In my twenty years in Los Angeles, I never visited LACMA, but I heard it was overrated anyway. I did make trips to Silverlake if that counts. When I lived in Hollywood, my friend who visited took me to the weidest museum–I guess you could call it that–where it was nothing but videotapes of the film Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise. It took me back to a better time. Many of you probably aren’t aware of that film. It came out in the nineties, and the nineties carries no relevance to Gen Z, which is a shame. Reality TV wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is these days, and the music and films were superior in my mind. I just believe that because I was a teenager then. Any teenager at a certain period would grow up to believe everything wasn’t what it used to be. Try convincing a Gen Z person that the nineties were better for instance.

Does rock music even exist anymore? I’m stuck in the nineties, so all I listen to are bands from that era. I don’t remember the last rock star in the last twenty years. When I grew up, I had Kurt Cobain, Axl Rose, and Eddie Vedder among several other artists. But somewhere between now and then, all we were left with were a bunch of celebrities rapping and doing TikTok videos for fame. I don’t watch TV, so I can’t really confirm the truth. Who knows what MTV is showing these days? All I can say, as I don’t pay attention to contemporary music, is no one has approached me and said that so-and-so is the next great rock star. It’s further evidence that rock is dead, and I don’t think there will be a revival. The concept of a long-haired person with a guitar must not fly with today’s teenager.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s still rock music and metal buried beneath pop and hip-hop. It must not hold up to the rock music in the nineties, or else I would’ve known about them by now. I’ve tried listening to a few metal bands, but it was just misplaced yelling and growling over drums and guitars, creating hyperactive noise.

I heard that Hollywood is dead too. It wasn’t what it once was. I’ve turned my back on that as well, after living there for seventeen years and trying to be part of the scene. But it got worse and worse as major studios tried to recreate everything instead of making something original. They were too afraid of taking chances, so they stayed safe and did remakes of past films and bought the rights to comic books. I’m not a kid anymore, so I’m no longer the audience. They hardly make films for adults, so again I’m left out. Not to sound elitist, but I’m not into comic books or Star Wars. I must be left with whatever films were up for Best Picture at the Oscars. I tried to watch Oppenheimer a few weeks ago and couldn’t get past the first ten minutes. I forgot what other films were nominated. It was a lot of them, like ten of them. Couldn’t keep track. I’ll pay more attention to the next Oscars if I care enough. That’s the problem: my apathy.