Paul: Still Preoccupied With 1985!

Paul David Alexander turns twenty-seven years old today.

My son thinks we share completely different world views. He also makes it sound like he's on a higher plane than his dear old Dad.

HAH! Foolish boy! It is to laugh!

Truth is, we do share some of the same opinions about pop culture; namely that the mainstream suffers terminally from a lack of imagination. He was always one step ahead of what the others were into, because somewhere along the way, somebody broke it down for him, into the universal archetypes that make for lasting appeal to the masses. Sooner or later, the rest of the world grows tired of the same old same old, and comes around to that which you discovered first. Before then, it is like gnostic wisdom that you keep in a private purse all to yourself. After then, the world knows what you knew before they did.

Since Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana

He also thinks we have diametrically opposed political views, not realizing until we sit down that, if two forces are far enough away on an ideological spectrum, they keep on going until they find, that they are not on a straight line but a circle, and will meet somewhere sooner or later.

We have been exchanging a lot of emails lately. We share articles about the political race. One of the best was written by Conor Friedersdorf for, of all things, The Atlantic, entitled "Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama."

The whole liberal conceit that Obama is a good, enlightened man, while his opponent is a malign, hard-hearted cretin, depends on constructing a reality where the lives of non-Americans -- along with the lives of some American Muslims and whistleblowers -- just aren't valued. Alternatively, the less savory parts of Obama's tenure can just be repeatedly disappeared from the narrative of his first term, as so many left-leaning journalists, uncomfortable confronting the depths of the man's transgressions, have done over and over again.

Yeah, I could see that. But I don't imagine most of his friends could, which is what sets him apart; not that he is a closet conservative waiting to come out (no chance of that, amigos!), but because he thinks for himself.

There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV

Meanwhile, Paul has returned from a two-month internship at Camouflaj, a game design and development studio in Bellevue (Seattle), Washington, where he was a guest for a podcast on August 20. If you click on and look for Camouflaj Radio Tape 01, Paul starts in at 27:00, and dominates the conversation until about 38:00. That's eleven minutes of a guy who talks about trends in the gaming industry and the bigger picture, as though he's already got his street cred, and he hasn't even graduated yet.

Paul is beginning his senior year at the über-prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta Campus), where he is completing his studies in Interactive Design and Game Development. In 2002, he was a recovering juvenile delinquent. In 2012, he maintains a 3.0 GPA to retain his partial academic scholarship, and works part-time tending bar in downtown Atlanta. Sometimes he comes up to DC to work weekends at either Wonderland or the Looking Glass Lounge. He makes more in two nights in DC than in one week in Atlanta. He works that hard, and the job market sucks that bad.

The above are only a few of the reasons why we here at man with black hat are announcing the Paul David Alexander Scholarship Fund. Simply drop your loose change or poker winnings over at the Paypal widget located (for the time being) at the top of the sidebar, and all proceeds will go to helping a young man realize his dream of creating The Next Big Thing.

Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she's uncool

Last year, when he turned twenty-six, he lamented to the entire Twittersphere, his departure from the demographic to which the hip-hop genré directed its appeal. It was as if he was no longer one of the cool kids. But hey, no one ever tried to tell Frank Sinatra he wasn't cool, and live to tell the tale. Frankie was Elvis before Elvis was Elvis. They don't come any more cool than that. And it shouldn't matter to Paul either ...

'Cause he's still preoccupied
With nineteen,
    nineteen,
        nineteen-eighty-five.

(Also for your viewing pleasure are tributes from 2009, 2010, and 2011.)