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DROPOUT

                                              December 5, 2004

  In effect, I'm a
  mainstream culture
  dropout.

  I know very little
  about the latest hit      Missing out on the latest
  movies, and rarely        hit acts is not something
  hear whatever's in        I worry about any more.
  the top 40.
                               I used to try to
     Any commercial            be "open minded"
     radio format might        about these things...   You know the logic
     sound okay for a                                  right?  It goes like:
     day or so...  but            But I've pretty
     how can you stand            much given up.          "Sure, this is
     to listen to it              Burned too many         probably just more
     continually?                 times.  Even the        manufactured
                                  pretty-girl bands       commercial crap,
     Doesn't it                   don't seem pretty       but it's not
     get boring?                  to me...                *impossible* for
                                                          plastic junk to be
     The same thing                  CREEPING_SPEARS
     day after day.                                                                          good in some way.
                                                          What about the
                No wonder the                             Monkees?"
                kids would rather
                shuffle MP3s.

                            Dangerbaby is even
                            worse that I:

                               She made it through the
                               Macarena craze without
                               hearing it once.





  I certainly don't
  know anything about
  the latest TV shows.    (Not quite true, I guess.
                          Sometimes I read about
  I haven't watched       them.)
  television of my
  own free will in
  decades...
                       (Well, maybe once or twice
                       when I'm visiting someone.
                       Just to be polite.  If they've
                       got the Classics channel.)



    I don't know why
    everyone doesn't
    do this.                I mean, yeah
                            okay, I haven't
      How can you           seen the
      spend hours a         Sopranos, yet.
      night *watching
      television*?            Maybe I'll
                              rent them
      Where would you         sometime.
      find the time?


      I actually have trouble understanding
      the mind-set of people who say things
      like "Oh, I'm too tired after work to
      *read*.  I need something more                  I can understand
      mindless like television to relax with."        feeling at too
                                                      low an ebb for
                                                      serious reading,
          Television, to me, seems                    but in that case
          really enervating, and                      I tend resort to
          the idea of trying to                       something like
          watch television when                       mystery novels.
          you're tired already is
          really frightening --                       Sometimes I go as
          that would turn me into a                   far as to re-read
          total zombie.                               ones I'm familiar
                                                      with.

                                                            E.g. Rex Stout.




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