Tuesday, January 11, 2005
In Bad Taste
Yesterday, I was told that I have bad taste.
And I was informed of this by no less of a cultural authority than my fifteen-year-old brother who, I should mention, was listening to some ghastly Tupac/Biggie/Eminem/Lil' Flip remix at the time.
(Well, perhaps Lil' Flip wasn't actually on it, but the point remains)
My first instinct was to say, "Ugh, shut UP!"
And my second was to wonder-bad taste in what, exactly? It's certainly not clothes. Movies? I have stellar taste in movies. Sports teams? The Yankees may have choked this year, but whatever, they can afford to just once and, of course, the Patriots are awesome. Books? I like pop culturey books as well as great literature. Impeccable!
Magazines? Music? Television? My fondness for M-K and Ash lip gloss?
Ohhhh....that's what he meant.
When it comes to magazines, I'm not really picky. I mean, I make fun of certain magazines--Jane, In Touch, Us--but I still read them religiously. Certain magazines are perfect for reading at the gym because you don't need to use a lot of brain cells to get the gist of them. Like Pam Anderson's Jane column, you can read every other paragraph while running a mile and understand everything perfectly. Other magazines--ESPN and the more recent years of Entertainment Weekly--seem slightly more respectable on the outside, but still aren't very good. Still more are good and I'm not embarrassed to be seen reading them--Vanity Fair, Elle, Vogue. Others are foreign and I don't quite understand all of them but they make me feel smart--Vogue from Italy and Paris, in particular. And still others aren't really magazines, but just giant monthly picture books (W). So it's not like I'm reading Highlights or anything.
Television. Hmm. Well, okay, he's got me there. I have discussed my love of Law & Order repeatedly and I like shows like Six Feet Under and similar respectable shows. And I maintain that America's Next Top Model is seriously brilliant. But I should admit that I watch shows like The Surreal Life sometimes and, um, fine, okay, I've watched Zoey 101 and Unfabulous and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and yes, I'm 21. Okay? I admit it. There, he got me.
And my taste in music isn't bad, I just mix good music (Mos Def, Kanye West, Talib Kweli) with, um, poppy stuff (the entire catalogue of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc.) Okay, lots of poppy stuff. Whatever.
I suppose what I'm saying is, in a roundabout way, that my taste is just fine. We should reserve the term "bad taste" for people who wearing Louis Vuitton headbands and watch movies like A Walk To Remember and cry, unironically, root for teams like the Dolphins and voted for George Bush.
And this will be the last time that I ever spend time thinking about anything my brother says because he actually used "boughten" in a sentence. I know, right?
Mallory at 1/11/2005 10:36:00 AM
4 Comments
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at 12:55 PM
Mallory said... Strange Love is well on its way to becoming the best hour of television, ever. I can't even describe the awesomeness.
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at 8:25 PM
Lauren said...
seriously, i've watched a walk to remember. and i own the book. and both of them are all kinds of horrid.
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at 1:08 PM
Mallory said...
Lauren, isn't it the worst? And yet people think they're really good. I don't get it.
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at 4:24 PM
said... "We should reserve the term "bad taste" for people who wearing Louis Vuitton headbands and watch movies like A Walk To Remember and cry, unironically"
Big ups, my friend. Big, gigantic ups.
-Becca