Monday, March 20, 2006

Punk'd and Mainstream'd

Chris and I went to the movies last night with a coworker of Chris's, his girlfriend, and two of their friends. Afterward we began the walk home as a group, losing members one at a time to various T stops and side-streets. By the time we got to our block, there was just one other guy with us. He had his bike, and looked like a city bike-rider. The tight jeans with the right leg rolled up, revealing colorful sock; short-brimmed cap; messenger bag. I think maybe he had gauges in his ears.

Anyway, this guy made me wish I had a more original look. I felt like an uber-mainstream youngrepublican compared to him. But as I began to observe the details of his attire and style, I realized that he looked like all other bike messenger types. I'm not knocking him -- he seemed like a nice guy -- what I'm saying is that no one is really an individual, at least fashion-wise. Even if you don't look totally mainstream, you look like the other people who look like you. Emo people look emo. Punk rockers all look punk rock. Cowboys look like cowboys. Goths all look like goths. Flamers look like flamers. Mod people look like every other mod person. I guess even while you're trying to be unique, there's only so far you can go.

If you're truly unique, too unique, you just look plain weird. And while lots of people want to look different, no one wants to look weird.

2 comments:

NickM said...

Some people do want to look wierd. I had this musician customer at the leathercraft store who always came in wearing nothing but a leather vest and a leather jock strap. His name was Sweet Pie, and he performed pretty much naked (I saw him once, he played the piano and sung the blues). That's weird!

Ben Monopoli said...

HAHA! Oooh... Yeah that's pretty weird. He sounds like quite a character.