Recovery works for me about 20% of the time. Like somewhere around 1995 I started listening to Grunge, which had been around for years by then. For me it was all about Stone Temple Pilots. Everything I liked about that flavor of rock could be expressed in Purple and No 4 + Prince's Chaos & Disorder album, one or two Soundgardern sogns some Fishbone and a couple albums by Rage Against the Machine. That was it.
About 10 years later, I went back for Recovery. I listened to Pearl Jam, Veruca Salt, Nirvana, Hole, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins. Faith No More. Alice in Chains. Nothing. I got maybe three or four interesting songs out of the whole bunch. So I figure it was worth it for me to ignore Grunge. Still out of all that I got Foo Fighters and more importantly Radiohead. (Actually Radiohead is a different story),.
Most of the time however, I have the discipline to just ignore the whole thing. And I do always make mention of it. For example. I have probably watched no more than five episodes, combined, of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. I have never had a blonde girlfriend. I have never visited Jamaica. If I never have those experiences, I don't care. I won't miss them. There's a whole lot of pop culture and American culture and people in general that I just ignore because I'm convinced my way is better. I always do what *I* like. I always my my way of doing things. Interestingly enough it's not because I hate conforming, but simply because I have found enough purpose in the way I do something and don't need any more.
The way I do this is by reducing all the hype around something to non-existence. Like if somebody pays $65 for a designer shirt - to me it's just a shirt, I'm glad it makes you happy. Somebody gets a promotion, it's just a middle class job, I hope it makes you happy. If it's not in my interest, I think of it as a commodity.
It's a fight though. A couple years ago, the KC Chiefs had a good early season, and I thought I actually might enjoy watching football again. Didn't happen. I used to watch NASCAR as a kid, my favorite racer was Buddy Baker (in the Daytona Charger). When I finally could afford a big screen, I thought that would happen. Nope. I know I pay a price by not having been to an NBA game since the era of Benoit Benjamin. But in the end, I'd rather fill my head with different stuff.
I actually honestly believe that there's a superior way to get to learn everything that is useful and wise, but that most people waste their time. It's exactly the dilemma of whether you buy the next Soulja Boy album after that one hit. Or if you actually go to a restaurant instead of cooking your own meal at home. Do I want to be entertained, or do i want to learn? But also, am I too old for this shit? At some point in your life you start marking off large areas as just jungle not worth exploring.
I pay a lot of attention to the amount of time I spend doing things. I love my time, I hate other people spending my time. And I really hate spending time getting to know something other people know that I really don't want to know, just so I can deal with people I'd rather not deal with. Especially when I am too old for that kind of shit - which is why I'm really annoyed by the Trayvon Martin thing because it interferes with the relationships I have with people I already know and like (or dislike) for other reasons. And the converse of that is that I find it annoying when I have found something awesome in an area that I know most people don't pay attention to and would have to spend a lot of time learning so they could deal with me on that thing. I finally made peace with this dissonance in the past year, and I realized that this is a gap that cannot be crossed. It only hurts when you try. So I don't really try any longer. It has lifted a great burden from me.
Long answer I know, but this is rather central to the way I process what I have in common with most people = through literature, and I am very pleased to find that Game of Thrones is actually good literature.
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