Sinister: Mining tedium for transcendence

[Rinaldo Thatchez]

You know, I would never presume myself to be a sini-celebrity. To become one 
of those I think you have to post at least once a week, should be perhaps a 
bit wittier and certainly sillier than I generally am and I think it helps 
to have met at least a few sinisterinos in person. Failed on all counts. 
Nevertheless, I've been around for a little while and posted enough that 
those of you who are keeping close score at home probably recognized my name 
in your inbox. By now you're probably learning what to expect from me too, 
i.e.,I never post unless there is a discussion going on already. Today I am 
posting, which means (reactive poster that I am) I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ON 
THE SUBJECT OF INDIE KIDS.

<pauses for trumpets to fade and to briefly bask in audience's anticipation>

By now the conversation has reached the depths of tiresomeness and someone 
has already written the moratorium plea (hey! that's my job!) but dammit!, I 
just don't get the chance to write as soon as I get the notion, having 
computer access only at work. So please bear with me. Of course you don't 
have to; you can snuff out my little message's life right now if you choose, 
but do you really want that on your conscience? Besides, this topic might 
just get interesting again.

So, JF wrote:

Look into the mirror andsay: "I do not sneer at people who dress like 
everyone
else does." Were you able to do that? Were you honest? Could you ever go out
with someone who doesn't have the right hairdo, the right clothes, the right 
albums
in his/her cd- collection?

Well, the first part I don't have any problem with. Living as a cool spy in 
the square world for so long, I've had the opportunity to get to know a lot 
of them and even gain some affection for some of the poor buggers. Family 
and workmates come immediately to mind. But the answer to the other part, 
frankly, is a pretty emphatic no. As Nick Hornby and later John Cusack said, 
"It's not what you are like, but what you like." Another pop culture 
reference for this is Bridget Fonda in Singles when asked what she was 
looking for in a man said, "You know, someone with a good sense of humor, 
someone who likes the same things as me but not exactly. . ." It's important 
to share interests with your boo, and let's face it, a lot of us don't have 
many other interests. If I can get personal here for a moment I would say 
that that has to do with my general state of chicklessness. A (girl) friend 
of mine asked me recently, "You're a good looking guy; how come you never 
have a girlfriend." And I told her it's because hip chicks, which there are 
much fewer of, generally think I'm square and square chicks I don't dig. But 
I'm getting off point now.

JF also wrote:

Most indiehipsters (well, maybe I could say "us", but more about that later)
aren't actually bad people in such, just... closeminded. There's some
hipsters who are truly evil in their heart (hello), but there's rotten and
deceptive people everywhere in the world. But not being able to understand
that there can be people who don't really give a rat's ass about 7- inch
singles, that's just... Example: If I should say here that i really don't
care much about gay people, what would your reaction be? Anger? Think about
it: That's what the worst indiehipsters do. They don't care much about those
people who are into that "crappy, mainstream music", do they?

If I can play devil's advocate here for a moment, I would say that that 
attitude is really okay. Not against gays. I mean against "those people" 
that we feel so distinguished from. It's a matter of power. The difficult 
truth is that they own the world, they make the rules, and sometimes they 
have oppressed those of us who don't fit in or care to play by their rules. 
Just ask those two guys who shot up Columbine High School. It's because of 
this power structure that we can ridicule and discriminate against them with 
relative impunity (but we can't shoot them, don't misunderstand me here). 
It's like black comedians saying whatever the hell they want about white 
people. It's a grasp for power and self-esteem and a healthy venting of 
frustrations in a society that persistently ignores or lowers them. I would 
argue that it's a similar thing that goes on amongst indies, who constitute 
a legitimate cultural minority, albeit a generally socioeconomically 
priveliged (sic, never could spell that word) one. Not to compare our 
struggle with serious human and civil rights issues but I think you get my 
point.

Side note related to our own particular obsession: this defensive attitude 
is pretty justified because B&S are one of the most mockable bands around. 
The Moz once sang, "It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate/ It takes 
strength to be gentle and kind." It's pretty easy to snicker at that line 
and at B&S because they have that strength that the ultimate fey pop star 
sang about. The very reasons we love them make them an easy target. B&S are 
wimps and wimps are easier to laugh at than identify with.They have the 
courage to be delicate and free of artifice and sing to the gentlest part of 
us. That's why Matt H. has so much trouble maintaining his hetero image as 
an uncloseted B&S fan. Real men are supposed to front. This is also why 
Jenowl has so much trouble with the hard kids.

JF (nothing personal) continued to write and said:

As I write this, wearing faded, darkblue jeans, old Converse sneakers and a
B&S- t-shirt, I know I look like an indiekid (sic). But I don't think my
clothes or my cd-collection makes me somehow better than other people. Some
people seem to think that wearing cardigans straight from the 70's is like a
secret handshake between indiers (nice word!). No, that's just the image of
yourself you give out to people. In my case, I just like the way they look
on me. If someone feels like s/he knows me just because I wear the same
clothes s/he does, two words for them: piss off.

The point was already made by someone that this is bullshit and *everyone* 
dresses to make themselves identifiable and (as, I believe, Chu said) 
hopefully attractive to like-minded folk. But on the issue of fashion I'd 
like to agree with some of those that have claimed that indies are among the 
most pretentious people around and here's why: our typical image tries 
desperately to say "I don't care about my appearance and I still look cooler 
than you." It's this claim to anti-fashion while still following trends and 
obeying the rules of our subculture that makes indie people so pretentious. 
. We all know how much effort goes into finding those vintage items or 
finding suitable outfits for work that don't compromise our coolness but we 
don't admit it, not to each other. If anyone asks, the official story is 
that you got that T.Rex tee from the concert in 1974 or your wool straight 
pocket slacks were a hand me down from your Grandpa. That sounds harsh but 
it's kinda true. Not that we actually lie but we are loathe to admit that we 
too participate in the very mainstream practice of image-enhancing 
consumption. If you really want to be anti-fashion then pull an Einstein and 
get a closetful of white button-down shirts and brown slacks with a couple 
of jackets and rotate. Pass? Yeah, I don't have those kind of balls either.

Finally, JF offered some meditations:

I am not a better person because I listen to music that doesn't sell well.

Are you familiar with the recently en vogue theory of multiple 
intelligences? If I remember correctly there were six: verbal, quantitative, 
kinisthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. We might not be 
better people overall but we're probably a little stronger in certain areas 
than others.

I once heard someone say that music is the agnostic's connection to the 
spiritual. This rang true to me, a guy who plays guitar badly because he 
opted to never take lessons or learn even the most basic stuff about music 
theory so as not to have the mystery removed from it. For evidence of 
music's spiritual qualities you can just look at the language that surrounds 
it, e.g., you "have a song in your heart," good singers are "soulful," a 
particular piece might be described in terms like "moving", "transcendent", 
"uplifting". Rock stars are "gods." Musically talented people have been 
"blessed" with a gift, though some are reputed to have "sold their souls" to 
get it. History is littered with musical visionaries driven mad by the power 
for which they had become the conduit into our world. If this is true, that 
we experience our higher selves or a higher power through the music we 
choose to listen to, then what does that say about the spiritual state of 
the millions who listen to the stuff we find so empty? Do they really find 
something there that we don't, or is it that they are dead inside? Or have 
they found their gods in something else or dispensed with the need for them 
altogether? Someone recently told me that the word idiot comes from the 
Latin (or maybe Greek, I get confused) word for "self-deification". We may 
not be better than them, but then again we might, because they may be 
idiots.

Whew! Was that me really throwing the pretentious word around earlier? 
Sorry, it's late now and I can get pretty full of shit when I'm tired.

- rinaldo

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+-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
+-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
+-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
+-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
+-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
+-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
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Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
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