"Oh, what am I doing? Oh, you know... just, wearing glasses, thinking about numbers.... smart girl stuff."
I often feel like the consummate math nerd in my studio (I must note, being the consummate math nerd among a group of really right-brained women doesn't take much.) I'm pretty obsessive with my patterning while most of the other girls tend to "drape," or as I like to call it, "oh my god how do you know you're not going to mess up?!?!"
But boy did I feel like a technical genius when I caught myself noting this brilliant equation on one of my patterns today:
18 = 39
Yeah, I have the exquisite technical stylings of, say, an Issey Miyake.
Don't be fooled by my skinny jeans and design school enrollment. I'm not a music snob.
I used to be. In high school I was all "I'm so upset about Elliot Smith's death that all I can do is listen to whatever Pitchfork tells me to! Wah!" But these days, I'm pretty much the antithesis of a music snob. I'm anti-snob. Here's a flowchart that pretty much lays out my taste:
So... that gives you an idea about the taste level and commitment involved here.
The problem: I can't tell whether music is good. I guess I never really could, and I used to just let the Holy Spirit of Indie Rock guide me. But these days, the closest thing I have to a guiding spirit is 106 and Park. (Exception--my DJ friends who throw mixtapes my direction. See below.)
But when I hear music that might have some shot at legitimacy (see: a song that DOESN'T refer to a specific brand of alcohol), I can't tell in the slightest whether it's actually a good thing. In most cases I find the "cool, heard it on All Songs Considered" stuff boring--once one grows accustomed to music that's genetically engineered to be catchy and lovable, it's hard to go back. But occasionally something strikes my fancy, and I get all excited about telling someone about it, because they're tired of hearing me talk about how much I love "Kiss Me Thru The Phone" and maybe they will think I'm cool for liking something with guitars. But the way it plays out, it's like I'm a housecat. All, "LOOK I BROUGHT YOU THIS BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WILL LOVE IT" and whatever music-literate friend is all, "Man, why is there a dead chipmunk on my porch."
So, that's that. I'm all about owning my shit these days, so here's me saying I AM NOT COOL WITH REGARDS TO MUSIC. And I'm fine with it. Just nobody tell my high school friends or they'll stone me to death with wadded-up concert tees (the Fleet Foxes ones hurt extra bad).
This blog post dedicated to Positronic! and The Dreamforce, DJ friends who do their best to give me points of reference for what is cool.
One thing I know is so, so cool? "Special Agent Man" by Gaznevada. FEAST YOUR EARS ON THE ITALO DISCO. I'm going to go listen to that Keri Hilson song we've got on heavy rotation around here.
