Time passes… the bastard

lauper.jpgTime passes… the bastard
: I get in trouble with my kids everytime I buy a CD.

I got the new Cyndi Lauper album. Now I understand why the album itself might have driven them crazy, since she’s singing classics (well, what today qualify as classics: Walk On By, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood). But when my son whined, I said:

“Hey, it’s Cyndi Lauper. She was there at the start of MTV!”

And he replied:

“Daaa-ad, that was twenty years ago!”

I was aged.

outkast.jpgToday, when I turned on the car, the stereo started blasting Outkast.

My son said, “You’re scaring me.”

I said, hey, I’m a hip dad, as dad’s go.

I started a really hip magazine.

I blog.

I work on the Internet.

I listen to Howard Stern (well, I left that out, but it counts).

“You’re not supposed to be hip,” he said.

Why not? I asked, plaintively.

“It’s creepy,” he said.

Aged again.

18 responses to “Time passes… the bastard”

  1. Steven I. Weiss Avatar

    Wow…you were around to watch the launch of MTV.

  2. Scott Avatar

    > there at the start of MTV
    You mean, you hired Adam Curry?!?

  3. Jeff Jarvis Avatar

    No, Cyndi was there, damnit. And I DID go to the first MTV Awards, my children. That was back in the days when you had to buy music, by cracky.

  4. Joey Avatar

    “I was aged.”
    Is that like being punk’d? :-)

  5. Jeff Jarvis Avatar

    Well, actually, now that you remind me, I almost DID hire Adam Curry, but not at MTV. When he started one of the first if not the first web development companies (onramp, offramp, rampup, whatever) I talked to him about working on Epicurious. We ended up doing it in-house.
    Get me started, kids, and I can tell you stories from the old days all day long….

  6. Jeff Jarvis Avatar

    Yup, Joey, I’m hoping that’s a coinage. Curses, aged again.

  7. Jackie D Avatar

    Hey, *I* remember the launch of MTV, and I’m 26.
    I do agree that the Outkast thing is a bit creepy, though. Please don’t tell me you wear gel in your hair and a wallet chain, Mr Jarvis.

  8. Jeff Jarvis Avatar

    Good God, Jackie, you were too young to watch Madonna!
    And to answer your question: No, but you would admire my bling-bling.

  9. Nina Avatar

    Gee, last night while I was dancing in the kitchen to Outkast on a repeat Saturday Night Live, my 16 year old son said, “Mom, we should buy you that CD; you’re getting down with your bad self.” I was pleased…I think.

  10. Nina Avatar

    Gee, last night while I was dancing in the kitchen to Outkast on a repeat Saturday Night Live, my 16 year old son said, “Mom, we should buy you that CD; you’re getting down with your bad self.” I was pleased…I think.

  11. KMK Avatar

    Video killed the radio star. Great now I feel old.

  12. Steve Hall Avatar

    I’m lucky my kids are 5 and 7. Everything I do is cool in their eyes. At least for a few more years. So I can (and do) listen to Outkast, Howard Stern, I blog, work on the Internet, and read that hip magazine your started since the first issue. All without being age’d.

  13. Eric Deamer Avatar

    That’s funny. When I was blogging about the New Years eve ball drop I talked about Cyndi Lauper’s transition from crazy, mult-colored-hair chick singing about female masturbation to apparently prim and proper woman, standing next to the mayor singing along to “Proud to be an American.” I wouldn’t have predicted that 20 years ago. Anyway, I’m 30. So, Cyndi Lauper is the music of my childhood, and I like Outkast too.

  14. firq krumpl Avatar
    firq krumpl

    you listen to howard stern?
    oops. aged again.

  15. Jackie D Avatar

    Jeff, you don’t know for how many years my mother used “But I bought you Like a Virgin even though you were FAR too young to be listening to it — now clean your damned room!” against me. I was mesmerised by MTV, and was quite taken with Madonna and Cyndi, and wanted to marry Boy George and George Michael. Needless to say, my gaydar took a lot of work before it started functioning.
    NB My dad, who’s a church-going Springsteen-lover, used to quite enjoy some of the 2Pac he was forced to listen to by my brother and me.

  16. CERDIP Avatar

    Get it together gents! Cool Dads are the ones that provide that Gibralter of sanity that the kids can run to when their latest expedition into the Big Scary World goes awry.
    It just won’t do to have that rock gettin’ jiggy. Makes it too hard for the kids to get ashore, causing them to flounder, perhaps get washed out to sea…

  17. ChollyTuner Avatar
    ChollyTuner

    Umm, actually, Creepy Dad would be if you were watching TV and when a picture of Christina Aguilera came on, you say to your kid:
    “Yo, Dog, I could hit that.”
    *that* would be creepy. All the other stuff is just lame.

  18. Hollis Carroll Avatar
    Hollis Carroll

    You started a hip magazine? Cool! Which one, though? The link you gave goes to “Entertainment Weekly” by mistake.