Nerd vs. Cool
People seem to be confusing 'Nerd' with 'Cool' these days. Not sure how it started. Maybe it was when when dot.comers started to look like John Lennon (the glasses John Lennon, not the Fab one).
But when I hear someone say 'Rachel Maddow is cool!', I think NO! I like Ms. Maddow. But she is not cool, and besides, she's a self-proclaimed 'nerd'. They say 'Steve Jobs is cool!' or the new 'Iron Man movie is cool!'. NO NO NO. Nothing to do with computers or comic books is 'cool'. Doesn't mean it isn't good or great, but let's stop calling everything we like that's slightly off-beat 'cool'.
Maybe it's because there's not a lot of 'cool' stuff and people these days. Elvis and Brando were cool. So was Marilyn Monroe. I suppose Bruce Springsteen is (even though I don't care for his stuff), as well as George Clooney and Kate Winslet.
But this blog is supposed to be about the Beatles. So were they cool? Yes, their 'group personality' was cool. But as individuals, not so much. John, Paul and George were cool for the first year or so after the break-up. But when John became a 'house husband', Paul became 'Wings' and George showed up at the Bangla Desh Concert with that billy-goat beard, they lost it. John got it back the last year of his life. At least he was 'looking' cool. Paul had it briefly when he teamed with Elvis Costello (although Costello himself is NOT cool. Too nerdy). And George got it back when he teamed up with the Wilburys and did the Cloud Nine LP.
Ringo? For some weird reason, Ringo became cooler after the break-up. I think it was because he went from being the 'dumb one' to an 'ex-Beatle'.
But when I hear someone say 'Rachel Maddow is cool!', I think NO! I like Ms. Maddow. But she is not cool, and besides, she's a self-proclaimed 'nerd'. They say 'Steve Jobs is cool!' or the new 'Iron Man movie is cool!'. NO NO NO. Nothing to do with computers or comic books is 'cool'. Doesn't mean it isn't good or great, but let's stop calling everything we like that's slightly off-beat 'cool'.
Maybe it's because there's not a lot of 'cool' stuff and people these days. Elvis and Brando were cool. So was Marilyn Monroe. I suppose Bruce Springsteen is (even though I don't care for his stuff), as well as George Clooney and Kate Winslet.
But this blog is supposed to be about the Beatles. So were they cool? Yes, their 'group personality' was cool. But as individuals, not so much. John, Paul and George were cool for the first year or so after the break-up. But when John became a 'house husband', Paul became 'Wings' and George showed up at the Bangla Desh Concert with that billy-goat beard, they lost it. John got it back the last year of his life. At least he was 'looking' cool. Paul had it briefly when he teamed with Elvis Costello (although Costello himself is NOT cool. Too nerdy). And George got it back when he teamed up with the Wilburys and did the Cloud Nine LP.
Ringo? For some weird reason, Ringo became cooler after the break-up. I think it was because he went from being the 'dumb one' to an 'ex-Beatle'.
posted by John Goins at 2:59 PM
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