in which i detail my life as a hermit

the realization has been long in coming, but i finally understand something about myself.
i am very removed from pop culture.
like, to a frightening degree.
this awareness first blossomed when i visited this girl and this girl in lovely logan with this girl. we went to go see a movie, one which i had never heard of but one that they talked me into going to see. we approached the booth with wallets out, and i looked behind the glass and somber lady at the list of shows and times. to my mild surprise, i discovered that i had never heard of any of the films listed. like, any of them. and there were seven.
i didn't become too concerned until our outing progressed. we spent considerable time in alyssa's car with the radio on, and it often happened that a song would come on and they would all begin singing along and i would sit in awkward silence thinking i don't know this song, i've never heard of it... but i probably should know it, because they all do and i don't..... it kind of sounds like miley cyrus... or maybe ke$ha... but then, they all sound the same to me....... i'll just hum some notes that go with an archetypical bassline and knowing this kind of music, the song will most likely follow it and then they'll think i'm just coming up with way sweet harmonies.....

ever since i've been home since i went to logan, i've been noticing it more and more. people will quote hot rod, and by now i have all the popular quotes memorized and be able to identify the movie but i'll always say "i've never seen that movie" and they'll look at me in a mildly concerned way, much the way i imagine someone would look at me if i had suddenly gone bald before their eyes.

and yesterday at fhe, someone made a subtle allusion to a clearly popular song, because everyone understood and laughed and began singing along and giving their opinions on the song and i just sat on the couch with an uncomfortable smile on my face. i finally asked the girl next to me what song it was and she told me the name, which made me doubly uncomfortable because i had never even heard the name, and usually i have at least that to go on. i asked her who sang it and she said "miley cyrus" and i was so desperate to seem knowledgeable that i very nearly said "oh, well, i know who that is!" but i caught myself just in time.

so here's the deal. i saw juno for the first time two weeks ago, and not because i didn't want to, but just because i didn't. the song teenage dream by katy perry had been at the top of itunes charts and talked about by everyone before i heard it for the first time a few weeks ago, and the only reason i heard it was because i was reading outside and the ups man pulled up in front of my building and was blasting it and i heard the line "(something something) teenage dream (something) tonight (?)" in the chorus. i still don't know the tune to alejandro by lady gaga, and a plethora of statuses on facebook saying "can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? i could really use a wish right now <3 <3" had to run past my minifeed before i understood that it was a song. it took me another month before i could remember the tune to it. and don't even talk to me about celebrity gossip. names like jennifer aniston and robert pattinson are as foreign to me as the names of the different people i sit next to and never say a word to in my 700-strong anthropology class. i never saw past the 4th harry potter movie. i still haven't seen the entire lotr series. i've seen maybe 8 episodes of the office ever, 4 episodes of glee, 2 episodes of community, and 0 episodes of modern family (though i'm told it's hilarious).

i guess my reasons are just that i am not interested in that stuff. i haven't watched tv regularly in years (except for the occasional avatar/arrested development marathons) and rarely watch movies. it's not that i don't like tv or movies, because there are some i really enjoy. i just... don't care, much. i'd much rather sit and read or write or play with my friends outside or go interesting places than sit in the dark and have my life lived for me on a screen. and i am participating in an accidental popular music boycott. i don't own a radio and i just listen to what i want, and i never want to listen to popular music. i'd rather have real lyrics and music than the synthetic fodder broadcast over the airwaves.

but all these recent occurences are starting to make me wonder if all that's normal.
should i be concerned?

heartbeats -- jose gonzalez

boy lilikoi -- jonsi

homesick -- kings of convenience