New Dinosaur Jr. video: Over It

both cool and sad at the same time. looks like gen x will never let go of being a kid. i'm not scoffing at it all from my high perch. i'm just as guilty as so many of my generation.

That's the big question for our generation, isn't it? What is "being a kid" vs. "being a grown-up"?

Our generation is rapidly approaching our 40s, and everyone I know still (occasionally) plays videogames, cares about music, etc. Is there anything about that behavior (and skateboarding, etc.) that's fundamentally adolescent? I don't know.

Is something adolescent just because we engaged in it during our adolescence?

My father-in-law spends all winter snowmobiling. Is that any less adolescent than BMX?

What are grown-ups "supposed to" be doing during their free time? Golf? Bridge? Shuffleboard? Bingo? I'm not being (entirely) facetious here. I really want to know how society expects a 40-year-old person to behave...

I remember freaking out before I got married (at the ripe old age of 23!) because I thought that married dudes couldn't wear sneakers anymore. Well, guess what, it's many, many years later and I'm still wearing sneakers...and jeans and a t-shirt.

Jake, you are old. You use the word "sneakers."

ha ha ha

Ha, what do kids these days call them? Gym shoes?

Anyway, as usual in all subjects concerning teenagers, Brian Wilson said it best:

Will I dig the same things that turn me on as a kid?
Will I look back and say that I wish I hadn't done what I did?
Will I joke around and still dig those sounds
When I grow up to be a man?

Will I look for the same things in a woman that I dig in a girl?
Will I settle down fast or will I first wanna travel the world?
Well I'm young and free but how will it be
When I grow up to be a man?

Will my kids be proud or think their old man is really a square?
When they're out having fun yeah, will I still wanna have my share?
Will I love my wife for the rest of my life
When I grow up to be a man?

Won't last forever...
It's kind of sad...

You guys think too much about your age (and I say this being someone who thinks too much about almost everything).

Have fun doing what you're doing. You're all well-adjusted, productive, reasonably successful adults who I'm sure have plenty of happiness in your lives.

That should be enough. Who cares about some conventions or guidelines someone else has imposed? That guy probably never got laid, anyway.

Oh, and I love this song.

Old-timers always say that if you're lucky you'll eventually be old, so why not adopt a youthful approach to life in the meantime? As long as you don't make a fool of yourself, that is. I agree but personally, I feel that unless you've gone pro, no one over 25 should even own a skateboard. (Video games, you're next.) Then again, I don't agree with those who say no one over 40 should be out there, on stage, rockin' out.
Oh, well..

Two years ago, New York magazine did a piece on the habits, dress, and behavior of Gen-Xers as they enter middle age:
http://nymag.com/news/features/16529/

I don't think wearing hoodies and Cons is in any way wrong for your age if you're the age that Jake and I am.

As I get older I definately don't want my behavior, style or health to mimic that of my parents or grandparents.

As for the new Dinosaur Jr video, maybe I'm missing something but I don't have an adverse reaction to it at all. Anybody who watches it closely can see that they're not trying to pass off those tricks as their own. There's obviously something both tongue-in-cheek as well as self depricating about it. On the one hand they're poking fun at their age, while on the other hand the song, album and video are a testament to the fact that they're still rocking.

I think the video is brilliant. It's low key, entertaining and fits their music well.

Dino Jr.
Niel Young
Mike Watt
Sonic Youth
etc...
rock on

age is not a factor

"punk is whatever we made it to be" - d boon