In Bloom

X Saves the World by Jeff Gordinier
Amazon reviews
"Nostalgia for the attitudes and culture of the early to mid-'90s looms large in Gordinier's entertaining book-length argument for the greatness of Generation X. Gordinier does not have warm sentiments toward the baby boomers or the current wanna-wanna generation of celebrity worshippers, preferring instead the self-effacing, conflictedly ambitious heroes of the '90s"

A must read for any of us Gen Xers- those of us caught between the we're so important- sucking up all the social security and not retiring Boomers AND the look at me- text- The Hills- pop sugar- I'm so special! Millenials. Google, You Tube, Myspace and more all created by Gen Xers - dismantling the corporate feed to something more democratic for all.

I'm almost finished this book, and Jeff Gordinier weaves the music, movies, and pop culture moments that defined us - some quotes of passages that struck me-

(the last generation to care- or so it seems- about the culture part of the term pop culture)

You watched certain TV programs on certain nights. You listened to the radio. You saw movies in a movie theatre. You rented a video at the store....looking back now, the environment that Gen X came of age seems as distant and cornball as the snow-globey images of the nineteenth century...

Xers bristle when they're told how to vote, how to behave, what to listen to, how to squander their time. They recoil at the presumption that this is how things are done or, even worse, this is what you are supposed to think.

Millenials are a sharp break from GX- care about belonging, the group, networked, unfamiliar with the notion of privacy. Solitude made them...uncomfortable. To be private was not to belong.

In other reading news, I just finished Madame Xanadu 1. The art is by the still too rare female artist, Art and cover by Amy Reeder Hadley. It is very attractive art, but the story may be too mystic for me to continue with.

Up to Fables 7: Arabian Nights and Days. Vol. 6 was the big reveal of The Adversary-- although long ago I saw this in Wizard, dang spoiled.