29 Days of Lupe: Gravity

Lupe's message is universal: we all live The Cool in some form and fashion. Part of The Cool too is not being honest of what you, personally, go through. The particular details of our upbringing are curbed and erased to fulfill the normal/stereotypical experience. Isn't it uncool to read a book? Wait... it still is. Now, I may not live it as much as other people but I still attach my qualities/actions to The Cool category. I'm more willing to admit shit with that connection. Here are ways Lupe speaks to me.

I've never touched weight or smoked crack but I've fought the temptation (esp. the latter). +

I feel like Atlas sometimes too. ++

Skateboarding wasn't my thing even if that Tony Hawk video game was a Dream Cast staple. Yet me knows what it feels like to a misfit rebel a la "Kick, Push". Although I continue to kick and push, I can say with confidence now that I can coast more often. ++

"Being poor keeps you humble." Although I'd offer that if uneducated, being poor makes you all the more greedy, envious? ++

My attempts at being a LBT (Low Budget Thug) have ceased. I've stopped intimidating customers in the mall, kept the butterfly knife at home. If I feel misguided I just stare and grunt at the wall. Ugggggh!!! +

"I complement her on her common sense." So I don't gotta flash her the Jacob? +

Aren't we all a reverse archieologist? I tend to dig myself out of my problems rather than prevent them. +++

Anti-corporate ideals have been a mainstay in my nogen for a very long time. This Cool idea has edified my anti-corporate feelings even more so... others feel as strong as I do? "Give 'em Coca-Cola for they property." Now that's cool. +

I swear I gotta play dumb a lot around others. I know the fucking answer and no Juno it wasn't Morgan Freeman! Like I can't talk politics, books, open ended issues. "I flatly refuse: I don't dumb down nothing." Thanks for the comaraderie. ++++

As much as I've been logo driven, I'm still in the process of giving that up. Trust me I won't don rags but damn you if you think I'm gonna spend $150 on some jeans or more than $125 on kicks! I've set caps, limits. The wardrobe may not be fitted with Rocawear, Bape hoodies, Ed Hardy et al but I mean I'm gonna rock Polos and Nikes until the die I day. +

I hated Zangief too, I could never do any of his wrestlingesque spectaular moves. +++

"String theory pondering." Damn. I thought my investment in physics, and existentialism, was stupid. ++

"Wanna believe my own hype but it's to untrue." Big headedness sucks. ++

What's most important of his portrayl of the denizens of The Cool is just that: it's a portrayl. Obviously his tone is to halt this blind love of all things cool and begin to give up the ghosts. Peer pressure has long lasting, highly negative affects. Who cares what I do, as long as I'm confident about my feelings and actions. But he never becomes preachy. He's not walking around with a megaphone shaking hands and passing out condoms and coupons for no name tennis shoes (think: Voits). Presenting ideas/thoughts without the pandering makes for an ease of understanding and respectability. He points the finger at himself most of the times too; he's one of us chasing The Cool as well. I've never come away feeling that he thinks he's better, or at a better place, than us. That understanding of gravity brings him down to Earth.