Terminalcoffee discussion

Now, I know "cool" is a qualitative term, but consider this example:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/...

At what age is it no longer dignified to go to events aimed at college students, etc.? At what age should you stop trying to be a hipster and grow up? Can people engage in behavior which allows them to attend concerts aimed at younger people without looking like a jackass? And what behavior in particular makes an older person trying to be a hipster (at a concert or otherwise) look like a jackass? Do you know any people who are still trying to be cool?

I was never cool, but I thought about this recently at a concert where about 75 percent of the crowd was younger than me. My friends and I sat on the balcony because we're too fucking old to stand for four hours. And I didn't want any damn kids running into me on the floor. Go jump and down over there, brats!

I also work with college students, and I see very sad older people trying to be "cool" with them. It's creepy. I never want to be that guy.

I think exhaustion played a role in my making the transition out of going to parties and the like in my early twenties. I started teaching and I was too bleeping tired to stay up late. It was natural selection.

And....you?

I don't know. I think it depends if you are just trying or if you really connect with younger people. A lot of my friends are in their twenties. They go out partying a lot and I join them every once in a while. It's fun once or twice every couple of months, but there's no way I want to do it every week. Being involved in theatre also puts us around teens a lot, and we end up in some big brother/big sister relationships with them.

I would probably feel like a jackass at a Miley Cyrus concert, though.

OK it comes down to this: If one has to try to be cool, one is not. (Fonzarelli)

Sidebar: Sarah was either up very late or very early.

I'm with Fonzarelli on this.

And I think there's a difference between spending time with people younger than yourself and actively trying to be younger than you are. There are people who just happen to hang out with the young and there are those who seek them out in order to be perceived as young. I've always had friends who are much older then me, and age has never been an issue, but I have one female friend who will not go out with people her own age because she's so desperate to recapture her youth. She really does believe that if she's with a gang of twenty year olds nobody will notice she's forty.

I hate to quote Margaret Thatcher, and her "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell someone you are, you aren't." I agree with Larry too, I suppose. :)

But then again, I don't really know what "cool" is. I was always one of the nerds. I would say that going to concerts generally attended by younger people is fine. Going to concerts attended by younger people dressed up in girls' skinny jeans, converses, and eyeliner is creepy. Just be yourself and enjoy the concert. You don't need to seperate yourself from the "kids". Just acknowledge that you're slightly older and deal with it. Just plz to avoid staring at the girls' (or boys' as the case may be) asses and the kids might even enjoy your company. Unless you're at a Jonas Brothers' concert or something. Then I wonder what is wrong with you.

I don't know if there's an "age". I'd say that kids should stop trying to be cool by the 6th grade and save themselves a lot of pain as they grow up. But since that's not going to happen... I'd say if you come out of college still desperately trying to be cool and avoid yourself, you've missed part of what college was about.

Here's a news flash: Chronological age is irrelevant.

I don't have to try, RA. I AM cool. In a nerdy way, but still...

Right, I'm with Jackie. I'm the coolest of the nerds. It has taken me a while to arrive here, but I'm okay with how others perceive me. I wear shoes that are comfortable and clothes that reflect my mood. The more energy I expand on the kiddos and what they possibly are on to now, the less energy I have for thinking about Foucault. (And Foucault is really sucking my mental energy this week. Why does he have to be so damn smart about it all?)

I had a friend once tell me to surround myself with the people I emulate. Living by that helped me to stop living in the past and focusing on growth.

And I don't really agree with the "trying to be hipster" phrases - either you are a hipster or you are not. I can think of a few professors I know who are certainly hipsters. Its not as though hipness stops at 34. Actually - what is less hipsteresque are the 15 year old girls (like I totally was once upon a time)

...sigh. What was I saying?

RA, I had to take my husband to the airport at 4:30 AM. I got up at 4 and logged in while he was getting his stuff together. Then I came home and went back to bed.