Face the Music

That's right, this was all your fault. No other generation bought their albums and propelled them to become Grammy Award winners. Now pay the price by forcing yourself to watch it!

"Ooo, ooo, ooo, I love you!"

Home Sweet Home

Safe travels LT Nixon.

Flipper

They hated fans. Hated themselves. They probably even hated the sun. They made some ground breaking Hardcore, though.




Their lyrics read like morbid poetry:

There are eyes that cannot see
And fingers that cannot touch
That's the way of the world

There are dreams left empty and blank
And legs that have ceased to walk
That's the way of the world

There are kisses undelivered
Sighs and moans unuttered
That's the way of the world

There are hearts no longer beating
And there are entrails spilled on the floor
That's the way of the world

We're being erased from history...

...get over it!

We may not command the kind of demographic force that the 80 million-plus Y-ers wield, but we X-ers are still here, thank you very much. I’d love to see more books, movies, newspaper articles and TV shows dissect our lives, loves and lusts, just as they’ve done for the boomers, Y-ers and millenials. We’re just as self-obsessed as they are; we just need someone to cater to that craving for recognition. Where once we were dismissed as lazy slackers who refused to get “real” jobs, we’re now largely responsible for ushering in one of the wildest and most successful revolutions in history, that of the Internet. Give us some credit. We may not be big, but we’re still a force to be reckoned with.

Personally, the last thing I hope for are dumbass teevee shows depicting our lives (Friends was bad enough). And if you want a book please read Gordinier's X Saves the World. Jeebus, if this writer is "self-obsessed" maybe we can get the millenials to accept her as one of their own.

HMMMM

I always enjoy getting others' takes on our generation.

In a way the latchkey young could not, and no longer cared to explain to parents who often behaved like elder siblings rather than parents.

Off Topic Tuesday

I own a car, but I live to ride a motorcycle (a fast one).

Car owners, even Civic Si dudes, always want to see how they 'measure up' in a race and every time they go away looking like Peewee Herman next to John Holmes.

Off Topic Tuesday

Letz see what some on my blogroll are up to....

Army of Dude has another insightful photo story, and offers his thoughts on Memorial Day.

Deadspin gives us a heads up bout a hottie tennis pro that'll be gettin' nekkid in Playboy. Long live Heff!

Gulfster confirms what I know 99 days out of 100- that the waves will suck on Florida's west coast.

LT Nixon gives us the Iraq news we hope to hear and hate to hear in a comical/cynical way, of course.

Operation Yellow Elephant will soon be firing on all cylinders again. Karl and I have both been slammed at work (which is a bad coincidence since neither one of us work remotely in the same field) so our time to research has been very limited. Believe it or not, OYE requires much more time than most would believe (plus, I gotta deal with a lot of cowardly hate E-mail and the occasional hollow threats). Hell, if you see what time I've been posting on Latchkey Man you'd get a sense of what time I've been getting home. So I guess I'm not the Gen X slacker I've portrayed myself to be........

If you hate baby boomers...

...you're going to enjoy this rant.

Even though I wasn't alive when any of this stuff happened, I sure feel like I was. Maybe that's because my generational cohorts and I have already endured five anniversaries of 1968 (one for each decade, plus the 25th thrown in for good measure) as well as four Woodstock revivals and countless Summer-of-Love-themed concerts. As though trapped at a reunion for a school we didn't attend, pre- and post-boomers can only nod in bored bewilderment while the no-longer-hippies get their retroactive groove on.

MAJ Stephen C. Reich

MAJ Stephen C. Reich - May 22, 1971 - June 28, 2005

34, of Washington Depot, Conn.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), Hunter Army Airfield, Ga.; killed June 28 when an MH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed while ferrying personnel to a battle against militants in eastern Afghanistan.

I didn't personally know MAJ Reich at all. He grew up in a town close to mine and every spring he struck me out playing baseball on a regular basis. I would never have admitted to it at the time, but I considered it a 'success' when I grounded out against him.

Saturdays are for eating cereal and watching toons

Weezer is back!

And thankfully they're not a bunch of dicks by disabling the "embed" on Youtube, so the video can be shown on shitty blogs like mine. Yippee!

Talkin' bout Gen Z. Already?

To be honest, I'm old. Very old. I'm Generation X. And when someone suggested that Generation X was defined by the Web 1.0 bubble when it comes to tech, I see much of the same "can't happen to us" mentality in Gen Y that we had in the late 90s. Much like we did, Gen Y will have to learn their lessons the hard way, and they, too, will see another generation of users even more tech-savvy than they are come up behind. It's with both pride and terror that I realize I'm raising members of that generation.

The Phat Phree

Holy shit, I almost forgot about this site until one of my bitter, sarcastic, loafing work comrades made reference to it. The Phat Phree is the most pissy, hilarious site for the bored to kill time at work. Check out their Hall of Fame and start with the titles that interest you- This Gangbang is so Awkard, Look at my Striped Shirt, Dear America- Barbaro was just a Horse, et cetera. As long as you're somewhat twisted you'll find enjoyment here.

I Wanna be Adored

Our music so didn't suck.

Another Millenial now has a job

Mike Piazza retires...

For the ladies

From the Motley Fool (expanding on USA Today's article from yesterday):

In contrast to the newspaper's gloomy outlook, I see bountiful opportunities. If my generation, Generation X, has acknowledged and embraced exponentially expanding options for women, I'll bet that most of Generation Y (also known as Millennials or echo boomers, because of their great numbers) can't even imagine thinking there's anything women can't do. Therefore, they won't accept old-fashioned stumbling blocks. Look out.

You can always sell a kidney...

From USA Today:

In 1979, when the oldest Gen Xers were teenagers, the sole retirement plan for 62% of workers was a traditional pension, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). By 2005, when most of the Gen Xers had joined the workforce, that number had flipped: 63% of employees found themselves covered only by voluntary 401(k) plans. So much for the corporate safety net.

Another sold out, washed up baby boomer

If ever you have had too much to drink, and you know your best option is to purge your belly of the yet to be absorbed booze, refer to this album cover to help expedite the process.

In another example of becoming a parody of yourself for a little extra $, baby boomer Peter Frampton sold out to Geico and became little more than a background prop.

Hey Geico, stick with the cavemen commercial.

One more thing- Peter does show us the official baby boomer guitar rig. Nothing in 'classic rock' screams "BOOMER" more than playing a Gibson Les Paul through a Marshall stack.

Saturdays are for eating cereal and watching cartoons

Pay Homage to our Influences

To say that Gen X is above having influences is ludicrous. Of course we learned from our elders to shape our own direction. Most often though we ventured past the 'No Trespassing' sign to find our idols in the most obscure places.

In the very late 1970's, when Punk Rock was virtually dead after Sid Vicious checked out and the record labels turned their backs on the genre, only 1 city kept the flicker of Punk Rock alive. That city was Los Angeles. The first great band they offered to us was X

X was lyrically intelligent, dropping words like the beret wearing poets of the 1950's. Guitarist, Billy Zoom, crafted riffs that sounded as Chuck Berry may have if he was raised by wolves and given a guitar.


Billy spoke of the bands longevity:

How were you four able to survive and continue making a run at it when so many of your peers passed or fell apart?

We never did enough drugs to die and never made enough money to quit.

Enjoy

Hah! This was awesome

Goddamn hilarious- I found this horrible interview of Chris Cornell (Soundgarden frontman/guitarist). The guy asking the questions is a friggin moron and probably needs to unzip his fly to count to eleven. Anyway, Cornell was asked about his musical influences and, of fucking course, the dumbass with the mic just couldn't believe he wasn't influenced by babyboomer icon Jimi Hendrix. Cornell responded in perfect Xer sarcasm:

"When he was playing in clubs in Seattle I was probably about 2 years old, so I didn't hang with him much. I wish I could have spent some time with him but....."

As a lousy (but LOUD) guitarist I spoke about this type of treatment in a previous post, but I'm too lazy to link to it- Boomers and traitor GenXers just can't understand how rock/metal musicians aren't influenced by all the boomer 'greats'. You know, like Foghat and Molly Hatchet.

Hey Millenials- we're just gettin' started with you..

Update: LT Nixon's take on this link.

For an angry rant this is pretty well researched....

Millennials are younger. Healthier. They got to do anal in high school. They think updating a spreadsheet while posting to a Twitter account about gossip on perezhilton.com is an essential corporate skill

Did every nation set out to screw us?

From Austrialia.....with love:

Don't worry. It's just that you're a Generation X. You were born to get screwed in federal budgets. Yet again, the transfer of wealth from our generation to the ones before and after us continued in last night's federal budget.

Preach to us Brother Chuck

Happy Momma's Day!!!

Saturdays were for eating cereal and watching cartoons

Junior

It's hard to argue that Ken Griffey Jr. is one of the finest athletes from Gen X. I loved how he pissed off all the baseball "purists" by turning his hat backwards during pre-game warm ups.

It's hard to imagine Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire or Roger Clemens ever symbolizing innocence -- especially Clemens, whom ESPN's Bill Simmons recently declared has reached "The Tyson Zone," the point at which nothing you hear about an athlete could surprise you.

Random Rant

I have no idea when Ashton Kutcher was born and I'm not motivated to look it up. Regardless, he was the beginning of Gen Y making their public appearance, and even if he happens to have been born in 1969, Gen X will not take credit for him.

Keep the corner office, I just want to work 8 hours and leave

From azcentral.com:

Congratulations, Generation X! It's your turn to sit in the corner office. Now, if only that geezer currently occupying it would retire before the Millennials start nipping at your promotion. All in all, though, "It's a wonderful time to be Gen X," said Carolyn Addie, a senior performance consultant with Salt River Project. "They're doing a fabulous job, throwing out ideas and possibilities we haven't seen before."

This article is pretty simplistic and it makes references to Xers being 'team players'. This, to me, is a complete crock. Of all the Generations I've known in my lifetime, Gen Xers are much more like a bunch of stray cats getting what they can, when they can.

Tasmanian Xers need to say "I'm full"

I guess laying around playing video games doesn't encourage a healthy lifestyle....

...public health director Roscoe Taylor -- indicated that unless major systemic and lifestyle changes were made the state would soon be in turmoil.

He said Tasmania's Generation X (people born between 1964 and 1980) were "ticking health time bombs" who for the first time in history were likely to die at a younger age than their parents and who faced rising rates of chronic illness which would put huge strain on hospitals and nursing homes.

Holy shit, we received some good pub?

Now don't you Xers get a big head from this praising Newsweek article....

While waiting for boomers to shut up and sit down, Gen X quietly went about changing the world, one cultural totem at a time. Google, anyone?YouTube? 'The Daily Show'?

Off topic Tuesday

Off topic Tuesday

Often times goddamn LT Nixon cracks me the hell up...

Take the girl above for instance. Assuming she is of legal age, I'd like her to berate the shit out of my political views and jump all over me...and I can't rationally say why.

A statement about my previous post

When I used the word "we" in the title I'm NOT saying "I hope we Americans don't fuck it up by not electing Senator Obama". This blog has NOT been set up with the belief that one has to vote a GenXer into office just because of the year they're born. One trait of an Xer is independence. Please, I encourage you to vote for the candidates you think are most worthy of the job.

I'm casting a large net with this blog to include GenXers from all of Western Civilization since we've all shared similar experiences. So when I use the word "we" I'm speaking of similar aged American, British, French, Australian, et cetera... My hope is that those GenXers that have attained positions of power make the most of it and have learned the paths not to take by watching/studying our predecessors. I don't want to turn anyone away because of their political beliefs. Let's face it, a right wing nut-job, a moderate nut-job, and a left wing nut-job may have all been born in 1968 and grew up in the same neighborhood. They are all welcome here.

...hopefully we don't fuck it up

This article had me at "Bye-bye boomers":

The victory of Boris Johnson in London's mayoral election represents the emergence of a new generation of politicians into the struggle for power. The baby boomers are starting the long, sad slide into senescence. The generation X-ers are on the march.The first sign of this great shift came in Russia earlier this year when Dmitry Medvedev, at 44 just two years older than Johnson, succeeded Vladimir Putin as president. The crucial sign will come in the United States later this year, where uniquely all three generations are battling for the presidency.

Out of Office AutoReply:

Out for a few days. Enjoy the awesomest sci-fi short film evvvaaaahhhh.....