Wow, I'm out of it

And to think that I actually worked in the record industry. Sure, I listen to some Top 40 radio when I can't take any more NPR droning and laziness prevents me from plugging in the iPod, yet I recognize exactly one measly song out of the five nominated for the Song Of The Year Grammy award, and two Record Of The Year nominees. For some reason, however, I suspect I'm not suffering for this lack of current pop culture knowledge.

Remember the days when the Grammys were a big deal? Even during elementary school, schoolyard conversation would be abuzz with talk of winners and losers, best and worst dressed, all that crap. (This type of mainstream music convo eventually became woefully uncool.) In fourth grade I brought in a clipped newspaper photo of Michael Jackson cradling all his Thriller Grammys, onto which my teacher affixed a Post-It note politely requesting that my fellow students not to touch or drool on it. Yeesh.

Now it's hard to determine if children across the nation shared our interest in music's biggest night, or if this concern was typical of Chin Chin-fed Hollywood kids who lived in a warped world in which Olivia Newton-John and members of the then-stellar Lakers were spotted on our campus.