc. This was around the mid 1990s, I was roughly 27.
That was the beginning of the slide. I was still watching MTV's "The Real World" and was hard core for 11 seasons. I started to back off on seasons 12 and 13 in Las Vegas and Paris, respectively. But, because I watched MTV, I felt I had my finger on the pulse of entertainment. I at least had heard of these new bands, actors and actresses, movies ,etc.
My husband, on the other hand, was never into this stuff. He knew of it, because of me. But he wasn't really into it and didn't know who these people were, nor did he care. He's five years older than me and I secretly felt more hip than him because of that.
Around 2002 or possibly 2003, I completely lost touch with the entertainment industry. Coincidentally, my second daughter was born in early 2003. I see that "life" got in the way of my chic knowledge of entertainment media, my connection with the outside world of entertainment.
Now that daughter number three is here, all I know is "The Backyardigans," "The Wonder Pets" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." I do get thrilled when I recognize a voice from the past on my kids' shows. Fred Savage provides the voice of Oswald, Lorraine Newman is Madame Butterfly and Squiggy (David Landau) is the voice of Henry, all of the cartoon "Oswald."
But today's music is beyond me. I've heard of Fergie and The Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park and Nickelback, but I don't know what they sing or what it sounds like. Ditto on all of the new actors and actresses. I've finally accepted that I am not hip.
I guess I'm becoming more like my mother. Strangely enough, as I head toward 40, I seem to be cool with that. If 40 is the new 30, maybe ignorance is the new hip.
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Another overdue thanks: I'm sending an extra 1000 strides on the elliptical trainer to junglebetti who added me as a favorite a while ago. Thanks Betti!
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2007-01-16 at 6:48 a.m.
