My forceful and violent

self-inclusion into what passes as

American society

As those of you who know me can attest, I'm far from your average american teenager.   Not that it's the fault of anybody but myself and not that I'd trade my childhood for any other, but I led a really weird youth.  I listened only to irish and scottish folk music until about eight grade.  I watched sesame street and some japanese and french cartoons on Nickelodeon that I remember fondly with anyone who else who was cool enough to see such shows as Mysterious Cities of Gold, Robotech, Spartakus or "Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years"  (which was apparently a bizarre hybrid of  Millenium Queen and genuine Harlock).   So, as a result of my bizarre tastes in TV, musics and the fact that I read too much science fiction when I was young, I came out very differently than many of my contemporaries.  I'm trying to reclaim my identity as an American teenager.  To be less of an outsider to the common frame of reference that allows for most people born in 1981 to relate to each other.

    It's too late to watch countless hours of "Smurfs" or "Saved by the Bell" (Thank God!)  but it's not too late to merge back in from where I am now.  To facilitate this process, I have:

Watched the final episode of Melrose Place.

I didn't know any of the characters or have any idea of what had come before, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the blond girl and her doctor friends faking their own deaths to escape persecution from crimes they committed at various times in their lives.  (I think the blond girl killed someone fifteen years ago, but it didn't make a lot of sense and someone tried to run them over with a luxury car, but it turned out to be someone's twin sister or soemthing rather than the woman they thought it was.)  Overall, I didn't get much out of watching it.   No big loss for TV in my opinion.

    I've never had a problem with being out of touch with America's cinematic culture.  I see more movies than anyone else I know and see merit in movies that have been called both "pointless" and "puerile" by critics.   Thus, it's no great surprise that within the first week of the new Star Wars movie opening, I've seen it twice.  One might even by disapointed in a science fiction nerd like myself for not having seen it more times.  I've also seen the Matrix four times, and I've drawn the line there.  As good as it is, no movie possibly deserves to be seen five times in theaters (with the possible exception of Star Wars).  So, no luck moving closer to the American people there.

Given Myself a pseudo-crush on Britney Spears.