Out of Hiding

Hey, I'm still alive. Just figured I would write... just to write.

School's in full swing. I'm a little rusty on working w/ my school & work schedule and getting my shit together. It's complicated, but it's at the point where it's do or die because I've been in school for almost a month, and it's getting serious. I should be OK though. After this, I have to read for my British Literature class. Fun fun. Like lyrics out of an Iron Maiden song.

So I haven't been up to anything too great. Actually, I take that back. I've been working on music. My band (now called Clark and the Kents) made a Myspace page and put some rough demos up. And I mean ROUGH demos. Like "we're poor, can't afford a studio or a 4-track" demos we recorded on an old tape recorder. They sound like crap (or they sound great if you like some of the early Mountain Goats stuff or Daniel Johnston or Half Japanese), but I think it's a good start. Go to www.myspace.com/clarkandthekents if you wanna hear it (yes I am advertising myself on my blog).

Valentine's Day. The Hallmark Holiday. Amelia and I got invited to a show in NYC at this place called the Cakeshop. Pretty much a hipster cafe with a venue in the basement where the up-and-coming indie bands make their start, possibly upgrading to a show opening up for Caribou at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. And a lot of them are pretty good. So my friends paid, and went into the venue, and I had to take a leak. After I got out of the bathroom, they came back up and told me that the place was pakced, and the closest they could get to the stage was the entryway into the damn place, so they decided that they weren't gonna spend the next 3 hours sandwiched in between obnoxious, condescending hipsters listening to bands that might suck. My friend wanted to see the Screaming Females, and there were 2 opening bands. So I didn't know anything about these bands (I haven't been trying to keep up). All I know if it was that bad as far as space was concerned, like if there were a fire there would be a stampede to get out with few survivors, I wouldn't have wanted to stay either. So, we drove into Manhattan on a Saturday nught (Valentine's Day, nonetheless), and we don't want to leave without doing something. So what do we do? Get a slice of pizza, and revel about how much hipsters make us feel like losers. Then drove home. I texted my sister to see what she was up to, but she was already ready to retire for the night. But it was fun, though. It was 100 times better than spending a Saturday night in CT probably doing nothing.

I have to say I feel less depressed than I did a week ago. I was feeling kind of depressed because I'm 23, still at home, and I haven't moved to any big city, like New York, Boston, Portland, whatever. But last night, I was in a room full of these pretentious know-it-all hipsters who base their friendships and conversations about the latest bands Pitchfork Media advertises and about what albums they chain smoke to in their lofts at 3 in the morning. And most of them probably have parents who pay for their lifestyles. And I realize that as much as I like talking about music with people, or as much passion as I feel for music, I realize that basing friendships around it is pretty stupid, and with these people, if you're not dressed like them or up to date on EVERYTHING hip or whatever, then you might as well be shopping at the Virgin megastore wearing a Nickelback shirt. It's elitism. I tried being friends with people like that and ended up being rejected as much as I did by the 5th grade boys who wore Boss jeans and listened to "No Diggity." I realized that if I did move to Brooklyn or whatever, and tried making friends, I'd probably end up feeling more depressed and lonely than I would here at home. This won't stop me from travelling and going to shows, though.

Here's a stand-up act by Louis C.K., who describes hipsters to a T (for the first minute or so):



"And they say cool things like 'Yeah me too,' or whatever."

So that's been my sad life lately. Now, it's time to do actual work. Yay.