Monday, February 18, 2002

10:29 PM

In fact, the only thing I have less respect for or interest in than underground trendiness is above-ground trendiness. Take platform shoes...please. I was a teenager in the 1970s when these monstrosities came around the last time. I rejected them then as foolish, impractical, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous, should they interfere with the proper operation of clutch, brake and accelerator. The current version of platform shoes is even worse...although, fortunately, I am now old enough that no one expects me to wear them, unlike the '70s. But then, there were a lot of trendy things in the '70s I managed to ignore: baggy pants (and here they are again, even uglier, if that's possible), afro hairdos, chokers. (OK, I did have some really ugly clothes, but that was all you could buy--I never believed for a minute that I looked fashionable, especially since the majority of my shopping was done from the Sears catalogue.)

Trendiness is driven purely by the need built into our economy for people to buy things they don't need, so the people they buy the things from can buy things they don't need, so the people they buy things from can buy things they don't need, and so on, and so on, and so on. (Read Stanley Schmidt's article in the latest Analog for his take on all this.) I find it astonishing that people who sometimes claim to want to see capitalism demolished strive so hard to start new trends. Don't they realize that new trends are almost instantly turned into profit-generators for companies that rush around hoovering up all the new trends they can find for that very reason?

So forget trendiness; you won't find it here. I didn't start this blog to be trendy; I started it because I'm a writer, and this looks like a fine tool for jotting down thoughts, with the advantage over a diary or notebook that someone may actually read it, which forces me to attempt to be cogent and even, from time to time, amusing.

If you're reading this, chances are you've found it so thus far. If you haven't, you won't be back--which is fine. And if you aren't reading this...

Well, if you aren't reading this, then I guess I'm talking to myself. And you know what? That's fine, too.

10:04 PM

But that's probably just a rationalization. I suspect I really watch it for the same reason I watched it as a kid: it's got noisy, colourful objects that move fast and occasionally run into each other.

I don't apologize for that, however; that's a pretty good description of football, too, and nobody is ever expected to apologize for watching football.

So keep the racing coming on TV, and I'll keep watching it when I can.

For one thing, nothing is better to nap to on a Sunday afternoon.