Pop Culture

When my Nana told me a few years ago that she wouldn't even consider going to a movie because she's been uninterested in pop culture for so long that she doesn't understand the references in movies and wishes they could be self contained stories like they used to be, I was a little horrified. I'd never known anyone to opt out of current culture and then never ever bring it up- usually people are very excited to share that they are opting out, until they stop the next day.

But now I have let pop culture pass me by. There are huge swathes of it that I can't really access. I tried to share in my boyfriend's hobbies this weekend and it was really hard. First we saw Mr F.A.B at a reggae concert that was actually a rap concert, and I didn't like it because I like calm things where I am in control of the volume and no one crowds me and I can leave when I want to. Then I tried to play Halo 3. I wanted to play Wii tennis, but apparently gamers don't insist on cross compatibility and so you can't play Wii tennis on an Xbox 360. I didn't ask about Guitar Hero, because I only like to play that with the guitar, not messing around with the controller. Anyway, I got all set up and I was a soldier fighting aliens. The navigation was really confusing because it was all one color to show that it's dystopian, and also up and down were reversed on the controller. But after 10 minutes I was able to follow Andy if he walked into my vision frame and then didn't move too fast. He figured out on the map screen where we had to go and he groaned and said "That's such a long walk!" I have always suspected gamers say things like that while they sit on their couches, but I am sad to have it confirmed. Anyway, aliens shot at us and Andy killed them really fast while I tried to turn and face them. At one point I was planning to shoot two aliens who walked right up to me, (so I had a good sight on them), and then they were gone! I was proud and I bragged that I scared them away but it turned out Andy shot them while I was getting my bearings. When we got to the mission place, Andy said my job would be to stay in the car while he shot things and drove around. I fell out of the car twice because I thought I was pressing the trigger but I was really pressing the fall out of the car button. And every time I fell out it was a hassle because Andy had to shoot everything away from me while driving up to me, and then I had to hop in without pressing the fall out of the car button. Anyway, I fell out 4 more times but I don't know how because I was really careful not to press that button. One of the times I wasn't even touching the controller. I think. It was happening really fast. Anyway, the sixth time he had to circle back to get me he said "Babe, stay in the car!" and since I had been trying with everything I had in me to stay in that car I got a little mad and threw the controller down and yelled "You stay in the car!" and we turned it off. Then I had mild anxiety all night and drank calming tea.

The last pop culture thing I tried to do was watch the movie Inception. I never go to movies because I never like them. They are loud, and long, and I feel trapped. And I always bring things to do, but it always seems like i could get those things done much more easily if I weren't at a movie theater. Anyway, Inception (probably spoilers): First I watched a bank robber preview with about a million explosions, which I misremembered as being the intro to Inception. That got me a bit worked up and so I guess I didn't get to give Inception a fair try. The dialog was bad but not campy, the costumes were great but I wanted to see them closer up. There were loads and loads of characters because each layer of dreams left behind a character to act as a more awake guardian, and I have trouble keeping track of characters, but it turned out not to matter in this movie because all of the recurring characters were on the same team. The plot is that Leonardo Di Caprio's character kills his wife, but he felt sorry so he got to live and see his kids. She would get run over by a train for him, because they were so in love, but he wouldn't jump out of a building for her. The other plot is that a good way to convince people of things is to seamlessly give them the idea while they are dreaming. Not by just whispering it like those tapes that hypnotise you in your sleep, but by going in your dream as a character and engaging the person in the dream world. The other plot was that a japanese man wanted an american man to dissolve his company. It was a nice wrap up I thought. It took a really long time because everything everyone was dreaming happened at one time with lots and lots and lots of cutting back and forth. The movie was 2 1/2 hours long, and I watched one hour of it altogether. I think they could have got it down to 90 minutes easily by not over explaining things.

In conclusion, I like gentle and productive pass times.