I never knew pop and that's ok

I was so popculturally ignorant as a child that I didn't know if that popular singer was PAUL Abdul or PAULA Abdul. I never listened to pop radio, so who knew if we were talking about a man or woman? I didn't.

I grew up listening to classical music in the car with my dad. It was turned way, way up. He liked it LOUD. Also, then we didn't have to talk because we could just be moved by the music and that was enough communicating for a day.

And with my mom driving, we listened to nothing. We were silent. Because she was *nervous* and *concentrating.*

So that was that. We had no MTV because we could just pick up channels with our tv antenna, and why would you pay for tv? We got no newspaper except for the Sunday paper, and then I pulled out the comics and tried to understand Doonesbury. I tried to understand them all-- Cathy, Family Circus, Foxtrot, Blondie. But I never got any of them. I always skipped to the puzzles at the end.

And I grew, and it didn't seem to really matter that I still wasn't a big Top 40 person (and haha, I've gone through much of my life not knowing what Top 40 even is). I'm just not. I still love Beethoven more than anything. I love folk music, including folk rock, jazz, blues, hip hop. I can appreciate a rad MC. I really really love analyzing films. I love live performances-- modern dance, modern ballet, storytellers. I love architecture. I love beautiful books and winding stories. I love being in old theaters. I *loved* being a house manager back in the day. I have a dream to be not just a donor but a patron of a dance company one day.

I don't love Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, I don't get what's great about their songs, and I don't want to hear music that sounds like that. That eliminates about ten thousand other singers. I don't love boring models doing boring poses half naked on beds, motorcycles or a zillion other cliches. I don't love fashion UNLESS it's beautiful and/or meaningful. I do love fashion and makeup as art. I especially love political fashion because that is bold and necessary. I love food that has been loved in the making.

Why write this? Because for some years now, I've really loved being me and felt like it might make life fabulous to just love the things I love, and a fabulous life deserves some examination to determine what thoughts and values and choices make me me.

It's way beyond what I like and what I don't like in art, music, etc. There's work and work ethic, there's politics and food and education and science and religion and all the ways we advance.

But then this becomes a post that is way too long and self-indulgent, and while it might be said that the nature of wordydoodles, like the nature of drawing doodles, is self-indulgent, well, 1. I myself wouldn't say that, and 2. I would like wordydoodles to be a good read and a good place to start a conversation.

And so: Do you deviate from the mainstream in some ways too? Do you love it?