New book I Wear The Black Hat

[VAisForEagleLovers]

This link contains a full chapter of a new book by Chuck Klosterman. I really don't know what the book is about other than 'grappling with villains (real and imagined)'.

The chapter talks about his musical tastes and feelings and talks about several different bands/artists, but he pays the most attention to the Eagles. Some of it made my head hurt and some of it made me laugh (maybe it was the margarita I was drinking). I kind of wonder if he's watched the documentary and what he might think now!

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2013/06/20/...ck-klosterman/

[Prettymaid]

I get halfway through this stuff and wonder why I'm wasting my time. Do I really care what this guy thinks of the Eagles? I mean, who is he? I'd rather read you guys' posts here than read this guy.

[Freypower]

The Dire Straits part is stupid. I must write a couple of lines on it. Pleae forgive me but Dire Straits usually are not subject to this stuff.

I am sure Mark Knopfler, to call him what this writer calls him because their relationship is 'formal' (give me a break ) lies awake at night agonising about how badly the man misnterpreted the 'faggot' reference in Money For Nothing. If it is aimed at anyone, it is Boy George & other 'New Romantic' pop stars, not hair metal bands. But then, as his knowledge of Dire Straits appears limited to two songs, he is very hard to take seriously.

I really don't care whether people 'hate' Take It Easy or not. What I hate is the way these people claim to be speaking about everybody in the world and cannot see out of their own egos & self-referential crap. 'I think it - hey, so must everybody else! I'm so cool'. No you're not. You are just spouting the same tired old pretentious 'I hate everything' rubbish.

[Prettymaid]

This guy's book seems like nothing more than a self-indulgent blog.

[AEW21]

I have to admit that I found it amusing--it's a perfect encapsulation of the hipster mantra (and I'm like 55%-Hipster, fashion and indie-music-wise, so I can recognize it! )--that it's cool not to like anything too much, especially anything that's popular and of the zeitgeist. Then, of course, it stands to reason that it's uncool to like anything too much. Amy Poehler has a really great quote that I wish I could dig up, about how she feels bad for kids of the younger generation, because they've grown up in a time where being "above it all" is the norm, and they can't just geek out about a passion-I'll have to look it up....

Anywhoo, Chuck Klosterman is a bit too old to be a hipster--I think he's in his 40s--but he is a cynic, esp. of pop culture. And I think he points out in this article that he's outgrown being hateful about something just because it's pretty or popular or "mainstream"--it's a waste of time or energy. It's sort of like that discussion that was had in the Doc thread about posters not getting those who "hate-watched" HOTE, just to mock it. It's just that hipster thing--they love to be annoyed. So, in this piece, in his roundabout way, he's sort of saying that you can't be high and mighty and say you're "above" liking the Eagles or Springsteen or R.E.M. if you're so enmeshed and embroiled in hating them. You're not above them, you're tied up in them just as much as a super-fan. It's like he's admitting, in his own snarky way, that it's not worth it to revile the Eagles because, really, what have they done personally wrong to you? As the boys sang, "Get over it."

He goes about it in his own pompous way, but in the end, though his commentary on the Eagles and their lifestyles is rather harsh, he comes to the conclusion you can't dismiss them or their talent, which is an Eagles win of sorts.

ETA:
Here's that Amy Poehler quote. Visit her "Smart Girls At The Party" site if you can, a great place for young women--really, women of any age--to be empowered and enlightened and encouraged:

What worries me the most is this trend that caring about something isn't cool. That it's better to comment on something than to commit to it. That it's so much cooler to be unmotivated and indifferent. Our culture can get so snarky and ironic sometimes and we kind of wanted Smart Girls to celebrate the opposite of that.

Chuck sort of embodies "Snarky and ironic" here.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Yes, I could see his point of view on what he was trying to get across over and above the things he said about the Eagles and other groups. He was definitely pointing out that it was his younger self that disliked these groups and his immature reasons why, and it's very typical. While it wasn't the same groups, there were groups I thoroughly disliked as a teen and young adult for equally petty reasons.

[adlena]

thanks for sharing