Normally, I don't like to dwell on depressing things, but at Christmas time, the depressing seems almost cheerful. (Which might be the whole idea.... or maybe vice-versa.)

The term "emo" (see last post) is a trendy new expression for a multifaceted phenomenon I have observed for many decades. I'll stay with the word "emo" because I prefer the simplicity of a three letter word. As opposed to (for example), "lonely-clinically-depressed-young-man-whose-lack-of-self-esteem-is-matched-only-by-a-total-hatred-of-all-conformity-and-a-fuck-you-attitude-toward-the-world-with-resultant-refusal-to-engage-in-social-phoniness-who'll-therefore-never-score-with-women-and-whose-natural-bisexuality-fuels-his-hatred-of-the-hypocrisy-of-everyone-else-so-he-hangs-out-at-gay-bars-and-gets-loaded-and-maybe-hustles-maybe-meets-interesting-people-and-maybe-falls-in-love."

Etc.

Yeah. "Emo" is definitely less of a mouthful.

There's a lot of 'em out there, too. Rufus Wainwright (Via Ex-Gay Watch) and River Phoenix strike me as a couple of possible emos who achieved fame before that label was coined.

Gay? I guess. Emo? Whatever! If society has a problem with that, well, that's a good enough reason to embrace the label. But I would not expect an emo to conform to some stereotypical "gay" standard when rejecting such bullshit was the whole idea.

I find myself rather partial to such lost souls, and I'm not sure why.