Generation X: Check in here

Listened to 91X

Listened to X

Don't really remember listening to Generation X. My intro to Billy Idol was his solo career in the White Wedding era.

 

I generally try to be optimistic, but I like to think I know when I'm being played. So I guess I keep cynicism on the hip, in case I hafta draw. Really haven't liked much music made after 1996 (some tho). Have a kid in college, but most of the time I feel not much older than the young'un. Kennedy liberal. Up and down on fiscal responsibility.

 

Wedged between X and Y, which is just fine with me. I can mock both, along with the boomers.

In other words, fuck all y'all.

 

Skeptical, progressive and (so far) non-breeding.

 

I'm a GenXer.

We were branded as slackers when we were going through college.

I think, as most of us exit our 20s and enter our 30s, the youthful idealism turns into realism for just about every generation, X, Y, Z, Baby Boom, whomever (my dad -- a hard-core evangelical family values guy/union president who walked the fence politically, said in the 80s "today's yuppies are the same people who were the hippies of 10-15 years ago").

When it all comes down to it, we learn how to do our jobs, what works, what doesn't, et al. We tend to think more about the cycle of life -- work, pay the bills, keep a roof over the head, keep food on the table, have a little left over for some nice luxuries. Even the "non-breeders" of the 20s often settle down and have 2.5 kids in their 30s.

We're more technologically-savvy than our elders, but maybe not as technologically-savvy as those coming behind us.

For me? 1 kid, intending to have another. I've changed careers once, own my own side business and find time to freelance. Politically conservative, but I was a right-wing firebrand in high school & college, too. Have oddball musical tastes, but generally don't listen to any band that came out after 1980 (Bruce Hornsby the big exception).

 

As far as the band goes, just about everything off the first album is great...especially "Promises, Promises" which pretty much served as an epitaph for the original spirit of punk...and a foreshadowing of Idol's regrettable career as a corporate rock star.

I'm about Ragu's age and am true to the generational stereotype in many ways. Single, never married, no kids. Took me forever to find a career I liked. Started out to be an academic, abandoned that with no Plan B and basically dithered around in the human services and health fields for a decade and a half before finally discovering journalism in my mid 30s.

Politically, my view of the world has remained about the same since my youth. But my view of what constitutes effective political action has changed dramatically. I've gone from being a radical to being a boring, work-within-the-system kind of guy. That was inevitable, I suppose. Even when I was at my worst as an early-20s, left-wing know-it-all, a kernel of rationality inside my brain always held that practical concerns should always trump ideology.

One thing about the Gen X stereotype never resonated with me and that was the "slacker" ethic. Even when I was farting around and doing nothing career-wise, I was very busy outside of work with political activism, travel, performing arts and other interests. True, there were some days when I waked-n-baked and spent the day at a coffeehouse, but I was always a bit embarrassed to be so useless and could never make a lifestyle out of that.

Finally, I should mention that the whole "alt rock" fad of the mid 90s pretty much cured me of being a hipster. Thomas Frank's "The Conquest of Cool" articulated my objections perfectly. I saw Austin go from being a laid-back, bohemian town to a self-conscious hipster town in just a few years. Watching the idiocy of 90s hipsterism consume Austin was like watching a beloved ex-girlfriend become a crack whore.

 

You can be my baby daddy.

 

I'm 36, unemployed and have no purpose in life. Otherwise, things are going OK.

 

Fucking Repubilcans.

 

Well I guess I'm fucking 40
I can't say that I'm thrilled
I never dated Winona Ryder
And I probably never will
Well I guess I'm fucking 40
Ah but I'm better off than some
Well I may be fucking 40
But you're fucking 41

Well I guess I'm fucking 40
Well gettin' older really sucks
I went to see The Spy Who Shagged Me
They said, "One senior: that'll be four bucks."
I guess I'm fucking 40
But I'm better off than you
Well I might be fucking 40
But you're fucking 42

Well I guess I'm fucking 40
Well I'm a petered-out Peter Pan
Well sometimes I feel foolish
I make my livin' singin' in this band
I guess I'm fucking 40
Well that's what my mama said,
But Bruce Springsteen's fucking 53*
And The Stones are almost dead

Well I guess I'm fucking 40
I can't say that I'm thrilled
I never dated Winona Ryder
I'm guessin' I never will
I guess I'm fucking 40
Ah now poor poor pitiful me
Well I might be fucking 40

Hell, I'm lyin'
I'm 43.

 

John or Ted?