A friend of a friend

I don't really talk bad about people on here, so hopefully this doesn't bite me on my ass.

This weekend, the topic of Dane Cook came up between a friend and me. I said that he was very funny and, seeing as he has over 1 million myspace friends, many other people think so too. So my friend told me that this acquaintance of ours said something to the effect of, “Only jocks like Dane Cook, you can’t be in our scene if you like Dane Cook. He is only funny because he talks loud.” I am definitely paraphrasing here. When I first saw a Dane Cook DVD like 3 years ago, I laughed out loud. His topics related to me, as I’m sure it did with others my age. He talked about things most had experienced as child; communion, not talking to strangers, the Kool-aid guy busting through the wall, and the Speak and Spell that talked like the devil.

By “our scene” he meant the local punk rock scene because Brad and all of his friends are in local bands. Now, I really don’t consider most of the people we know to be punks, ourselves included. That is just the sound of their music and semi-lifestyle. Although I have been known to poke fun at the bro-dude jocks with their pink polo shirts and way too much testosterone, I never believe that they are all like that or that just because someone is dressed a certain way that they only like certain things. It really gets to me when people comment about their own group of friends and what they should and should not like. I think it is bull-shit to generalize like that. It is like saying everyone in our group must wear all-stars or must like The Ramones. It reminded me of when this hipster girl I knew said that she didn’t listen to a band she liked because they had become too famous. That is crap.

I think the definition of being cool is to like what you like, popular or not, and go with it. I always thought of true punks being a group that accepted anyone who didn’t fit the mold. You don’t have to have torn jeans, patches and an anarchist to be a punk. I wasn’t sure of this guy before, and now I definitely don’t appreciate his opinions. Next time he is around, I will have to put on my Spice Girls cd and wait for him to berate me for not being true to the "scene".