The Note

Outside of my apartment is a fire extinguisher. Twice now, someone has stuck a waded up piece of paper in the handle. While it’s not even the 1000th worst thing someone could do to an apartment building, it is very unbecoming. This is my home and sticking garbage in cubby holes is quite unseemly and slovenly. I care about how my home looks.

So, I wrote a note asking the mysterious perpetrator to stop. It was a pretty scathing opus. It featured a curse, a limerick with the word Nantucket, a metaphor about their mother and three swears words, two of which were in English. Fortunately, my better-half stepped in and re wrote the note. She penned a funny tale replete with characters, themes and motifs. It was a delight to read.

I asked her if writing not and sticking it on the fire extinguisher was an “Old” thing to do? She said it was. Wow, I’m now that guy. Tomorrow, the neighbor’s music is too loud and their cat is crapping in my yard.

Loud Music

One of the pillars of being old is detesting loud music. “Turn it down! It’s too loud!” Even though I’m old, antiquated and very close to being tossed onto the refuse pile, I have no such aversion to loud music. I like loud music, mainly because my ears are so bad that I can’t hear the music otherwise.

Regardless of the decibel level you prefer, the music you choose is a great way to either grow old or stay young. To stay young you must open your mind and allow yourself to be enriched by the point of view of new artists. If you close your mind, and only listen to music from “your era,” you become Old; in fact it’s the text book definition of Old. It’s also a good way to stunt your growth as a human being. If you music collection spans years and not decades, than you’re either a 13 year-old girl or you’re Old.

Jonas Brothers

I’ve heard of the Jonas Brothers. I could pick the Jonas Brothers out of a lineup. But I wouldn’t know a Jonas Brothers’ song if it bite me on the lip. Of course, I’m old and not allowed to listen to their music anymore (nor do the record companies want my money, can we say out of the demo). Still, you would think that the sheer amount of media that surrounds me and the immense popularity of the Jonas Brothers I would still have heard one of their songs—hell, I don’t even know one of their song titles.

In the1960’s an “old” person would have heard at least part of a Beatles’ song—they certainly would have known who Sgt. Peppers was. They same can be said for the major artists of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. But in the 21^st century the times have been a changing (that’s a Bob Dylan reference; he’s an artist I’m still young enough to listen to). Now you can be more famous than the thing you’re famous for doing. Hell, you can be famous for nothing (see Paris Hilton).

It’s a unique phenomenon that in our culture saturated with media I have accidentally gone this long without ever hearing the Jonas Brothers' music but yet haven't escaped being constantly told how popular they are. What a strange media we have that can sing the praises of a musical band without ever letting them sing. It seems counter intuitive to what you think should happen; namely I should hear their music every time I turn on my computer and see them every time I turn on my television.

Unfortunately the Jonas Brothers phenomenon reveals less about the future of music and more about the current state of our culture. We now covet celebrity more than we covet creativity.

Take Your Job...

I was looking through job listing when I came across this line: “we're looking for a writer who knows more about the Silver Jews than the latest American Idol round.” Do people really think like that? Especially people who hire other people? No offense to the Silver Jews, but American Idol has, and is having, and will have, more of an impact on popular music in America than the Silver Jews will ever have. Of course, information on American Idol can be found anywhere whereas other types of music is not as heavily covered—maybe their intention was to communicate that they focus on “non-mainstream” music. Even so, I do not want to work for anyone who makes the aforementioned comment. I want to work for someone who wants a writer who knows as much about the Silver Jews as they do about American Idol.