Hey Paganizer! I Gotta Know...

Paganizer wrote a few months back:

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A girlfriend of mine had an ultracon BFF ...a previously homeschooled person who, for the first time in her life was hearing music and watching TV - which was why we liked hanging out with here; everything was fresh and amazing through her eyes and her A+B conclusions were fallacious and hilarious.

This could be: a magazine article; a book; a sit-com. But I'd settle for a TP board post - can you remember any more examples, apart from the one you mentioned (she got 'Wayne's World' mixed up with Bill & Ted). Color me fascinated.

What's the opposite of a brain fart?

I don't remember writing that but now that I read it my memory is spurned and I know who I was talking about. I just can't believe I remembered it in the first place. Maybe this is a good sign.

It was pretty funny but today I can't think of a specific example. Maybe this is a bad sign.

We would laugh about her faux pas and sometimes share them with her because she was nice, would laugh with us, and was anxious to "join" American culture. I do remember that a lot of them were biblically-oriented, anti-science based solutions to news-cycle events & daily observations/experiences, but that most came from the fact that, after years of anti-secular shielding from her parents and peers, she had no concept of how many personalities make up pop culture; so she would make amalgams of pop figures, even from different generations. From her viewpoint, they were all from the secular world and were therefore the same "personality". Another component of the hilarity was that every cultural reference that swims by had to be backed up and explained, which would then require a retro-chain to supply the knowledge base.

(I recall it was entertaining and while writing this even remembered her name). This happened with music, too. Chris Rock has a spiel where the answer to everything is "Martin Luther King". In this case it was "the Beatles" (and the day we explained Lennon's bigger-than-jesus remark was apparently some sort of revelation and I recall impressing that as it had been 20+ years it was of lessening relevance). I remember explaining movies (which she had difficulty following because movies contain memes) and that we took her to her first secular concerts. The situation was that she had graduated from a non-secular university down south and was now pursuing her doctorate in an aggressively cultural college town, away from the scene she'd been in her entire life.

Probably good sitcom fodder; but specific incidents are escaping me at the moment (granted, it was 20 years ago), so enjoy this instead.



Post Edited (04-13-11 02:19)

"She didn't judge our habits and activities but nor did she partake, being inquisitively observational in stance."

One of my favorite TP board sentences ever.

> What's the opposite of a brain fart?

Ummm ... an asinine thought?

Another thing was that her opinion of Hitler and the Nazi atrocities wasn't "properly negative", especially in my young, collegiate-angst-idealistic opinion. Looking back, her attitude was always inquiring and never confrontational. She didn't judge our habits and activities but nor did she partake, being inquisitively observational in stance.

I agree. Some fine writing, Paganizer.

This just gets more intriguing.

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she would make amalgams of pop figures, even from different generations

I'm imagining things like: What was that band Ice Cube was in with Rod Stewart?

Are Jan & Dean in the Butthole Surfers?

Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, Holly and the Italians - they're all the same, right?

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This just gets more intriguing.

hah, that's funny...this person from my past

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Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, Holly and the Italians

yeah, pretty much on the mark

you don't have to go too far to find someone like this, particularly now that they have learned to voice up

One girl I dated — the same one who knew Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band only as a BeeGees 'n' Frampton flick — tried to get into my musical tastes by fits and starts. Whenever I'd play a record or CD she hadn't heard before, she'd say, "Let me guess." After listening a bit, she'd start rattling off artists she'd heard on my stereo before. I'm talkin' about artists that sound nothing like the one I just happened to be playing, let alone like each other. (Example: "Roxy Music?" "Joy Division?" "Elvis Costello?" Nope. R.E.M.)

Around 1990, I had this friend who went through a profound spiritual awakening and decided he had to get rid of all the secular entertainment he'd acquired over the years. I remember debating how one could even make the distinction between what's secular and what's spiritual. He refused to sell or even give away this stuff. He insisted on destroying it. He didn't have an actual book burning or anything, but all his "secular" music, movies, books and magazines were gone.

I'm still friends with the guy. Needless to say, he backslid. Oh, how he backslidded.

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Oh, how he backslidded

Ha!

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tried to get into my musical tastes by fits and starts

To me, that's what's funny. We all had these girlfriends right?

Jerm, I think I've already related the story of a friend of mine who had a great collection of punk/new wave/underground from 75-85 including imports. He got a job on the coast starting in a couple days and left without seeing any friends so he took the collection to the dump!. I don't know why I even bring this up. Now I have to alleviate by going to the fridge and let a fine Shiraz breathe while I contemplate my dry garden patch out the window. The horror.

Was reminded of this thread when Mrs Fab told me about a bad sitcom she saw recently called "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" - one of the characters is, in fact, a former Xian fundie discovering the world for the first time. When her friend asks why she wants to dress her kids like something out of "Little House on The Prairie" she says "I don't know what that means..." But she excitedly recognizes someone's reference to "Dirty Dancing": "My church group picketed that movie!"

The missus doesn't think the show will last, but thought that this was a good character.
Any screenwriters lurking out there copping ideas from us?

> I think I've already related the story of a friend of mine who had a great collection of
> punk/new wave/underground from 75-85 including imports. He got a job on the coast starting in
> a couple days and left without seeing any friends so he took the collection to the dump!

AAAUGGHH!!! Stories like this give me nightmares, and that's while I'm awake at the office!!