High Fidelity

I don't think it's any coincidence that the movie High Fidelity came out the same month (March) as my birthday and the same year (2000) I graduated from high school.

I don't remember who introduced it to me and I don't remember the first time I saw it. The earliest memory I have of it was showing it to Lauren Stelzenmueller Ashmore. I think we were maybe a year out of high school at the time.

I'm pretty sure I was doing absolutely nothing with my life and Lauren was back visiting from college. I remember that night vividly because there's a sex scene involving Tim Robbins that is this weird psychedelic blur, and Lauren covered her eyes and blurted, "Oh, that's so gross!" More importantly, I remember feeling really happy. We weren't doing anything really special -- we were just eating popcorn and watching a movie at her parent's house -- but I was happy that, despite high school being over, she remained a great friend who I love.

The movie and book speak to me. I, of course, identify with the main character Rob, who is a loser. He uselessly over-thinks the mundane and he's horribly insecure. He constantly perceives things that don't exist and he's constantly pining about things that he has no intention of doing anything about. He's an emotional coward and so am I.

The crazy thing about Rob (me) is that there are times when he can be a complete elitist, undeservedly. To illustrate, here's an excerpt from the movie (Rated R for language). Here's the link in case the embedded video doesn't work.

Anyhow, I'm not really sure why I'm writing any of this except to admit that yes, my life is sadly too connected to pop culture, which, according to pop culture, is not cool.