ILX makes me feel uncultured sometimes

Sorry but I'm having trouble keeping up.

How do you find the time?

I started feeling that way shortly after the place started.

I just ignore all the art and music threads, tbh. That takes care of about 80% of my uninformedness.

We're making it all up tomake you feel stupid.

i think that i am just a junkie.

dude don't you have a masters in christian theatrics

you ARE culture

yeah i hear you, i feel like i should be better read than i am. i read books all the time but i never get anywhere.

not even the coda?

Still don't get why everyone here talks about ringtones.

my phone only lets you put in ringtones with "composer"

this is not an anti-intellectual posture or anything, i just miss out on a lot of references and haven't formed opinions on a lot of the hot cultural topics discussed here. maybe i'm being overly critical of myself here -- I know this place attracts a lot of ppl who work in field related to the arts & music & academia and I try to learn from ppl here but sometimes i just feel completely out of the loop

i wouldn't feel bad or uncultured or whatever, a lot of it just comes down to the fact that ILX IS FULL OF FUCKING OBSESSIVE NERDS.

ahem.

fyi 90% of all my opinions i make up in 5 minutes, sometimes after reading a wikipedia article, but usually just based on how i can pick a figt

You misspelled fight, max.

thats just like your opinion man

maybe he misspelled "fig"

wiki has made being as clever as me pointless.

i wasted my youth.

sometimes i feel bad that so many ppl havent played all the video games or watched the # of paul w.s. anderson movies i have but then i remember that we all have something 2 contribute

i know nothing about video games, actually.

though the Paul WS Anderson thing i totally get-- i watched Event Horizon again on the teevee a while back, and was like, 'oh shit this movie still gives me the willies'

however i would always prefer to know that there is a whole world of stuff, new and old, to learn about and be inspired by -- rather than feeling content with what i already know. there is so much stuff to know it's terrible & awesome

^^most OTM thing ever

i constantly feel like i actually know nothing about the stuff i think i know lots of things about

Sometimes ILX makes me feel like a n00b, but then things like that thread about twee indie films happen, and I'm glad I'm blissfully ignorant.

i don't feel "uncultured" but lately i've been feeling pressured by all the media that i'll never have time to consume . i've been doing lots of fun social things which is obv. better, but the books/movies/video games that have been piling up makes me oddly anxious.

when I used to work in libraries every once in a while I'd stare at the endless rows of books and think, "look at all this crap"

now thankfully it's all on the internet where I don't have to see it

YES! Libraries can be so overwhelming in that way.

there is so much stuff to know it's terrible & awesome

This is so true.

I feel like I know just a little bit about a lot of things/topics/subjects but often question how much I actually know about things. I am sort of hard on myself when it comes to this kind of thing though.

laurel otm upthread.

i don't post too often or widely, prob to keep the barbs at bay. but that's just me.

i constantly feel like i actually know nothing about the stuff i think i know lots of things about

i guarantee this is correct, based on the fact that there is one tiny area of the world & its history which i really *do* know more about than any living soul. and pretty much everything anybody else thinks about it is comprehensively wrong. so i think this must be true of most things.

maybe i should go back to school

then you can return triumphantly to ILX and lord your newfound culturedness over us

i guarantee this is correct, based on the fact that there is one tiny area of the world & its history which i really *do* know more about than any living soul. and pretty much everything anybody else thinks about it is comprehensively wrong.

TMI

I had a freakout about not having gone to grad skoo and not knowing critical/theoretical stuff, about 3-4 years ago, elmo. It was partly centered on a crush I was having at the time, and a lot of kinds of ways I was feeling... insufficient. But I dunno, it passed. And I would have HATED grad school.

i feel as tho i am always apologetic about how i don't really know what i'm talking about whenever i start to post anything. like, i only read this on a blog somewhere, or, i don't have a serious background in the theory of x issue, but...

just so u all know u can be a pompous preening jackass w/out ever having gone to grad school?

i feel what SHOULD happen is to apply a little rigor to ursaelf and do a little more reading or a little more listening or whatever but i end up just surfing the web and playing more xbox and the books and even cd's/dl'd music (!!) just piles up

xp

xxpost - I do this too but I'm trying not to do it as much anymore because it's pretty silly if you think about how much BS gets posted here anyway.

It was partly centered on a crush I was having at the time, and a lot of kinds of ways I was feeling... insufficient.

faintly embarrassed cosign

just so u all know u can be a pompous preening jackass w/out ever having gone to grad school?

can't tell if you're speaking from experience or calling me out

ILX made me feel uncultured until I saw the walloginas

i do feel, tho, that experiences are more impt than theory or theorizing, and reading ilm for years has really hammered that into my head. would much rather read rolling x type threads where people are talking about the ACTUAL (c. 2006 max) rather than "why does black people not want to rock" type thinkpiecey zzzz

no e3 i just mean ive found it fairly easy to talk out of my ass without paying a cent to a graduate institution

ACTUALLY i think that was 2008

lol i had it as 07 to begin with and thought that was too late

I feel like I know just a little bit about a lot of things/topics/subjects but often question how much I actually know about things. I am sort of hard on myself when it comes to this kind of thing though.

^^^This x 800 billion. I feel kind of uncultured and undereducated all of the time and in every situation ever, tho, so ILX isn't so special in that regard. But this explains why I am perpetually with the lurkage here and hardly ever a consistent poster.

i am almost always plagued by thoughts that i *should* be better about a lot of things in all aspects of my life and those thoughts will probably always be there so

i do feel, tho, that experiences are more impt than theory or theorizing, and reading ilm for years has really hammered that into my head. would much rather read rolling x type threads where people are talking about the ACTUAL (c. 2006 max) rather than "why does black people not want to rock" type thinkpiecey zzzz

This is one spot where music leaks and my personal refusal to seek them out has hurt me; everyone talks their asses off about everything way before it gets released, so by the time it comes out and I hear it and I'm psyched about talking about it everyone's bored and moved on to something else (unless it's Third).

Not to mention the fact that I am slowly pursuing some sort of something that might be a career but may wind up just being an intense and sustained hobby in comedy...and there are only hundreds of people on this board that are consistently funnier than me on my best day. TEARZ.

yes the curse (haha no it is not a curse u priviledged little shit) of a halfway decent liberal arts education is that you are good enough to keep up w any middlebrow product but maybe not much further...?

xp

no e3 i just mean ive found it fairly easy to talk out of my ass without paying a cent to a graduate institution

It is easier - in grad school they make you do a lot more research.

ILX always makes me jealous of people who either read way faster than me or find a way to devote more time to it.

I consciously avoid things like Infinite Jest just because I know I could finish more (shorter) novels in that time. But if I had the willpower to stop reading about Crossfit, reliced guitars, the history of Soviet leaders, The Portland Timbers and Portland Beavers and defunct ballparks on the Internet, I could probably read something serious. But then I wouldn't know that Portland is getting an MLS team in 2011, so...

You win some, you lose some.

MLS-wise, mostly we just lose. But that's for another thread.

I feel like I know just a little bit about a lot of things/topics/subjects but often question how much I actually know about things. I am sort of hard on myself when it comes to this kind of thing though.

^^^This x 800 billion. I feel kind of uncultured and undereducated all of the time and in every situation ever, tho, so ILX isn't so special in that regard. But this explains why I am perpetually with the lurkage here and hardly ever a consistent poster.

― Grip Tape And Some Wikked Trucks (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:47 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I have a freakishly good memory so I know a lot of random crap which basically makes me a good asset on trivia teams or when playing TP. I mean, there are a handful of things that I know I am more than just superficially knowledgeable about but in general I don't really like talking about/debating things that fall outside of that group on ILX because I don't want to wind up sounding like an uninformed ass. Realistically I realize that I probably know more about these things that I think but still.

haha no it is not a curse u priviledged little shit

and yeah, that ^ because realistically I know this is a completely ridiculous thing to be worried about and I should shut up and be thankful for the oppportunities I've been afforded that have enabled me to experience/learn whatever it is that I have.

I really need brush up on my Kevin Smith facts.

x-post Not entirely sure that last "sentence" made sense.

handful of things that I know I am more than just superficially knowledgeable about

btw these things include adorable small animals, methods of birth control/STD prevention, and . . . yeah, that might be it.

and never the twain shall meet

[img]http://lemur.duke.edu/animals/slowloris/general.jpg[img]

I know more about Kevin Smith than I am really comfortable with tbh. x-posts

http://lemur.duke.edu/animals/slowloris/general.jpg

http://elukultuur.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/condoms.jpg

what's really embarrassing is realizing i don't know very much about things that i would say i totally love! that's just lazy.

so is Kevin Smith:

a) an adorable small animal?
b) a method of birth control/STD prevention?

x-post Yeah but you don't need to know a lot about something to love it.

Dan I should have said "btw these things include but are not limited to . . . " because I'm pretty sure (thank god) that he does not fall into either of those categories.

my curiosity about grad school is more informed by the idea that i could spend time researching stuff that i find compelling and getting acknowledged for it, but on the other hand i feel my undergrad education was accomplished by writing term papers with a shovel, you know, and if grad school is a continuance of that then i'll still feel like i'm faking it. does everyone fake it?

Yeah but you don't need to know a lot about something to love it.

It might help if you figured out WHY you loved it, though. A desire to understand/express that could easily lead to learning something about something.

dudes just go hang out at a walmart or something for awhile and this feeling will vanish.
life is too short to worry about some sort of intellectual keeping-up-with-the-jones' nonsense.

Honestly Elmo? I think so.

To a certain extent at least.

Yeah, I have a freakishly good memory so I know a lot of random crap which basically makes me a good asset on trivia teams or when playing TP.

I have a freakishly good memory with respect to random crap, but I suck at remembering anything at all practical.

Sometimes I wish I had just dedicated my life to the pursuit of one specific field of knowledge rather than being interested in, um, everything that ever happened on this planet. And being plagued by the impossibility of ever knowing/experiencing everything that I want to know/experience within my relatively short lifespan. And feeling so overwhelmed by the magnitude of said impossibility that I wind up watching three solid hours of Beavis and Butthead to keep the howling enormity of existence at bay.

My brain is a veritable Chuck E. Cheese. A rollicking good time.

I'm comfortable simultaneously running with two ideas: that I don't know enough, and that I know more than I think I do.

fwiw I would rather have sex with a lemur than w/ Kev Smith, but I'd def use protection either way.

You might kill the lemur.

life is too short to worry about some sort of intellectual keeping-up-with-the-jones' nonsense - Agreed. It's not like I spend a substantial amount of time worrying about this but it probably does inform my reluctance to post about certain topics on ILX or get into debates with certain IRL about topics that I'm not really confident about. I think not that I necessarily care about keeping up with them per say, I just don't really like to pretend to know a lot about shit that I don't actually know much about.

I think not = It's not

i honestly am learning some things and meeting some smart-ass motherfuckers in grad school, but honestly, i really could have just used a big reading list from Lisa R0bertson and Fred Dolan and moved to new york, gotten a job editing sound or copywriting, and been in weird-ass bands for the rest of my twenties. would have learned just as much and probably been a lot less poor and bit happier.

nonetheless, i do love me some California, and will always remember these times with smiles.

bleck i am tired and redundant right now

i could go into the "go hang out at walmart & feel better about yourself" sentiment but i think we know where that road leads

(Pillbox, I *think* that's a Slow Loris ;-))

(it is)

Table - I honestly don't think there is anything I learned in college or grad school that I couldn't have learned on my own. OK, maybe a little but if I had been armed with the right reading materials and enough self-discipline? Not that much.

i don't really care about keeping up with the joneses so much as keeping up with the actual thing in question

dudes just go hang out at a walmart or something for awhile and this feeling will vanish.
life is too short to worry about some sort of intellectual keeping-up-with-the-jones' nonsense.

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:04 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kinda feel like this. not really worried about feeling uninformed or whatever. i certainly am dumb as rocks about tons of shit of course. but im much more concerned w/ figuring out how to have a sustainable yet happy life. information is only as useful as what you can do w it

True. For me it's also not really worrying about being "uncultured" or anything more just a sense of awe/sadness at how much awesome stuff is out there that I know absolutely nothing about.

On the other hand it's kind of amazing that there is so much to know about at all.

enbb, i don't know if i totally agree with you... but i also minored in new music composition, and there is NO WAY i could have been exposed to the music i was exposed to if i hadn't gone to the school i'd gone to. also no way that i would know how to run a radio station or draw up promotional budgets for concerts or etc etc etc. a lot of what i learned in school had nothing to do with school, but more the specific environment of the school i went to undergrad.

i have one more year of grad school, and am finishing mostly so i can get a job teaching english to rich private school kids somewhere so i can have the summers off to tour.

x-post Yeah that's pretty technical. I mean obviously there are things I couldn't have learned on my own but for the most part . . . meh. I don't know. I'm just feeling particularly bitter and being sick and exhausted probably isn't helping.

(bitterness is a result of still being unemployed 7 months after finishing school and spending the whole day applying for jobs I really don't want)

(Pillbox, I *think* that's a Slow Loris ;-)) - you see? I just don't know shit. wtf am I even doing here..

"being cultured" is a need,it's like being hungry. a thing some people need to satisfy, otherwise theyll feel emptyness, boredom, maybe frustration.
if you don't feel that need, it's fine.(maybe even better than fine. at least you don't have to deal with feeding the never ending hungry beast),
so theres no point in feeling uncultured,unless you have that need and you can't satisfy it for some reason imo.

or draw up promotional budgets for concerts

This is pretty easy to learn/get experience doing DIY or as a job. Granted, I learned similar types of things at college that have been pretty valuable - that I could have learned in some other context, but were valuable nonetheless. I think one of the most significant things I learned in college involved writing/discussion and making arguments - which, heh, could be learned somewhat by posting on message boards.

We're making it all up tomake you feel stupid.

I like this.

sure, sarahel, but....being head of an organization with a $30,000 budget, negotiating with people as to which acts to book and allocations going towards those acts, drawing up contracts, etc.-- probably wouldn't have happened if i'd just gone to a promotions company and been, 'hey i like music can u help me plz thx'

"i certainly am dumb as rocks about tons of shit of course"
thats true for everyone.
everything has it's price.
knowing a lot about things means not knowing a lot about other things that other people know and you don't,theres always a balance.

exactly. ask me to do any maths beyond algebra and i'm like wtf.

I think not that I necessarily care about keeping up with them per say, I just don't really like to pretend to know a lot about shit that I don't actually know much about.

but there's no need to pretend. acknowledging (to yourself and to others) that you are by no means an expert is liberating. and if any of those who ARE experts on a subject look down at you for your ignorance and make you feel like you're wasting their time, then, you know, that's their problem. fuck 'em. if there's a subject i and/or others in a group know more than someone else about, i'd def prefer them engaging in the conversation in such a way that they can learn more (if they want to, obv)(often times the novice's fresh approach or "dumb" questions can lead to good places) rather than either sitting there too ashamed or whatever, or fronting and pretending they know more than they do .

xp table: Certainly, you wouldn't have been the one making those decisions as an intern at a promotions company or a concert venue, but the systems, procedures, etc. would be things you could learn by observing. If you were to do a DIY promo company or venue, you could be the one making those decisions and doing these things, but not on as large a scale - assuming that $30k is solely for performance fees/promo and doesn't include staff costs, venue costs, other overhead.

I thought this said "ILX makes me feel uncluttered sometimes" and I was like TOTALLY.

GD - No there isn't any need to pretend which is why I think I try to avoid doing so both here and IRL.

i think most culture knowledge,including art, is pointless as a knowledge per-se.
the importance is the transformation from knowledge to practical use of it and/or to the positive emotional/intelectual development it produces in the individual.

a person who delve into one piece of art>>>a person who knows a lot about lots of art, but in the end, he "knows" almost nothing.
to take the extreme examples.