Cult-Chic

I've always hoped that I was anything but normal. Though eccentric and bizarre are generally not particularly pleasing adjectives of characterization, they have always been much more appealing than plain or ordinary.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before I discovered the great "underground", as it's called. Through music and film I was able to access a labyrinthine counterculture which I connected to much more readily than the Abercrombie-50 Cent society.

Throughout history there have always been the Jackie O's and the John Waters, neither of which I find myself having a likeness to, but both immensely fascinating folk. However it's always been the Waters and Lynchs that have attracted me over the Monroes and Jackie Os.

After viewing my first Tarantino and listening to my first Neutral Milk Hotel I became even more intrigued by the cult-status culture.

Not even 30 years ago, deviating from the norm was widely rejected. Surrealist films like Dali and Bunel's Un Chien Andalou followed by Midnight Movies like Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, Night of the Living Dead, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show were passionately and religiously followed by a specific and minute audience and abhorred by the majority. It was in this clash between culture and counterculture that the power of the neo-underground began to shine through.

But things have changed. As usual. And in this case I'm not convinced it's for the better. I've found identifying with the underground is no longer a unique effort but a posh and commericialized phenomena. It seems I've even fallen into the hypocrisy of being intrigued by giant billboards and commercials that advertise independent productions; i.e. my allegiance to IFN, the indie music scene, etcetera.
Even the style of the "in" clothing today, coming from Urban Outfitters and the like, creating thrift-storeesque garb for only ten times the price, depicts the mainstream of the "individual".

A quote that I've always liked is "Always remember you are unique, just like everyone else". It seems that in our struggles to proclaim ourselves as individuals, we are merely edging toward the same goal, once again hurling ourselves back into the Pleasantville masses.

Even this semi-rant of mine, set off by watching a documentary on "Midnight Movies" which are avant-garde films from back in the day, certainly isn't anything that hasn't been said before.

Yet another quote I'd like to bastardize is by Goethe, he says, "All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in out personal experience."
So I guess that's all I can hope for from fulfillment. Which, overall, probably isn't such a bad deal.

Anyway, there really isn't much of a point to this post. I just didn't want to let the bottle of red wine and well-done documentary go to waste.


This may be filed under: Inebriated and generally useless babblings/ My self-indulgent take on pop culture thus far/ I'd really like another glass of wine.