Monday, November 5, 2007

Kudos (SINGULAR)

Ok, here's a brief semantics rant: the word "kudos" (praise and honor received for an achievement) is always SINGULAR. It's a greek word that means "glory", and it's used the same way: "Linda Sone and Doug Swanson received much glory in Velonews today" (link below). I can't give many kudos, I can only give much of it.
"Props" on the other hand, is always PLURAL. "Props (respect or credit due to a person) to Linda and Doug for putting MN CX on the map." And they deserve it. It's cool to hang out with famous people! DOC'S ADVICE: Doc gives much kudos and many props to all you CXers out there extending your season. Doc is proud to display the fruit of your efforts on his blog. However, don't look for Doc at the mudholes this fall, he is staying home to do yard work and ride level one and watch movies for the winter.

I do have my classic XCs ready for the first snowfall. Jeffro says he's doing the Birkie this winter. Didn't you get beat up enough on that trail at Chequamegon? At least you have gears on your MTB! Think about it. DOC'S ADVICE: if it's hard on an MTB, it's harder on XCs. I don't even like the hills on the North Loop.


EMO OR SCENE KID?

I'm not sure if this falls under the semantics category or not, but I ran across two new terms (for me) while reading this weekend: emo and scene kid. I was browsing the favorites on YouTube and found a Dashboard Confessional video of "Stolen" (sorry, can't embed this one) where the comments went back and forth on whether Chris Carrabba is "emo" or not. Which led me to investigate the whole concept of "emo". As far as I can tell, it's a descendent of punk where there's less screaming and more crying. It appears to be shortened from "emocore" or emotional hardcore punk music, a punk subgenre that started (OMG!!!) in my era, the 80's. My best sources were mostly WikiHow and Wikipedia. Apparently Chris was emo when he led the band Further Seems Forever, but now he's more mainstream with Dashboard Confessional, so maybe he's actually post-hardcore, which I guess means that he's been kicked out of the club.


One quote that made sense was this: "Punk provokes anger and action whereas EMO expresses vulnerability." Apparently, hair style is extremely important for these young people: one malpositioned lock, and you, too, are kicked out of the club. No wonder they're so emotional. I've had the exact same hair style for about 30 years now, and I'm just glad I still have almost all of it left to style at all. Most of my pals have one variant or another of male pattern baldness (aka cueball) style.


Anyway, it's a nice song and a sweet video, even if it didn't actually make me want to cry or get an emo 'do like this one:




A "scene kid" is apparently somehow related to an emo, although a scene kid would apparently rather die than be accused of being emo, so that investigation will either have to wait until someone posts an illuminating reply or I decide that I have to waste another hour of my life researching a social status that I have neither the desire nor the hipness to become. Emos (plural) and scene kids, feel free to enlighten us all. DOC'S ADVICE: I'm too old to be hip, so I'm going to do some yard work and watch a movie. It's just easier being a dinosaur.

2 comments:

Jeffro said...

Yes Doc I am doing the Berkie and yes Chequamegon beat me up but there is a story behind it and I am keeping that cat in the bag for now. In an indirect way you are the reason I am doing it.

Doc said...

Glad to help, I think--unless you're going to put me in the hurt locker next time around the North Loop (which is likely anyway)...