= Such Stupid Things =

Tommy's right when he notes that "everybody says they're behind the curve on music". I myself have made such claims in the past, and for the most part they're true. But I've been thinking about my current place in the world, and I've realized that my behind-the-curvedness is - like all things - completely relative.

For years now I've gathered most of my new music intell from a handful of blogs penned by my young, urbanite friends. These are people who enjoy live music with some regularity and in a few cases actually play musical instruments, so if they claim to be a step behind that puts me at -2, at best.

The situation seems grim, but I must remind myself to keep things in context. These friends whose musical cues I follow exist in a very different world. Theirs is an urban hellscape of concrete and PBR bottles, forever watched by the Pitchforkocracy's unblinking eye. Keeping up with new bands is tireless work, but that's just what it takes to be cool as a twentysomething.

I, however, am an engineering graduate student. My peers and I have long since discarded all vestiges of coolness, and in this world I'm actually doing okay, musically speaking. Even here in hip-as-fuck San Francisco, we graduate students don't do a good job of keeping up with such things - I wouldn't be surprised if Jack Johnson was still considered "underground" by many of my classmates. So as long as I can stay two steps behind the actual scene, I'll remain one of the more with-it fish in this very small pond. I take heart in that fact - but oh man is it depressing when I catch a glimpse of one of my undergrads' winamp playlists and have no freaking clue what they're listening to.