WWTNT (What would the neighbors think?)

Don't drive angry. Its Wednesday, February 2, 2011, I'm trapped in a time loop reliving this day over and over, and this is The Side. I've made this same post over a hundred times now. I don't think I'll be able to get out of this loop until I manage to post it without typos. I may be stuck here a while.

Yes, it is Groundhog Day. I don't think the groundhog will be seeing the shadow as most of us are going to have a hard time even seeing the sun today. Oddly enough, we're supposed to figure out today how long winter will be lasting this year and its going to be the warmest day we've had in weeks.

OLD MAN NOZZ

The other day I was painting a fence and the rain caught me. It was already cold enough, so this was sign for me to go grab a late lunch and warm up. Being in Norfolk, I just had to head over to Dog-n-Burger. The place was pretty slow as i had missed the lunch rush. The guy in line behind me looked like a kindred fellow. As I waited for my food to be ready I noticed him reading through the same free magazine I was. Its a little magazine they carry there which covers art, food, and the local music scene. He was a fellow that appreciated such things but still made his living with sweat on his brow and dirty on his hands.

Food was ready. We ate and read in silence, listening to the hustle and bustle behind the counter and radio playing. Sure enough our peaceful lunch was disrupted by a distinctive "raw raw raw raw raw". Lady fucking Gaga. Our eyes rolled simultaneously. The conversation was engaged as we both just wanted nothing more than to enjoy our food without having to here her. We discussed our appreciation for talk radio as the music that is played on the FM stations is either horribly tired or just plain horrible.

I know Lady Gaga is a virtuoso level pianist. I also know that Justin Bieber can bang the living hell out of a drum kit. I wish they'd both just cut the shit and make music. Real music. Joey Fatone of nSync was asked once if he liked the music he sang. He said "no". When asked why he sang it, he merely looked at the person asking him and replied "Do you know how much money they pay me to sing this garbage?"

I heard once that the music that's out there when you're 23 is your music. This may be true for when I get knocked down, I get up again. Ain't never gonna keep me down. I don't know. One of my favorite songs is from that year, but I don't know if that year defines my musical taste.

I pondered that as I finished my lunch. I then went a block over to Local Heroes. This marks the first time in a half dozen visits to that store that SCOTT PILGRIM VERSUS THE WORLD was not playing on the flat screen. I marveled at this for a moment, and commented as much the to manager. He asked my thoughts on Scott Pilgrim, and I told him I wasn't a fan of the comic. He asked about my thoughts on the movie. I told him I didn't feel like seeing a movie based on a comic I didn't like. He shrugged.

"Maybe you're just too old, man."

He didn't say it in a mean way. He just stated the fact that this entire thing was geared towards people who are younger than me. This was sobering. My time as a young Generation X bastard-at-large is over. I should probably accept that my notion of cool and quality stuff is not shared by these young up-and-comers. Its probably what my father had to deal with when listening to "my" music.

The problem with that is "my" music is awesome. My dad dug a lot of the tunes I liked. This crap coming out now is just that. We're lucky as hear if he hear anything decent on the radio.

Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber don't make music. They sell music. Maybe when they make enough cash they can buy their artistic integrity back. And Scott Pilgrim is the story of a moron who would be much more interesting if he spent the entire comic series gagged, tied to a chair, and hit in the face with bricks.

Yes, I am too old.

Too old to put up with this shabby shit that's barely passable entertainment that the drones want to call "art".

FUNNY BOOK FLICKS!!

Henry Cavill has been cast as Superman in the next Superman film. I don't know anything about guy. I can't think of anything that I've seen that he's been in. Christopher Nolan is still attached to this, so I'm not looking forward to this. Zack Snyder will be directing it, and I liked 300, and haven't cared to see anything else he's done.

The response to this news has been predictable to a degree. There's a bunch of people ticked off that Tom Welling isn't playing the role. SMALLVILLE has been around for quite a while and still has a very loyal fanbase. With the show in its last season many of them were hoping that movie would be a transition of sorts with Welling finally playing a fully realized Superman. Hope now of them were holding their breath. Best they can hope for is a made for TV flick. And really, why do these people want a big theater release. They'll probably all download off the internet anyways. That's why that SCOTT PILGRIM movie flopped so badly. The fanbase loved it, but they aren't going to shell out the cash to actually go see it.

Then there's the group that's upset that Superman isn't being played by an American actor. I'm wondering where this mob has been fermenting. I can imagine them sitting in their basements pondering:

"OK, Batman isn't being played by an American. Well, that's alright because Christian Bale is a good actor. Oh, Spider-man isn't being played by an American now. Well, that last movie was complete shit, and anything would be better than that. Wait. Superman isn't being played by an American? THIS TIME THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR!!!! TO THE INTERNETZ!!!

I have heard the point made that is would be like James Bond being played by an American. Who cares at this point? If Cavill can effect a good American accent, then have at it.

The one I thought was really funny was one comment I saw: "Why was a BLACK man cast as Superman. There's no reason why Superman couldn't be BLACK." Silly man. Of course Superman can't be black. Its a Christopher Nolan movie. We all know the only black guy allowed to play a prominent role in a Christopher Nolan movie is Morgan Freeman. Do you want Morgan Freeman to play Superman? Well, do ya?

Snark aside, yes the iconic superheroes are mainly white guys on parade. There absolutely needs to be more diversity in the genre, and there's been a lot of strides in that direction. Honestly, I really do want to a black guy to be cast as Superman. The meltdown on this on the internet would be absolutely epic.

Ah well. In the glut of superhero movies I can afford to be choosey. I wish this guy the best since this is his big break and all. Still, its a Nolan flick. So most likely, I'm out.

MUSIC!!

That's it for this time around today. Stoopid time loop. Where's Rip Hunter when you need him? See y'all Wednesday over and over and over and over again.

Telling the kids, nicely, that they suck.

Being stuck on an airplane with a lack of reading material led me to Sky Magazine with Katy Perry on the cover with a big caption about "Millennials". The folks formerly known as "Generation Y" have new book written about them and there was an excript from the book in the magazine. If I remember correctly is was called "Generation M: How Millennials are Rocking the Workplace" and was written by two people who claim to be experts and looked old enough have spawned a Millennial or two who are probably attempting to rock the workplace as you read this. The parameters for being a Millennial is being born somewhere between the early 1980s and the early 21st century.

The article itself was interesting in that it was horribly insulting to this group, but tried to pass it off as "this is how these people are, and we must adapt to deal with them". Amidst the many adjectives like "smart" and "savvy" the message of the article was clear: this group is spoiled and feels entitled.

But is this true?

Of course not! It's idiocy to lump everyone born inside of twenty years off each other like this. I'm part of Generation X. The only thing be all have in common is a ability to eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yes, there are morons out there who have been spoiled and feel entitled, and there is a culture of entitlement and victimhood that is currently annoying the hell out of a lot of people. However, there's also quite a few of these Millenials that know the value of paying their dues and putting in a hard days work.

According to that article Millennals have voice that must be heard. They want to know what they do matters. They need meaning. They want a gold star on their sticker chart. This is obviously stupid. There's a whole lot of folks just happy to be working right now and there's plenty who wish they were. The hell with gold stars and meaning, they want a paycheck. And I'm not saying that employers should just discount their opinions, but obviously the opinions of those with more experience are going to weight a bit more. The workplace is not going to just adapt to suit anyone. If there is going to be a change in how a business performs its going to be due to necessity and monetary motivation. Yes that includes making the workplace more compatible with the employees because that increases production.

And of course it brings up those "helicopter parents" because there's no reason why they shouldn't be involved in every aspect of their children's live including help negotiate for benefits with a company. OK, if your kid is in their twenties and possessing all their mental facilities and you need to hold their hand when dealing with the management of the company they work for, there's something fundamentally wrong. As a parent your job is to simultaneously protect your child while teaching them how to successfully survive out on their own. You have about 18 years to do this. This molly-coddling of of kids is what led to that Healthcare screw job in cluding kids being able to stay on their parents insurance until they are 26. That is not helping them.

Yeah, I've seen some of these punks who feel they're entitled to things. I've seen guys wanting to get paid by the day instead of waiting until Friday so that boss can actually bill for the work done and keep his checkbook in order. They're not the norm. If they are, they flee from my presence. The people I know in that age group work hard and many of them in jobs they don't particularly like.

So here's my question to the "Millennials": You're considered spoiled, entitled, and are expected to behave as if under the belief that you are a special little snowflake in the center of your personal universe, you gonna take that shit?

Prove those experts wrong. I dare all of you.