WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!

"Check out Rivalfish's new BFF, the one and only Pop Jalopy. He lives in Florida but knows Chicago sports twice as well as any of us. He's generally smarter than us, his interests are more well-rounded, and his wife is surely more beautiful and understanding than any of our furture mail-order brides most-likely will be. So check him out on Rivalfish a couple of times a week, but more importantly, check him out at www.popjalopy.blogspot.com whenever you're feeling the itch. No, not the itch you got from your roommate's girlfriend's slutty little sister.

by Mark Tribbia, aka Pop Jalopy, mark.tribbia@podcom.tv

The Who, forty years ago, created the BabyBoomer attitude that remains fervently instilled in that generation today.

Personally, I was not a big fan of The Who's music, certainly not as big an admirer as the producers of the CSI juggernaut are. I felt the Who had their time and place, from 1967 to 1975, and should have stayed retired in 1982 when they were past their prime and without their drummer.

But with songs like My Generation and We're Not Gonna Take It, The Who claimed the Boomers as their own and set the tone. It was a confrontational mindset they preached - angry, manic and dissatisfied - reflective of the times.

On the other hand, their contemporaries, The Doors wanted listeners to follow them through life in a misty SoCal haze of mystery. They were the door to a better world. They wanted you to follow them, to break on through with them. I thought that the Doors were the bomb.

I mention these two iconic groups today for the following reasons.

1) Today, the BabyBoomers are taking The Who's message to heart. We aren't gonna take it, specifically, we may be getting older, but we're not going to go into our doddering years meekly. If it takes daily megadoses of glucosamine, .81mg aspirin, weigh training, laser eye surgery, hair extensions, triple bypasses, hormone replacement therapy, acupuncture, spa weekends, whatever... the Baby Boomers are going to fight father time like no other generation has. They aren't gonna take it, this idea of getting old and looking it.

2) I mention the Doors because of a trip to PetSmart yesterday. It was Adopt a Pet weekend at the Countryside Petsmart and in celebration, a 60's revival band was stationed in front of the building, along with a customized T-Shirt selling van.

As I exited the store, the band had just struck up their rendition of the Door's song, Twentieth Century Fox. And there I paused, transfixed in the Florida sunshine, frozen in time and place, holding a forty pound bag of dog food.

How had it come to this? Four gray/bald men, instruments in hand, singing a 40 year old song written by a 25 year old regarding his fantasies toward a young LA starlet. Meanwhile, a German Shepherd relieved himself against the gutter behind the drummer. A spotted terrier snarled at a grey poodle - their owners smile to hide embarrassment. A shopping cart escaped free into the gulf breeze and rammed into the bass player.

Still, the band played on.