So, with nothing worthwhile to make fun of I say to myself - "Self, what in the hell are you going to write a blog post about?". Then it hits me. Popular Culture and what I like about it (little) and what I don't like about it (most of it). So, without further ado and in no particular order:
- Words and Phrases -
"Cultural appropriation" - What the hell is it? Is it even a thing? (No), it has too many syllables (8) and will never make it into the future. Germans in the 1940's? Nazis -not goose stepping Jew killing monsters, just Nazi's - 2 syllables. Japanese? Japs, Tojo, either 1 or 2 syllables. Popular for this reason.
"Virtue Signaling" - WTF is that ? no need to continue and don't tell me.
"I Know Right" - Meh, not bad but getting over used.
"Photobomb" - Not a real thing. Nothing 'bombs' your photo. You as a dumbass, press the shutter button without examining all the stuff that is in the frame. It's YOUR fault, no one elses.
"My Bad" - one of the phrases those with an agenda (whomever they are) put out there to get adults to talk like babies and further demoralize the population. Also see 'Selfie". Surely you can think of more.
"Fat Shaming or just Shaming" - A kindergarten concept of making fun of someone because -fill in the blank-. They are fat, you don't like their shoes, you want to make fun of their dress, you simply want to offend or make fun of someone else because you are an asshole. Grow up already.
"Trigger" "Triggered" - This one I like and use. It is either 1 or 2 syllables. It is versatile and can be used to describe any insane action taken by anyone, but usually some stupid dumbass leftard who is over-reacting to some pretty normal thing they come across that offends them for some stupid reason.
ie. Zoe was triggered when she saw a Trump sticker on a Boeing 737 as it passed over her house just South of the San Jose airport.
Chloe was triggered when some anonymous person on the other side of the world said they did not care about transgender people in the comment section on an article about the global warming scam.
"Rocked, Slammed, Toppled" a few of the words that media use to describe when someone makes fun of someone else.
"Shocking" - Nothing is shocking yet every headline seems to have this word in it.
"Epic" - If they don't use Shocking, they use Epic. Look, the Battle of Midway was Epic. The Landing at Normandy was Epic. Nothing that goes on in America in the world of popular culture is Epic. It's not even Awesome and unless it involves animals playing it isn't Adorable either. Stop already! What will the kids do when they actually encounter something Epic or Awesome ? probably have a stroke while being speechless because they don't have a word to use to describe it.
"Immigrant" - The only person (In the USA) who is an immigrant is someone who is here legally. I'm happy to see the DOJ has formally adopted the phrase "Illegal Alien" to describe the people who are here illegally.
"Gender Confused" - Let me help you here. There are 3. Male, Female, or Hermaphrodite (a person with both male and female sex organs at birth) You're welcome.
- Music -
Pop music - Sucks. The singers can't sing, the musicians cannot play their instruments, the lyrics are unintelligible and/or boring as hell and it sucks.
Modern Country - Sucks. You could play every modern country tune at the same time and not even know more than one tune was playing.
Rock - Sucks. Sounds like modern country but with really bad guitar playing and singers who just scream everything out.
Rap - Sucks. Not even music.
Jazz - Sucks, except for Joe Satriani.
Blues - Was good at one time but most of it (not all) is just really tired now. Same notes, same timing, same everything. yaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnn.
New Age - Sucks. Music for insects. Would rather listen to a horny cat outside the window.
All other genre's of today's music - Sucks.
- Clothing and Style -
The fatter women are the tighter clothes they wear. Generally speaking young people are either dressed like bums or clowns, or bum clowns. Apparently everyone under a certain age believes it is federal law that you must have tattoos and the uglier you are the uglier and more colorful your tattoos have to be. If you're female, your hair must also be at least 3 different colors of neon. Cincinnati anyway.
Personally, I've been wearing Hawaiian shirts (Pacific Legend) for 5 years now. Best shirts I've ever owned. I have 6 that I've washed every week for the 5 years and there is no color fading, the material (cotton) is still nice and crisp, buttons have not fallen off and the pockets are pattern matched to the shirt. I will probably never buy any other type of shirt. I hear they are coming back in style. I've gotten 10 or 20 random people tell me they like my shirt over the years. No doubt there are millions more who think it but who are just too shy to say anything.
- Cars -
They all look the same. I couldn't tell you if a car was a Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, or something else from 10 feet away when we're talking about midsize sedans. I can spot a Kia soul. Most of them are vomit green and are really ugly. Chevy's have that big bowtie badge so they're kinda easy to tell. Chevy HHR is the most uncomfortable car I've ever been in. Caddy's are very gaudy and not appealing to me. Hate the new Corvette - last one I thought looked good was 2012.
- Motorcycles -
I don't like Harley's but that's what 99% of people have it seems. Either that or a crotch rocket with 200 hp. I'm glad those were not available when I was a kid. I'd be dead by now. I like the retro bikes like maybe a new Triumph Bonneville with 77 HP.
- TV -
I watch extremely little TV, but when my wife has it on and especially when commercials are on, it seems to me all the women in these things have the sharpest voices. Like "could cut you" sharp. Imagine what they sound like when they're mad. What happened to sultry talking women? Is this a moslem thing to reduce the birth rate even more in the USA or just something else?
Ok, that's all I got. Please add anything that you have on today's culture or lack thereof in the comments.
I'll Leave You with This.
EXCELLENT! BRAVO!
ReplyDeleteI'd add "like.." "So I went like to the store..." LIKE to the store or did you really go to the store?
And "So he goes 'what's up' and I go 'not much'" "GO?"
And I so hate "MY BAD".....
I just have to add something not quite as bad as your list...when a waiter walks up and says "are you still working on that?" before he takes your plate. I've actually said to a few who I knew had somewhat of a sense of humor "NO, I'm still eating it...when I want to work on it, I'll ask for a shovel and a chisel!" :-)
And yes on the voices of SO many women TV people...like Jessica BROKEN GLASS VOICE Tarlov!!
This was really fun to read...thanks, Kid! Excellent.
Thanks so much Z ! Good additions ! "Like" and "Go". I like forgot about those they've been around a good while. I'll have to use that working on it thing sometime ! And that reminds me of another - Can I get you guys anything else? I've sometimes said, well actually there are 2 guys and two ladies here. Usually with servers I know. Then smile.
DeleteI have never used My Bad but the 58 yr old guy beside me in IT uses it all the time.... makes me cringe.
well ya know...like ya know...whatever and at the end of the day jessica tarlov performs circumscions with a few volwels alone.
DeleteMarie H(b)arf...is the answer to why women like her should never be alowed to vote, or be in charge of anything important. And the black queen of drama..thay richard fowler....I know he has a special knot hole he visitss in Miami Beach.
IMP, Too many assholes getting airtime....
DeleteYES! BULLSEYE! English has turned into FARTSPEAK thanks to the common –– and I mean COMMON –– uncouth morons, braying jackasses, and all-too-human assholes –– many of them FEMALE –– who now dominate TeeVee!
DeleteFranco, George Orwell called it newspeak.
DeleteWell. Kid, I figured since it comes from ASSHOLES, it might be a good idea to call it FARTSPEAK. ;-)
DeleteNot a bad idea Franco,
DeleteWell - that's a mouthful.
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeves?
Glad you asked.
Boom and Breaking. Boom seems to be fading, but everyone has "breaking" news.
Women sound so bad because they're into vocal fry. When you couple vocal fry with up-speak it becomes a "I'll never ever get laid" sound. When a guy does up-speak he sounds like a fag.
One of my political friends here wears Hawaiian shirts, but they're not near as nice as those Pacific Legend ones.
A few days ago when running errands I was both shocked (sorry) and appalled by the number of women with big ugly garish tattoos. So, so ugly.
Cars not only look alike, fully half of them are that deadly shade of beige/gold. Alas and alack - my car is that color and I can never find it in the parking lot.
Adrienne, Thanks. Spewed it out in about 20 minutes though I've been thinking about it a lot longer.
DeleteBreaking, yea. It's a click bait world now.
I sometimes fantasize about how I'd be if I were on the dating scene. Like go to pick up a girl and she has: a vomit green Kia soul, or a bunch of crap hanging off hte rear view mirror, or a bumper sticker with the word Brat on it, or one of those Jeeps are for girls stickers, or stick people decals, or some other things(ha) and I'd just walk away.
Aside from all the disgusting physical things like tattoos...
Funny, Around here, people who drive champagne colored cars are a Menace ! Never drive the speed limit (20 miles under at least) and are absolute hazards on the road ! Never fails ! Honest to God, Never fails.
I can take one small tattoo somewhere on a woman, but they go nutso. Tramp stamps are bad, but then once some of them get started they never stop. I've seen so many who look like they've had the contents of a comic book transferred to their bodies. Let's just say Unappealing.
DeleteKid, I think you're a genius. Thank you for echoing my own own held thoughts so well.
ReplyDeleteI can retire now at last, because you have come along to carry the torch for causes I've touted, and isses I've harped on for decades.
TeeVee is the primary source of, and main cause for, what-is-regrettably-called The Dumbing Down of America.
The hidden motive behind all this is the intent either to drive us MAD or BORE us to DEATH –– possibly both.
Franco. Wow. Quite the compliment. Actually George Orwell is the genius. I'm merely a student.
DeleteI will endeavor to keep the flame alight.
You've hit another of my main thoughts. Information overload and 99.9% of it total bullshit. We are a society wading constantly in bullshit.
Franco, You might enjoy THIS ONE.
DeleteThanks,but no thanks, Kid. Zappa and that whole gneration of SICK-sties Rock 'n Rollers never were and never will be my style. Jim Morrison and the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis, Joplin, Zappa, The Mothers of Invention, –– even the Beatles,et al. repelled me when they frst arrived, and frankly scared me half to death.
DeleteWhether you believe it today or not, ALL the stuff from that era is Music of, by, and for the LEFT.
Franco, My dad had a bunch of Chet Atkins records and things like Montavani when I was growing up. I listened to and liked a lot of the Chet stuff. I didn't listen to the radio and when others had it on I never heard anything that had my interest then at 11 yrs old I heard the Beatles tune - I want to hold you hand - and I became a Beatles Fan. I liked a lot of stuff through the early 70's, even The Tubes. I liked the diversity of it all. At this point, I don't care for much of it anymore. I still have a few Traffic tunes on my playlist. But most of all the other stuff is ear worm music and I'm not interested in that anymore. I favor instrumental.
DeleteSomewhere around the late 1980s, American educationalists suddenly realized that hardly anyone in America had a clue about geography. Young adults (as well as older citizens) could not even find their own home town on a map. It was a problem that begged for a solution. Educationalists were all on board; what better way to shape American society than by introducing multicultural curriculum and calling it geography? This is what happened, and the result has been an absolute disaster for American society.
ReplyDeleteWe should expect that one generation will seek to differ from earlier generations; it is how this works. My grandmother was born in 1890; she was not happy with how the 1920’s evolved. In our case, it isn’t just a matter of differing somewhat from earlier generations ... it is all about destroying what was in order to achieve bizarre objectives. Anti-Fa is one example of this, and BLM ... along with those douche bags that literally destroyed Central Park in NYC a few years ago. Every one of these nut bags is a loser. Make that LOSER. One case in point is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who has not a clue about anything, and yet has assumed a leading role in the destruction of modern American society. One doesn’t achieve social change from outside of normal society; they achieve meaningful changes from within normal society.
Yes, it is true that America is a diverse society, but multiculturalism has become a process of managing that diversity along political lines. Multiculturalism is a political agenda ... the politics of the far left; the same kind of progressive thought that has literally led to millions of innocent deaths over the past 150 years.
We should ask ourselves, how are all cultures equally valuable? If they are not, then why do Americans give a damn about Spanish-Mexican-Indian culture? What have the Mexicans ever contributed to western society (much less their own)? What have the French given us beyond the Napoleonic wars? How are the Japanese a more refined culture than our own? Hint: they aren’t. What is there about Chinese culture that we should seek to emulate? Who gives a rat’s ass about Islamic culture? I don’t. If these cultures are truly not equivalent to American culture, why do we even bother trying to placate them? Why do we pretend that these “others” have cultural value, when in fact they do not ... which is to say, not here in America. It may exist within the framework of the Middle East, of East Asia, or in Mexico, or in France ... it doesn’t exist here.
All the things you’ve said about “popular culture” is true, except that I don’t think it is as popular as these losers think. If there is a second cause of our current plight, after multiculturalism, it is parents who have no clue about what is going on inside America’s classrooms, or ... who are every bit as dumb as their children. What we need to do, as a country, is grow the hell up.
There is no force current that will motivate them to "grow up" because they are being placated right where they are.
DeleteMustang, it sounds like you have your finger on the pulse. Well, reflecting on 1960, things ain't getting better. And in my opinion, things are not going to get better from a push standpoint. Meaning, even with the education solved (huge task), people are not going to suddenly become smart critical thinkers. I believe it will come down to how much bullshit people are willing to accept and have guide their lives.
DeleteThe 64k question is how much AMERICAN spirit is out there and how many people will say I'm Mad As Hell, and I'm Not Going to Put Up With It Any More! ?
Mustang, PS, to your point about cultures. Extremely great point and one that I translate to an actionable paradigm. How about we ask the world to examine each culture in light of what it offers the rest of the world ?
DeleteI believe we ARE getting over-populated and that it is problematic. Instead of a UN or an International Crime kangaroo court, how about an annual reckoning of what each culture contributes to the human condition on this blue spec of dust floating around the sun?
islamics, what do they contribute to the world other than the inky black stuff. Not A Damn Thing. Even without their 7t century culture and savagery, they offer NOTHING. Not even afghan carpets anymore right? No products. No produce, No technology, No Nothing ! Nothing but evil aggression. Let's get that shit on the news at least once a year.
Russians? Indians? Chinese? Japanese? What do all these people actually produce for the betterment of humankind? I think the examination would be very fruitful for people's understanding and motivating for cultures who actually aren't savages to step up their game. We really don't have the time or resources for so many people to be such assholes.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI fully agree with most of your statement, Mustang, but beg to differ with you about the relative value of the various foreign cultures. The British Isles, the European nations, and much from Asia has had tremendious value in helping Civilization to advance.
DeleteThings go in cycles, however, and what was brilliant ,and even spectacular, a century or two ago may now be in steep decline. I beleve that has happened to us. Like the Old Gray Mare of folksong fame, we ain't what we used to be. ;-}
Ths is why a thorough study of Religious and Cultural History would prove invaluable. Rather than DISCARD and FORGET the past, we ought to stufy it with curiosity, and learn to take the many wonderful, –– even glorious –– things about it, and incorporate them into the way we live today. We would be greatly enriched for making the effort.
I'm thinking of Art, Architecture, Music, Drama, Dance, Literature, Horticuture, Food, and Philosophy as well as Religion.
Our regrettable tendency today is to single out the WORST aspects of everything we think we ought not to like and REJECT a great deal of truly MAGNIFICENT stuff.
Walt Whitman smmarzedit bery well when he told us:
BE CURIOUS - NOT JUDGMENTAL"
In short we'd do well to emulate the questing attitude –– and great courage –– demonstrated by Marco Polo, and many of the great Explorers from Columbus onward.
"Destroyed!" in tabloid style click bait.
ReplyDeleteEd, Yea, Destroyed, Owned, Pawned. All useless adolescent bullshit.
DeleteApparently everyone under a certain age believes it is federal law that you must have tattoos and the uglier you are the uglier and more colorful your tattoos have to be.
ReplyDeleteI have dear family members who sport the most hideous skin mutilations I've ever laid my eyes on. How can they possibly think thosedamn tattoos are attractive?
AOW, I can think of no mental malfunction that would persuade me to get a tattoo. Especially a lower back tattoo that looks like some geometric art on the tailgate of a pickup truck. Yea, that's the image I want to see when 'making love'.
DeleteKid,
DeleteFor the life of me, I cannot understand why any woman would disfigure herself with a tattoo. Ugleeeee!
Hmmmm. I just posted along those lines.
DeleteAOW - must be a peer pressure/walk on the wild side rebel type thing. But for Life? and that stuff ain't cheap either. We have a girl at work, tattoos all over her arms and no theme to them. Some cursive writing, a car, "dad", a cat's face, some other tattoos. She must go in and ask what the weekly special is.
DeleteEd, Just stopped by. Yes, way too many tattoos.
There's too much in a comment in a blog post. You need to write a book, Kid.
ReplyDeleteCube, Thanks so much ! I've thought about writing kids books actually. Not sure I have the discipline for it. No way I could out do George Orwell but who knows. Maybe a Kurt Vonnegut type thing.
DeleteYes, today's music sucks. We all need to back to the days of Tiny Tim and his EPIC ballad, 'Tip Toe Through the Tulips.' Now THAT was music. Or maybe Ohio Express's 'Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love In My Tummy'...as Greg Kihn once quipped, they just don't write 'em like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteCars: back in the good 'ol days, you could tell that a car was, say, a 1955 Chevrolet Belair from half a mile away. Now you can't tell a Mercedes from a Kia from two feet away.
Motorcyles: they made death machines back in the day, Kid. I had a 1972 Kawasaki 750cc H2 (called 'the widow maker'), had almost 100HP and weighed maybe 400 pounds. Should have killed myself on it lots of times. But didn't.
Yea Fredd, there was some terrible music back in the day but there was some pretty good stuff too and most of the people could sing and/or play the instruments very well. Robert Plant mentioned how it was a great time to be making music. You had Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Zappa and everything in between.
DeleteI had a couple 80 hp 4 stroke bikes. You can kill yourself on anything but at least you couldn't pull a wheelie with the throttle going 150 mph..
Glad you're still with us Fredd. :)
I just read your post in its entirety. If the whole world reads it there is no reason for anybody to ever write another word. You have encompassed not only an entire generation's opinion, but also the world's collection of logic and artful language at the same time. Damn! Guess I can go back to sleep, now.
ReplyDeleteHey Bob, Thanks !
DeleteHey, Kid! FYI: I have to tell you that my main musical interests lie in the vast treasury of classical and liturgical music literature –– a great tradition that goes back eight-hundred years at least –– BUT I also love JAZZ, a much newer art form, ad an expressiin of true genius that consists of a great variety of moods and styles some of which I like better than others. BIG SUBJECT!
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy Popuar Music s it was from the 1920's through 1955. After that Pop Music for me with very few exceptions might as well have DIED. I love much of the music from the Broadway Stage too, but that interest stops after Stephen Sondheim whom I think is a genius.
Music has been my main field of interest all my life. I earned three degrees in the subject, and feel I know what I'm talking about, but since there's no accounting for taste, would never try to tell anon what he should and should not like. I just hate to see a huge amount of really great stuff deliberately eclipsed by militant ignorance, that's all.
I've always tha k you, however, for introducing me to Tommy Emmanuel,and his mentor whose name escapes me. I have trouble with Satriano, however, because his stuff seems too harsh, hyper-energetic and incisive –– almost bordering n violence.
BUT "to each his own."
Franco, Tommy's idol was/is Chet Atkins. I like a wide variety of music, some of the big band stuff, some classical. Bach is bog with me. I like Satrina because I can't memorize his tunes so to some extent when one comes on, it still has at least a small element of newness. Since I can't listen to the radio I have a flashdrive in the dashboard player to provide background music while driving. If I have a tune on there that I like but have every note memorized I can get bored with it pretty quick if I hear it even once or twice a month. These are tunes I enjoy hearing every couple years, so they can't live on my regular playlist.
Delete