Things you hated after they got too popular.

[-Jrabbit]

Albert, you're right on it re urban/hip-hop culture shifting to the mainstream. But it's slower than it could be (which actually makes it all the more amusing).

The oversize thing is everywhere in the burbs, but they're still just catching up to BUFU. Being a white upper middle class teen rap fan now is what punk fans were in the 80s, what the hippies were in the 70s, and beatniks in the 50s.

The culture of cool is constantly being ripped off and commercialized -- it has been ever thus.

Garage rock? Kind of like punk but no real politics, kinda like metal, but easy on the pretensions. Picture a basic guitar rock band...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Coming late to this, but here's my sorry tale:

PHASE 1: Spent my 20's -- the 1980's -- listening to Sinatra and Ellington, drinking martinis, smoking cigars, just 'cause that's what I like.

PHASE 2: Some time in the mid-90s (around the time of the release of the movie Swingers and the Squirrel Nut Zippers cd Hot), the neo-swing movement takes off -- and now all sorts of urban twentysomething hipster-doofuses are listening to Sinatra and Ellington, drinking martinis, and smoking cigars. The problem is that they're all 10 years younger than me, so now I look like some old fart trying to be "with it."

PHASE 3: Neo-swing is over. I continue to listen to Sinatra and Elligton, drink martinis, and smoke cigars. Now I look like some even more pathetic older fart who can't keep track of the current trends.

I hate that