Le maudit Mo D.

why do I hate things other people love?

Based on a 2001 prediction I believe was handed down by Ms. Milkes, I am pleased to report that she knows/knew me very well and I did indeed hate the film Moulin Rouge. What an annoying parade of shiny shit set to modern music! It was like being trapped in a speeding NYC taxi, but with brighter colors and flagrant disregard for historical accuracy! And the viewer is cruelly deprived of Ewan McG's sizable wang!

I usually hate things other people love. This has been going on for years. My earliest recollection of public distaste for something hugely popular was junior high, at the pinnacle of New Kids on the Block's popularity. As one of the few members of NKOTB's target demographic who roundly denounced them as vapid, talentless, and unattractive, even as my fellow peers spent their parents money on their tacky merch and proffered actual death threats against me for publicly stating that the music of NKOTB was vapid and stupid and sucked ass, I was setting myself up for a lifetime of cultural isolation, which I was able to celebrate during my hardcore indie snob years (c. 1995-2000) but lately has just left me wondering if it's me or them.

I was the only girl at Tenaya M.S. (alma mater of K-Fed!) who openly adored and worshipped Morrissey. He was sensitive, easy-on-the-eyes, tragic, and looked good in a suit. Moreover, he didn't hop around in baggy pants or shave lines into the side of his hair. The Smiths had only recently broken up and Morrissey had just released his first solo album, Viva Hate, which included honest, heartfelt lyrics such as "me without clothes, well a nation turns its back and gags." That was what 13-year-old Mo could get with. Nearly twenty years later, Morrissey's career endures and Jordan, Joey &c are ironic jokes whose early careers are only remembered today via heavily-edited VH1 retrospectives.

Still, anything major label, mass marketed, marketed at all, etc. is usually distasteful to me. Why, I can't say. Maybe it was the New Kids. Or maybe it's just me and my high IQ overthinking everything. It's awfully lonely up here.