Chapter 8: Connoisseur & Album Cuts; Hot Takes & Honorable Mentions

 

"Anyone can love a rose, but it takes a lot to love a leaf. It's ordinary to love the beautiful, but it's beautiful to love the ordinary." - MJ Korvan

I view myself as a connoisseur of several things, whether it's music, movies, basketball, superhero movies, Top Chef, pro-wrestling or whatever nerdy fandom I've picked up over the years. Many of us who consider ourselves connoisseurs have this impulse to display our expertise to prove to others how refined our tastes are. To borrow a pro wrestling term, we are the mark, a fan who buys into the emotions and characteristics of characters and storylines. Yes, we know wrestling is fake, but it's still real to me damnit. You know a mark when you see them, we're the ones who's closets are full of merch t-shirts, dress up in cosplay to conventions and to the movies, and who spend way too much of our disposable (and sometimes not so disposable) income on memorabilia like action figures, Funko POPs, etc. We inhabit message boards getting into spirited debates about existential questions like Kendrick Lamar vs. J. Cole, Star Wars vs Star Trek, Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James (watching Kobe Bryant stans insert themselves into the discussion), who would win in a theoretical fight: Batman or Spiderman, etc. On the positive side you're engaging in a community of likeminded and fellow enthusiasts who share your interests and passions. On the negative side, there's a lot of gatekeeping and policing of fandom involved especially towards women, where "casuals" are dismissed for their opinions because they aren't as informed or invested as we are. 

Convinced of the superiority of my own tastes, I was a cultural snob throughout my 20's (and let's be honest most of my 30's too) and adopted contrarian views reflective of my mark-dom. I appreciated the "boring" team-oriented play of the Tim Duncan led San Antonio Spurs and "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons of the late 80's over the "hero ball" flashy individual brilliance of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant because I looked beyond Sportscenter highlights. My VHS and then DVD collection had more auteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson and Zhang Yimou than the soulless, blockbuster actions of Michael Bay and Joel Schumacher because I was a true "cinephile". During the height of the "bling era" of the late 90's to early 00's, I lamented against the commercialization, materialism, and sexualization of Puff Daddy, Ma$e, No Limit, Cash Money Records, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown and championed the Conscious Hip-Hop of The Roots, De La Soul, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Lauryn Hill. We made the distinction between rap vs. hip-hop, not its literal definitions of "hip-hop" (a subculture with four essential elements: deejaying, MCing, graffitiing, and dancing) vs. "rap" (being one of those four elements). Instead we used the rap vs. hip-hop debate to be gatekeepers of the fandom; are you a serious fan or are you a casual? It was the subtext of Brown Sugar, a 2002 rom-com starring Taye Diggs & Sanaa Latham. As Sanaa Latham's character described, "it's like the difference between saying you love somebody and being in love with somebody. Rap is just a word." 

Which was and is total bullshit. I never picked between mainstream and underground; I enjoyed all of it. I rooted for both Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas; I loved both Being John Malkovich and The Matrix; I appreciated the over-the-top "sports entertainment" antics of The Rock and the I-take-this-way-too-seriously performance of Bret Hart; I had both Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R." and Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins" on the same cassette mixtape and rapped along to those diametrically opposed songs in my car. 

Our culture at large has become one of punditry. These "experts" are called on to give their opinions on various issues, whether it's political commentary, sports criticism, and cultural observations. But it's not enough to give an opinion; pundits are incentivized to give hot takes, expressing a deliberately controversial or argumentative commentary that is only loosely based on research and reporting. The ESPN program "First Take" might have innovated the template for hot take programming; where two pundits intentionally take opposing viewpoints on a series of topics and proceed to "perform debate", aka. scream at each other for the next two hours (I'm almost certain that if a child behaved like Stephen A. Smith or Skip Bayless in a debate class, they would immediately fail the class and be possibly suspended). If you watch CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News on a regular basis (If you're a viewer of Fox News, not only do I question your taste I also have a random question; do you wash your MAGA hat and your Klan sheets together or do you wash them separately?) the structure of their programming is less a reporting of the news than it is a vehicle for pundits to give their takes. Pundits like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham not only comment on political stories, their commentary sometimes becomes the story. An extreme (but typical of Fox News) example of punditry culture, in the aftermath of the Buffalo shooting, Carlson argued that the true victims were the right-wing media and GOP connected to the shooter's manifesto. As a result, the analysis and criticism of Carlson's comments overtook the coverage of those victims who were tragically murdered.

On a less audacious and toxic level as news and sports punditry, there's an art to expressing a hot take. Behind every hot take, there should be some supporting argument you can make so you're not just talking out of your ass. A bad take would be George Clooney is the best Batman, when it's something that Clooney itself wouldn't acknowledge and there's no box office or critical reception to support your take. Who knows, maybe you just really like Bat nipples and oversized codpieces. Or Hawkeye is your favorite character from the Avengers movies, sorry Kate Bishop but nobody buys that sh*t take, I don't even think Jeremy Renner would. The "cold take" answers are Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man or Chris Evans as Captain America because they're obvious. But if you were to say Mark Ruffalo as Hulk? Not super obvious; tell me more. A great space to mine for content is in the deposits of Honorable Mentions. If you were to poll people on what their favorite song on Prince's Purple Rain is, answers like "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry" are obvious; I mean those are the obvious hits and some of the most celebrated songs in pop music history. But "Computer Blue"? . You're definitely a hardcore fan and a true Prince connoisseur. #IYKYK (if you know you know). You went deep with an album cut that casual listeners might have overlooked. 

""I'm that song you skipped and found out later it was fire.""

I suppose the common thread between gatekeeping and punditry for me is a desire to recognize the greatness and beauty in the honorably mentioned, because it's how many of us have experienced our lives. We've all been overlooked at some point professionally, socially, romantically, and personally by someone more popular, more rich, more smart, more accomplished, more attractive, etc. It creates a chip on our shoulders for some, as you may feel like you've been treated unfairly and are now set out to prove everyone wrong. For others it may lead to feeling an inferiority complex, feeling inadequate and insecure about oneself. I've felt all of those things and questioned my self-worth when I see others who've advanced farther in their careers, are more comfortable in social settings, been regarded as someone's dream partner, etc.

Because of that, I'm proud to be a mark for the "album cuts". I mark out for those clients I work with at the Domestic Violence shelter who might be regarded as "failures"; I stand for their possibilities moving forward. I mark out for the small group of friends in my life who've been honorably mentioned at various points in their lives and who don't get the praise, adulation, and recognition that others get. I mark for my friend who bucks religious tradition and family expectations and creates the relationship that works for her and her spouse. I mark for my friend of over ten years who left the adult industry behind and continues to define this next stage in her life, on her terms. I mark for limitless creative talents and artistic expression of my dear friend as she begins her first theater production since the pandemic, and going to support her show later this month. I mark for my best friend for her heart, her brilliance, the power of her memoir, and her inner and outer beauty, even eclipsing my admiration for Padma Lakshmi and AOC. That may come off like hot takes, that's because you like rap; they're hip-hop.

It's okay if I continue to be overlooked and under appreciated by many because I found contentment and serenity in being the album cut, recognized, appreciated, and cherished by the connoisseurs. I'm not the big radio single and I won't be put on any recommended Spotify playlists. Because those who've taken the time to get to know me and listen all the way through know. But unlike the gatekeeping and toxic aspects of nerd fandom, casuals are welcomed here. 

This is a space for the honorable mentioned, because we're "The Beautiful Ones". #IYKYK

Portrait Photography: https://www.zacharyleeportrait.com

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