Current mood: insufferably arrogant

Those of you who know me - and if you're reading this blog the odds are good that you do - are probably thinking to yourselves: this is something new?

I'm at Cambridge Coffee. A few minutes ago a guy was playing the piano. Schmaltzy, lyrical stuff. I don't have a problem with that. There's a part of me that did, but between the ex, and the current love of my life, my capacity for tolerance of people with divergent views has (necessarily) increased.

Then a girl in a group of college girls studying for a class asked if he could play the Canon in D.

So far, my insufferable arrogance meter is still below the (new) activation threshhold. Forget the fact that it's such an overblown, overpopular piece with the most recognizable ostinato in history (d, a, b, f#, g, d, g, a, repeat ad infinitum) and a melody that is TECHNICALLY SUPPOSED TO OVERLAP (it's a CANON FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!) and that people who play it NEVER get it right, I could handle that.

And then the girl said "It's awesome."

THAT set off the stupidity meter, and, incidentally, the smugness response.

The biggest problem, when I take over the planet, will be finding a reasonable way to delimit the coming purges. If your idea of an awesome piece of classical music is Canon in D, if the name Pachelbel is instantly associated with that dreamy, great piece of music, I'm sorry, but you'ld better be a F%@king NEUROSURGEON if you want to survive in the New Order (R). As I once made mention to my brother, there's no way that Country music is the Devil's music: he would have better taste.

Yes, I'm a snob. Yes, I'm PROUD of being a snob. There are few areas where I feel I can claim some sort of instant "expert" status where I feel completely justified in making binding pronouncements about the nature of reality, and feeling that if said pronouncements are not taken as the word of law, then the offending critter has thereby ceased demonstrating a sufficient grasp of reality to be worth dealing with. Philosophers without a scientific background discussing physics? Check. Classical music as discussed by anyone who doesn't have at least a minor in music? Ditto. Tolkien exegesis by people who've only seen the movies? Yeah, buddy.

I'm just saying, please, don't elevate my blood pressure, ok? It's not nice. If you're going to be a complete moron, keep it to yourself. Really, we don't NEED no stinkin' morons.