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I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this recent exchange on alt.fan.momus:

xyzedd: The sad thing is that Momus is one of the few "pop" artists over 30 who has become yet more original and inventive as he grows older; most of them run out of ideas or run their ideas into the ground by the time they get their first gray hair.

Roshan: Sometimes when my friends are talking about how horrible it will be to be middle-aged, I usually just point to people like Momus and say that I can't wait. I mean, imagine all the books you'll have read, people you'll know!



Roshan, it is great, but sometimes I feel like when people ask my age, instead of the real answer (44, m**********r!) I should just say umpteen.

Humpteen

Date: 2004-05-07 04:59 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
My favorite words of wisdom about aging come from the Right Honorable Humpty Dumpty in Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass:"

`In that case we start fresh,' said Humpty Dumpty, `and it's my turn to choose a subject -- ' (`He talks about it just as if it was a game!' thought Alice.) `So here's a question for you. How old did you say you were?'
Alice made a short calculation, and said `Seven years and six months.'
`Wrong!' Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. `You never said a word like it!'
`I though you meant "How old ARE you?"' Alice explained.
`If I'd meant that, I'd have said it,' said Humpty Dumpty.
Alice didn't want to begin another argument, so she said nothing.
`Seven years and six months!' Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. `An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked MY advice, I'd have said "Leave off at seven" -- but it's too late now.'
`I never ask advice about growing,' Alice said Indignantly.
`Too proud?' the other inquired.
Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. `I mean,' she said, `that one can't help growing older.'
`ONE can't, perhaps,' said Humpty Dumpty, `but TWO can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.'

Re: Humpteen

Date: 2004-05-07 05:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com
Wow, and I thought warning small children that accepting offers from funny-looking strangers can drastically reduce life expectancy was an invention of the modern age!

Charles Dodgson was a very strange man...

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 05:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] class-worrier.livejournal.com
I was completely miserable till my thirties so I can't complain about getting old. I'm looking forward to the pipe and slippers years.

whoa.

Date: 2004-05-07 05:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] darkhalcyon727.livejournal.com
I suddenly feel like a very very young fan . . .

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 05:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rearwindow.livejournal.com
you had me fooled, i thought you were my age (30).
i really like growing older, my priorities have changed so nicely :)

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 05:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loisboy.livejournal.com
I prefer the answer 'old enough to know better'

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 06:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] easytempo.livejournal.com
I would never in a million years have guessed you were 44. You look at least 10 years younger than that.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 06:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sylvia101.livejournal.com
i am loving my 30s, and i'm sure things just keep getting better with age.

it is somewhat amusing to hear young people talking about "middle age". i don't even know what that is anymore. 50 seems young to me now.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 07:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] loisboy.livejournal.com
amen! i turned 30 last August and was super-depressed about it. But life looks so much more interesting now.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 07:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] charleshatcher.livejournal.com
As I once wrote in my stage farce, Sold:

ARTIST: How old are you?
OLD LADY: Too, darling, too!
ARTIST: Ah... I would have thought older than that.

spring has sprung

Date: 2004-05-07 08:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bishojo.livejournal.com
well, on the majestic planet mercury i'm 113.

http://www.nasa.gov/lb/audience/forkids/games/A_Age_on_Mars.html

Take that methuselah!

on a side note... has any thought ever gone into the idea of a downloadable ampatch sampler? being a person short on funds, any way to hear a little bit fer not that much would be a great thing. hence, the sampler. fer a small sum maybe you could offer such a thing on the website that would allow those of use a little on the poor side the chance to hear all of yer discoveries and possibley put a sound to the ampatch faces while also putting a few euros in your corduroys and maybe even pushing your releases a little further up thee darla charts, if we cotton to them that is.

thanks you much a plenty,

andi

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 08:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cataptromancer.livejournal.com
"Umpteen Pop" could be a genre.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 08:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gillen.livejournal.com
What a bizarre thing for him to wish... not to read books, but to have read them. It's like wishing to have eaten a delicious dinner. By the time you reach the point that you have been anticipating, what one would normally consider the pleasure of the activity is past. Unless one takes a greater pleasure simply from noting the completion of pleasurable things... perhaps Roshan is a compulsive collector? ::smirk::

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 09:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] suck-my-decks.livejournal.com
you should laugh.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 09:20 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Don't you ever get tired of talking about/reading about yourself? I used to really enjoy the Momus website back when it was insightful essays and interesting photos. But since you moved to LJ, you seem to have devolved. Yes, I guess this is what we should expect from an LJ, but not from Momus. A recent list of offences:

Stephin Merritt- how he thinks you're great
Mike Skinner- how your songs are much better than his
Yahoo Japan- how the media doesn't accurately portray how deep and complex you are

There's the the occasional flash of Good Momus, like the info on Japanese musique concrete, but Jesus Christ on a stick, posting the inane comments people leave on your own fan board is the most patheticly self-obssesed thing I've ever seen.

Ouchie!

Date: 2004-05-07 10:12 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
You're so cute it hurts! OMG.

The Love Song of Momus

Date: 2004-05-07 10:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] febrile.livejournal.com
In the rooms, the women come and go;
he shagged them all some time ago.

He has heard the mermaids singing, each to each,
he orders them sex on the beach.



My philosophy is that green chucks make actual age irrelevant. And I notice the bottoms of your trousers are not yet rolled...?

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 10:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rroseselavyoui.livejournal.com
Actually, comments from anonymous detractors is what we expect from LJ, so bravo for following through.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 11:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stanleylieber.livejournal.com
But sometimes you want to acquire massive quantities of data in a more efficient manually reading words on paper. Not all reading is undertaken purely for the pleasure of enjoying the words.

Re: Ouchie!

Date: 2004-05-07 11:34 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Too true. Damn, bring on the pirate porn!

Re: The Love Song of Momus

Date: 2004-05-07 12:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] swill.livejournal.com
I enjoyed that muchly! And your philosophy on age is one of the best I've heard.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 12:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] febrile.livejournal.com
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm on LiveJournal primarily because I'm self-obsessed. I'm honestly not trying to be snarky when I say I don't think that's such a bad thing. I'd wager everybody who frequents this medium is.

Some people's brand of self-obsession is just more interesting to me than others'.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 12:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
I just came in from cavorting with my 'young' friends Anne and Xavier (today was the first day of Designmai (http://www.designmai.de), the big Berlin design event) to these comments, which made me rather cheerful, I must say, even the obligatory anonymous LJ detractor.

One of the things I like about LJ is seeing people's photos of themselves. I find the embodiment thing rather important. I want to know what someone looks like, dresses like, how their hair is. I actually want to know that more than what they wrote in their doctoral thesis on Japanese musique concrete. (Total comments on that musique concrete entry: 9.) If anything, this is the wisdom that comes with age: what appears superficial isn't. Happiness is all wrapped up with the body.

Oh, and two words: green tea. Drink Japanese loose leaf sencha all night and all day and you'll stay young forever.

I know how it is....

Date: 2004-05-07 01:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j7bnvaaaetrd.livejournal.com
I just turned 40 yesterday. I like the new look. It's like George Grosz during the lean years.

Re: I know how it is....

Date: 2004-05-07 01:32 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Momus's verbal acuity has gone right down since he gave up posting on ilx

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 01:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
So that's where these anonymous people are coming from! It's like an old girlfriend following you to a new party and shouting in the window 'He may seem happy in there, but you should've seen the fantastic fights we used to have!'

Superficial yet deeply felt aesthetic moment

Date: 2004-05-07 01:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stanleylieber.livejournal.com
Your Tintin haircut is delightful.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 01:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
That's funny, I'm wearing these Asterix trousers today, so Xavier was saying 'You look like a cross between Tintin and Asterix. Tintin Chez Les Gaulois!'

classic, not bestseller

Date: 2004-05-07 01:55 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
that reads like something ronald firbank good had written!

erik

living in a box

Date: 2004-05-07 01:58 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I imagine you have all your belongings stuffed in only one cardboard box. is that true?


erik

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 02:13 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 02:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yanatonage.livejournal.com
I actually am a compulsive collector..but do you think bibliophiles are just tacticle fetishists or are they information fetishists as well? I don't think it's too much to want to enjoy both the means and the ends. I mean, I really enjoy 'having had' an orgasm, as well as the act itself.

-Roshan

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 02:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] yanatonage.livejournal.com
Might I add how appropriate the childlike photo, laced sneakers and all, goes with this post? And thank you for the affirmation that it is, in fact, greater later. It cheered me up.
-Roshan

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] honeychurch.livejournal.com
27 feels odd. It doesn't help that I'm still a graduate student, and I'm dating a 21-yr-old undergraduate, so I feel all in-between. When my ex left me last year, I got a bunch of grey hairs, and he started dating a 19-yr-old. Recently, when I slept with my best friend, I told him not to worry, that I wouldn't even consider marrying him until my thirties - and then remembered that they aren't that far off.

I only feel old when I remember my age, I guess; it's probably best to forget most of the time. One thing - I think it's a lot easier to have fun, and to have it with more people, as one gets older - it doesn't feel forced or pressured.

Re: solipsistic,tic,tic

Date: 2004-05-07 03:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moonorchid.livejournal.com
I find it liberating to announce that this doesn't make any sense to me.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 03:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klasensjo.livejournal.com
Tintin is celebrating 75 years this year...the comparison is very accurate in many aspects, except one. Tintin was not surrounded by women for some mysterious reason...
All the women portrayed are often horrible in one way or the other...Castafiore etc.

Now Asterix was mentioned...what about Spirou !

Mimi & KLas say: Have a great weekend and we appreciate this colorful blog.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 03:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moonorchid.livejournal.com
the following makes me feel so cool: I have a dancing date with two 40 year-old women! One's married, the other's cute. I'm so honored that someone that much older (16 years) would find me interesting or at all desirable. I totally agree with "it's a lot easier to have fun, and to have it with more people, as one gets older" - I love the company of older people for this reason, because they've relaxed into themselves more. And because they're so wise. But: not older people who have fallen into the trap of 'older people' - arrested development until the midlife crisis. I like people who are always having their crisis a little bit at a time.

Not much, but...

Date: 2004-05-07 04:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] klaus-nomi.livejournal.com
I keep my belongings in my pants.

Anon and anon

Date: 2004-05-07 04:34 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
You've nearly shamed me into having a LiveJournal myself, but believe me, you don't want to see what I look like any more than I do when I look in the mirror. And there is room for both Japanese musique concrete and "superficial" discussions about age (after all, I brought up both subjects) n our short sweet lives. But please don't make me feel bad for wanting to be anonymous--all my life I've just wanted to be anonymous; it's more interesting to me than fame.

But I'm not that "other" anonymous! I do quite like green tea, thank you...

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 06:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] czar-of-hung.livejournal.com
Well, I'd rather be 44 (54 even!) and artistically accomplish as much as you have than be 30 (30...) with very little chance to accomplish anything at all.

Oh, I meant to mention this yesterday...Comus is great. Actually when I first heard The Gongs, I was reminded of First Utterance more than once.

ageposts

Date: 2004-05-07 06:56 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Hey Momus, it's Channing, aka Animal Family feat. MC Cat Genius. On the subject of aging: I was born in 1980. Beck was born in 1970. You were born in 1960 (correct?) My mother was born in 1950. I use you three as age role models, people who seem to be doing very well with the age they've ended up at, for when I think about the future and how I'll be living and acting at various points, and need reassurance that I'll be able to live a life I'm glad for.

I don't know if you really want to be an 'inspiration' or 'role model', but guess what? You're an Interesting Musician who is also 44. Own it! Come on, you panda, what do you want, a collar and a food dish?

I don't have a livejournal, but here's a picture of me and my fiancée Sabrina (26): http://www.maudevintage.com/
In exchange, please write another website essay someday.

tactile fetishist vs information fetishist

Date: 2004-05-07 08:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] niemandsrose.livejournal.com
I think bibliophiles are both: if they were merely information fetishists they (I mean, we) could just get our fix at the library, instead of exercising our compulsion to purchase the books; anyone who is *merely* a tactile fetishist of books, and does not *read* them, is probably an interior decorator who picks the books because the spines match the wallpaper and doesn't deserve to be called a bibliophile.

That said, I love the way brand new books smell, too. I love the way good-quality paper has a certain weight in your hand. I love the way very old books leave a shadow of crumblings of themselves when you pick them up off a table. I love Routledge and Kodansha and Tuttle.

I dig your name, too, by the way, Roshan-the-red-lotus. I almost named a cat that once. Seriously.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 09:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] niemandsrose.livejournal.com
Ain't no thing, I just saw that there are now 43 comments and, appropriately enough, wanted to make it an even...44! Ha HA!

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-07 10:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ex-ebb439.livejournal.com
Oh god, you're absolutely ANCIENT! I look younger than I am, and I am so sick of the "you don't look that old" reaction when I tell people I am 31. I can't wait to hit 40, when everyone will think I'm a damn granny.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-08 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] honeychurch.livejournal.com
And because they're so wise.

that just kills me.

(no subject)

Date: 2004-05-08 09:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alchemist-jesus.livejournal.com
If I was 44, i would probably be alot more interesting, I think.

thats why not being 44 isn't fun. especially when you're 14. (like me)

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