I hung out with Travis tonight. On the way to his house in the now trendy area of Austin I got to thinking; Travis has been one of my closests friends for 19 years. NINETEEN YEARS.
Travis lives off of east 11th. Ten years ago you drove down east 11th for either drugs or barbacoa. You can still get either in that area but can now find solace in doing so in your rented Land Rover.
The two of us caught up and chatted for a bit before heading over to Snake Eyes Vinyl to check out a doo-wop ensemble that is comprised of a few friends of Travis’s.
We waited in Snake Eyes Vinyl’s parking for an hour among the trendsetting emo kids. I sat on an embankment while Travis made casual smalltalk with people. I took in the crowd while waiting on Travis. The others who were waiting were all kids. I could, biologically speaking, be most of these hipsters’ father. I had a very difficult time ascertaining the source of their collective rebellion based on the way most were dressed.
The girls looked fairly normal, most of which were cute and wore normal clothes comprised of jeans or skirts, normal shoes, t-shirts and nice haircuts.
The boys were wearing capri-style jeans, cut off mid-shin and and tight fitting Salvation Army-find t-shirts. Most sported dark socks pulled up mid-shin and new canvas Chuck Taylors. Many had forearm tattoos and were carrying 16-ounce Budweisers and smoking Marlboros. All donned bad Goo Goo Dolls frontman do’s. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. What is this style? They definitely aren’t angered by anything. There’s no ominous social, musical or cultural discrepency that warrants leather wrist bands and girly hair. What is this rebellion and why is their hair so important?!?!
I then realized that they all actually have hair and quickly remembered a time when I once took hair for granted. I also realized that when I was that age I had long (non-thinning) hair, wore shorts, Dr. Marten boots, a flannel shirt tied around my waist, smoked cigarettes, wore small hoop earrings in each ear and took a guitar everywhere I went because I WAS COOL. I had a cause. If I could remember what that cause was right now I would document it here but I’m too preoccupied with trying to write this while plucking my ear hairs.
Once I get this skin-tight Von Dutch t-shirt over my 30-year-old protruding gut and buckle my studded white belt I’m going to get to the bottom of this cultural phenomenon and then it’ll be on like Donkey Kong (will that be available on PS3?)