[luxinterior]

It was interesting. There was this guy playing songs on his guitar (covers and originals). I recognized neither the guy nor the songs he played, with the exception of three or so. I was told that the friend (whose birthday it was) went to some sort of concert to see a band, but the band didn't show up, and this guy was also supposed to play that night. She liked him, and asked if he would play at her party. He seemed friendly enough, and everyone else really liked his music, as well as the cover songs he played. It didn't sound like anything special to me, but hey, whatever. Before he would play a cover song, he would try to get an "o.k." from some of the party guests, to make sure that he wasn't playing songs that everyone hated. I didn't know most of the songs anyways, so that wasn't an issue, but I did get kind of uncomfortable when he'd say something like, "Do any of you like the Rolling Stones?" and I'm thinking, well sure, there was a time when I listened to them quite frequently, but it's not like I'm going to get excited about it and scream out, "Yes, play some!" But no one else was responding to his question, and I didn't want him to feel embarrassed, so I raised my hand. And he started asking the people who didn't raise theirs if they liked the Rolling Stones, and they just shrugged. He singled out one girl who at one point was my best friend, and asked her personally, and she said she didn't know any of their songs. I kind of couldn't believe it. And the rest of the guests were sort of agreeing with her on that statement. He ended up playing 'Wild Horses' anyways, but it was just one of those times where I thought, "DO ALL OF MY FRIENDS LIVE UNDER SOME BIG HEAVY ROCK THAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT?!" And these friends of mine, they are usually very well-informed of recent musical developments, so I always just assumed that they knew that most of the music they listened to was a carbon copy of stuff that has already happened 20, 30 years ago. So I couldn't help feeling a little out of place. I kind of make it a point not to start talking about music with any of these people, just because I'm afraid I'll come off as a total jerk or something. But when they are the ones asking me about what concerts I'm going to, and what I'm listening to, or whether I like the guy who was playing at the party, I don't really have a choice and I try to keep my answers as short as possible. I guess it's the reason I come here to talk about music and such in the first place, but it's about more than just music. It's about being on the same wavelength altogether, which I don't get with many people I know personally.