April 25, 2005

That Darn Meme

This is a meme that circulated throughout the Blogosphere last week, but I’m just getting to now. And even though the Blogosphere is supposed to be all iconoclastic, all-inclusive, and anti-elitist, for some reason it’s “invitation-only.” But luckily, Petitedov said “it,” so here we go:

List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), “Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice.”

1) Bush-bashing. No, I didn’t vote for him either time, and I’ve certainly got lots of disagreements with various aspects of his program. But for some reason I just haven’t been able to muster the inner bile and hatred towards the president that so many of my peers have.

2) Punk triumphalism. Yes, I like listening to the Ramones and the Clash as much as anyone. It’s great music. But these bands never had even a small fraction of the effect on me that the Beatles or Springsteen or Dylan did, and the attitude of those who believe that punk is THE ONLY GOOD MUSIC IN THE WORLD still irks me to this day.

3) “The Shawshank Redemption.” I took tons of guff for leaving this off my “Top 50 Movies of the ‘90s” list back in college, but even its thousands of showings on cable haven’t changed my mind: it’s still cloying and pretentious, way too long and with the wrong ending. Take any two “Oz” episodes, and they have just as much profundity.

4) Rick Reilly. This guy is supposedly America’s most honored sportswriter, but I find his schtick one-note and incredibly schmaltzy. You can glean more about the underlying essence of sports from any Gary Smith piece than from a whole years’ worth of Reilly columns.

5) Comic books. I’m a connosiour of pop culture and was a nerd when I was a kid, so you’d think I’d have been into comic books. Nope, never was. And that goes for "graphic novels," too.

Honorable mention: Phish, Adam Sandler, "Sideways," Yankee Stadium, and the entire "CSI" franchise.

Now it’s YOUR turn, Jeremy, John, and Mike.

Posted by Stephen Silver at April 25, 2005 11:01 PM
Comments

I agree on the Reilly issue...very overrated. His writing is neither in depth or very creative. I can only recall a few stories of his that I really liked.

Posted by: John B. at April 26, 2005 09:02 AM

what about felching and/or anal?

Posted by: LilB at April 26, 2005 08:07 PM

I too don't get the fascination with “The Shawshank Redemption.” It was a cute movie.

Posted by: Petitedov at April 27, 2005 12:58 PM
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