POPULARITY CONTEST

Social interactions have changed and generations are now more equalized and separated via technology. Though, Baby Boomers keep up fairly well with the computer, cell phone, HD – unseemly as that is to me – they are still listening to the Grateful Dead on the ipod. Is there an inate contradiction? I see myself, confirmed narcissist, wanting to stay up to date in some matters – I have begun dressing like Vampire Weekend, a band out of Columbia University whose taste is towards Ivy League sweaters – does this make me evil? Alternatively, I struggle with three or four remotes. It is similar to my dad trying to turn the computer on. I feel his pain; to be left behind is no fun. Concerning art, there have been several recent shifts. There is an apparent embarrassment on the part of youthful creatives towards the capitalist system commodifying art. I am ambivilant as to their quandry. They seem to want the cake as well as eat it. My difficulty with artstars – besides them going to Yale and having 20 years less on the clock – is that I am pissed off that they are not me. Perhaps it possible that many in generations XYZ don’t like the high stakes (and snotty gallery people) or is it that they really don’t understand enough about art to comment? That puts them dangerously close to sharing the opinion of the ‘normal’ guy/gal on the street whose notion of modern or contemporary art is something they saw in an art book in high school, something with splotchy paint that they have ignored ever since. Technically they are up to date but they are historically lacking which is my problem in reverse.