The Balance of Cool and Uncool: Staying Hip When You're Really Not

I was admiring Chanel Iman as many girls my age (which is also her age) do, and I shared her name with my older -and thusly less hip- brother Paul. He hadn't heard of her. But he had "seen of her"? One short amorous stop on Google Images later and he came upon this:

*image cropped to suit argument

-On the left, is the picture of elegance: Alien-like supermodel proportions, flawless skin, 100% H.A.U.T.
-On the right is what Paul declared to be one of his biggest pet peeves - beautiful people, who know they're beautiful "tryna to do that geek chic shit".

Paul and I relate to Ms. Chanel Iman on the level that the three of us happen to be half Black and half Asian, Blasian, if you will. But we're *not* supermodels. We have distinct and ever-so-slightly fond memories of growing up geeky and nerdy and fairly uncool. So it should come as no surprise that we marvel at how this:

has become this....

And it got me thinking about the ways in which "cool" is ever so elusive. As soon as something is trendy it withers in the opinion of coolmongerers everywhere. But as soon as a trend dies it then has the potential to come back again with 10 times more ferocity. Did Bill Gates up there know he and a whole league of geeks just like him would be lionized and plagiarized for their (lack of?) vision? How did being unfashionable become the waterbear of couture. When their dowdy plaids and button down shirts, unseemly tight jeans, ironic hair, and complete lack of style and polish became the epitome of poshness... what is the nerd to do?

Because no matter how trendy or on point he or she is, no matter how "in" the look becomes, the geek is still on the fringe. Not uncool enough to be cool - just the nerds they were meant to be. In my opinion its like white people adopting black culture and dress, it doesn't change anything for the other side. White people stay white, black people stay black. And the beauties and geeks, at the day's end are immutable.

Yoga at Dawn/Morning Benders/And Where My Asians At?

What makes my ears bend more? I dunno - maybe its finding out that the lead singer of a very very good band happens to be Asian? Maybe its just knowing how effing awesome The Morning Benders are. Maybe its a combo of the two.

I'm not trying to make a big deal out of the race thing, after all I am only half descendant of the Orient. However, I can not tell you how rare it is that talented Asian people make it to the front of anything. And no I'm not talking about the former guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins - James Iha, or that guy Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park (ick), or that Filipino fella who now fronts Journey, (I'd talk about Rain or Yo-Yo Ma but y'all just ain't classy enough for that). Anyway, these are not good examples.

All I'm trying to say is that Chris Chu and all of his bandmates in the Morning Benders are 31 flavors of awesome. Yes, like ice cream. And yes, I dug them before I knew this righteous racial brownie point... Ice cream, brownies. What a delicious band.

Granted, I know linesthroughlines reported about The Morning Benders already. But I must stress the point. We can draw all the comparisons we want, whether to The Shins or Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin or Aaron Neville* but the fact remains that they currently dominate the first spot on my muxtape and their Daytrotter recordings still haven't been removed from their heavy iTunes rotation in my library. The fact also remains that - Chris Chu** is the Asian indie ambassadorial counterpart to my dear, dear Thao Nguyen.

Anyone else think that Chu looks a little bit like Mitsumura Tatsuya (光村龍哉) of NICO Touches the Walls?

*Aaron Neville and the Benders probably have a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon type connection.
**Mad props to the other asian dude in Benders too, Tim Or, of course who plays a sweet Rickenbacker bass.

Hopefully when my band gets our proverbial sh*t together, we'll have some nice happy tunes likes these fellas to offer.