“I’m not a cool guy anymore. As if I ever was before.” – Milo Aukerman, Descendents
Those words have been an anthem for me throughout my life. I’ve wasted far too much time trying to be cool. But I never have really pulled it off. I am the outcast, the nerd, the dork, the outsider, the weirdo. In nearly every step of my life, I’ve felt that I don’t fit it. Even when I’ve aligned myself with outsider groups I don’t fit in. I’m the outsider of all outsiders.
In many ways you can say I’m not cool. But in a way, that is cool. I embraced punk culture in my youth, but I long ago dropped the punk image. To me, it’s much more punk to be an individual than to be a carbon copy of counterculture stereotypes. I’m a punk on the inside, and that’s where it matters.
My dream when I was young was to be a musician, and I’ve all but retired that dream. I love music, and I’m moderately good at writing music. But I’m not great at it. And I’ve never had the dedication that it requires to become great. Couple that with my curse of pragmatism and I don’t do much with music these days.
So music was one of the ways I’ve wasted time trying to be cool. I’ve also spent time as a radio personality, a TV personality, and an artist to name a few things I’ve done. I have a drive to be creative. There is a monster inside me, screaming from the inside, “Create!” But again the curse of pragmatism keeps me from feeding that beast as often as I should.
One of the things that has defined me over the years is my analytical nature. I am great at viewing situations from a complex analytical perspective. I see all angles, all options, all opinions, all perspectives, all possibilities. That’s what has led me to create simoncutler.com. It’s a chance to push my analytical rants onto the rest of the world.
My rants are on pop culture, consumerism, politics, travel, music, entertainment, and a slew of other topics.