You kids are welcome to get off my lawn

I watched about ten minutes of the Grammy’s last night. With the sound off. Carla really wanted to see the Hamilton performance and, truth be told, so did I. The DirecTV app wouldn’t allow us to set it to record, so I thought I was stuck watching an award show. I hate award shows. They’re tedious. Luckily we were able to record it once it started, so I was saved. We watched the Hamilton part later.  It was very good.

Back when I was in grad school I was on a Peabody Awards screening committee. One of the perks was being able to go to the awards in NYC at the Plaza. The pre-show reception was awesome. I met Charles Kuralt, Jim McKay, Ed Bradley and, briefly, Ryan White, the young man who became the face of AIDS in the mid-1980s. Rooney Arledge was a being honored for Monday Night Football. I saw Howard Cosell briefly.

The awards themselves? Boring.

But that’s how it is with me and pop culture. I’m pretty much where it goes to die. I was one of eight people who never watched Roots when it first ran. I’m pretty sure my parents watched it. I listed the fact that I’ve never seen Saturday Night Fever as an accomplishment for my ten-year high school graduation. This year will be 35 years and I still haven’t seen it. I’m also unlikely to go to another reunion.

That’s not to say I don’t join in with the cultural zeitgeist now and again.  Like all white people, I watched the last episode of M•A•S•H. I still watch The Simpsons, which either makes me trendy or not trendy.  I have a hard time keeping that one straight. Yes, Season 4 was a work of art.  If it hadn’t existed my vocabulary would be 12% smaller. But I still laugh at it now. I think that ruins my credibility. That’s how I hear it, anyway. I loved Community. I was one of those people.

This isn’t one of those “I just don’t understand how you people can like this stuff” posts. I’m the weird one here. I know that. My approval isn’t necessary to validate how you enjoy spending your time, but it’s not like I’m judging you either. I don’t get it. The fact that you might isn’t a character flaw either.

I think it was sometime in the mid-1980s I decided whatever views I held were probably in the minority. I saw nothing in that ten minutes of the Grammy’s I watched that changed my mind about that.

So it goes.