The 90's

I had a short but interesting conversation the other day with a couple of people about ten years younger than myself. Metallica's Enter Sandman came on the radio and the subject of the 90's came up. I expressed some nostalgia; Honest emotion in music (speaking of Indie not R&B), Seattle the temporary center of the universe, a president who wanted nothing more than a BJ and some fried chicken and wasn't a dangerous psychopath bent on enslaving us all. But the thing that I miss the most is that people weren't so prissy. The younger folks with which I was conversing said "Were people really less prissy?". Yes. Yes, they were. Remember the whole "sex positive" movement with Susie Bright and Annie Sprinkle? Remember, the beginnings of South Park blowing everybody's doors off? Remember Act Up and Queer Nation? Remember loud, passionate music before it was formulaic? Remember when Hip Hop had a harsh political stance and wasn't all about blunts, bling, and bitches? Remember when people used to go to nightclubs in feather boas and white PVC and dayglow green fur? I can't pinpoint the exact moment when it happened but sometime, I think after 9/11, this country became Utah. Coast to coast people young and old suddenly adopted Mormonesque self denial and strident boringness, clinging like a lockjawed pitbull to the middle of the road. Actually, to call it sudden is not accurate. It was sudden when I noticed it. I suspect the change was so glacially slow, nobody noticed, otherwise we would have stopped it. Now I realize, by mentioning this, I'm in danger of becoming one of those guys that you used to see in the 70's (for you younger folks check out Dr. Johnny Fever on repeats of WKRP in Cincinatti), talking about how life was real in the 60's and how "'78's just empty, man. Down with Disco!", but frankly I don't know what to do about it. I feel like Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing lamenting the loss of the heart of the 60's but I don't have a surreal 70's to move into. This millennium really sucks so far. Everywhere I go feels like the unholy lovechild of a strip mall and a Methodist church. Or perhaps it's just me. Maybe I'm secretly resenting the fact that I recently threw out my collection of sparkly party shirts in favor of the dully colored vertically striped shirts that everybody seems to be wearing. Maybe I'm just disappointed that the most progressive and interesting thing in popular music is the talented but essentially dull Black Eyed Peas. Maybe I'm just bored with gays demanding legal, monogamous marriage instead of celebrating the joys of being gay and throwing it in the face of those who lacked the courage to be fabulous. Maybe I just miss Kurt Cobain. Maybe I just haven't gotten laid in several months because the political climate bums me out too much to try. Is it just me? Am I just in denial? Is the new millennium really a golden age? Am I just turning into a grumpy old man 30 years ahead of schedule? Or has something really filed all the edges off the Zeitgeist and turned the concept of an interesting life into monochrome cafeteria food?