Mulling It Over

I have a presentation that is due tomorrow night at 7pm. Robyn as well has this presentation. We, to my knowledge, have not actually started working on this presentation. The current time is 8:34 pm. This presentation is in no way difficult. I believe this is the reason that neither of us have any desire to even attempt working on it. I have about 4 slides I made 5 days ago, but that is it. This presentation is over a chapter in the book that anyone with a 5th grade education could read. Because of this I see no real reason that we should have to do a presentation over it. If this were over an issue or a concept not covered in the book I would be ok with it. But this class and classes with this teacher are historically known for their presentations. I am not paying myself or Robyn to teach the class; I am, however, paying the teacher (with my loan funded tuition money) therefore I expect this teacher to teach. Now because this homework must be done, and I do not wish to do it; I have taken to reading away messages. Which leads us to the heart of this post.

Reading away messages is in no way a new problem for me. It has been going on for many years now and there is really no way to quit. Reading away messages is what brings me to my next these thoughts. With music, especially popular music (by popular I mean anything that is current) there seems to be this sense of animalistic territorialness. I do it; I know others do as well. For example, while reading the away msgs I saw that someone had posted the lyrics of Ben Folds song. I love Ben Folds; I have been listening to him for a number of years. I felt upon reading these lyrics perturbed; I felt that this person was a phony, a fraud, a "poser," if you will. They certainly did not "love" Ben the way that I do. I felt they had no right to display these lyrics. What, I ask, brings about this terratorialness? I believe it all has to do with image. I believe that for every band/artist, there is a corresponding fan image. If a person does not meet this image the other fans that do meet the image feel the non-image meeting person has no right to display any affiliation with the band/artist.
This includes but is not limited to:

• Saying this artist is their favorite
• Posting lyrics in any sort of online profile
• Wearing buttons, clothing, stickers displaying band/artist's name
• Bumper stickers
  
• Or hearing the most popular song by the band/artist and singing along to the chorus b/c not being real fans they do not know the lyrics

When these affiliations are displayed the "real fans" or at least the fans that meet the image shake their heads and grumble. The image meeting fans feel that because of the time, effort, and money they have put into the band/artist they own them, they band/artist is theirs and theirs alone. I feel this way about Ben Folds and others. Concerts, CD's, clothing, and endless hours of music listening bring about a kinship that is irreplaceable by learning the song that comes on the radio. So do these things make a real fan. Is there such a thing as a real fan?I think the answer to both of those questions is yes. Is it ok to merely associate ones self with a band/artist and not pledge total allegiance? I think not. I know that there must be those people who are big fans of certain bands/artists but do not meet the image. What of the non-image meeting fans who have done all these "real fan" objectives? At this quandary, I shake my head. I do not know the answer. I do not know how one can be a real fan and not be transformed by the fandom and music. This must be left to someone far wiser than I. I do not know if there is a way for these non-image fans to gain the respect of the image meeting fans.

But to homework, I must go. Maybe someday I'll rock the suburbs at least and see Jesusland in a new light, until then I'll keep getting smaller while the world gets big and try to be the best imitation of myself.