more recent email excerpts

Again, I am recreating the old autobiographical flow of the blog with excerpts from recent emails I've sent to friends and family...

i went to an open mic night tonight at this incredibly chill cafe across the street, and even though not every performer was great, the sound system and house band was, and there is a great vibe among the peeps in attendance. i exchanged contact info with one guy who was a good singer in that old-Texas style i love so much-- the old country and blues sound of the 1970's which most of the kids these days aren't so hip to. i'm not sure if i'm musically up for it as i haven't touched my drum kit in over a year but i'm rehearsing with his band next week.

later R and i started talking about this whole twentysomething generation in general. (not so much you my dear, because you're just a bit older and unusually independent-minded). but i was saying that people in their 20's these days are very cliquey, and hard to penetrate culturally. like they have a very stringent and specific set of unspoken rules about what and who is cool and what and who is definitely not and never will be.

then R made an even stronger point, suggesting that the entire generation seems to behave like aspen trees, which are actually only appear to be a lot of individual trees but are actually all the same organism connected by a common root system that's underground and invisible to the naked eye. i was like, wow, yes, that's exactly how i feel about this generation! holy smokes. it's true. it's so goddamned true and my mind if flooding with real life examples. it's like they have to consult what the entire generation thinks about something before they can come up with an opinion of their own about it. generally speaking, i generally feel rejected by average members of the current twentysomething generation, as soon as i open my mouth, or even before, maybe because of the shoes i'm wearing, or something even more random and silly-- probably something i'm entirely clueless about.

we tried to figure out how an entire generation got like that, and guessed maybe it's got something to do with always having had the internet and cell phones to consult everyone else about everything all the time with. i hadn't thought of this before. i had always supposed it had something to do with growing up with all those reality shows, where everyone behaves in the same predictably shallow and narrow manners.

R and i disagreed only in that i sometimes wish i could penetrate their group-thinking, and fit in with them, whereas she's just generally doesn't care to spend her time with them anyway, and i don't think she means "sour grapes" either. to me they're sweet grapes and i wish like hell i could crack their code for access.

having said all of that, everyone at the open mic show tonight, mostly twentysomethings, was really nice and friendly to talk to.

so anyway i haven't gotten back to writing the blog yet, but i will be using some of my emails to you like this one to pluck ideas from.

i have an interview coming up for doing surround sound and home entertainment center installations, and i've also been taking advanced Microsoft Word and Excel tutorials so i'll do well on the computer tests at the temp agency, for good placement in a temp office job, which actually sounds kind of nice to me right now...