(no subject)

[dragonlady7]

Z bought Sharon Jones' album 100 Days, 100 Nights awhile back. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. I think they're Amy Winehouse's backup band. It's a really solid album, sounds like it was recorded in about 1960 only with better sound quality. Jones has one of those Aretha-esque voices-- big, nimble, and warm. I love the album.
I was listening to it in the car the other night, and suddenly flashed back to Pennsic.
(No I didn't take that many drugs.)
Just... the way some people, well-intentionedly, treated me, vs. the lyrics of Jones's song "Be Easy, Baby".



some people say
you gotta fight for a love that's true
climb every mountain
see every trial and tribulation through

and I'm here to tell ya
oooh that's only half the lesson
now if you want a girl to come to you
you got to leave a little room for guessin'

Whoa you just be easy baby
that girl'll come a runnin to you
if you just be easy baby
ahh she'll be easy too

don't you know it's just a fool plays a part
runnin' a girl down like she's a game in a school yard
now if she waits
you should turn and let her alone
she'll come to you
just as sure as you're born

be easy baby
that girl'll come a runnin' to you
if you just be easy baby
ahh she'll be easy too

don't you know a woman don't wanna man down on his knees
runnin' her down like a mouse at the cheese
you got to be mellow if you want her affection
you get too excited and she's off in another direction

so be easy baby
that girl'll come a runnin to you
if you just be easy baby
ahh she'll be easy too

be easy baby
that girl'll come a runnin' to you
if you just be easy baby
ahh she'll be easy too



Not that I really need to give people advice on picking me up. But there was this sort of overwhelming undercurrent of people, particularly men, who seemed to feel that the way to get a girl is to pick several and obsess serially over them.
Let me tell you: that's really, besides the Port-A-Castles, the only thing I wasn't totally happy with at Pennsic. Nerd boys. I love them. They're my type. But there's a reason that girls are more attracted to dudes that just aren't into them. Why? The dudes that are into them often and rapidly get creepy about it.

One dude was pretty blatantly fixating on anything that was a)nearby and b)female, and let me tell you something man, the number one way to assure that a girl is not going to be flattered by your attentions is to have been hitting on another girl just before she arrived, and not transfer your attentions to the newcomer until the first girl has had to get rude to you.
Yeah. ... Yeah. Sexy.
(Then tell the newcomer that there are all these chicks you could have sex with anytime but you're just not interested in them. Also it helps if you're like forty-five and not very well groomed, and really, really fond of yourself. But that was really just icing.)

Mostly it wasn't bad. I wasn't really offended. It was just sort of a drag once in a while. I had been cautioned that it was likely to be an issue since I was Obviously Of Legal Age-- my friend from high school has been going to Pennsic since she was 18, and wears slightly more clothing every year, and gets hit on more and more every year-- it's not nudity and youth, it's Not Jailbait that gets you the attention. She once attended with her sister, four years her junior, and said sister was awfully offended that guys never hit on her but paid so much more attention to her older, more-clothed, chubbier sister-- but kid, you're visibly a teenager: they're scared of you. Even many of the Creepy Guys do not want to be that guy who banged a fifteen-year-old and went to jail in rural Pennsylvania. Especially since that sort tends to "fall down a lot" on their way to Security.

I was adorably and drunkenly hit on by a very young and very naked boy, who was very persistent, over the course of several evenings. He was sweet, and took no for an answer for about five minutes at a stretch. He was trying to do it right, and kept asking me all these considerate questions, and marveling over how awesome I was. "What about you, though?" I thought, but couldn't think of a nice way to say. "I already know I'm awesome and at my age, I've heard it before. But I don't know a damn thing about you. You haven't done one rad thing yet. If you did something awesome, I would totally be interested in making out with you [well, for the sake of argument I would be; actually I was really Not in the Market for Make-Outs-- but he was cute and theoretically I might have been interested. Shh, this is for science], because you are young and cute and fairly articulate. But you're not actually saying or doing anything interesting on your own. Go do something awesome, but don't just do it to impress me or I'll notice and think you're lame." Be easy, baby.

I know it goes the other way, incidentally. It's not just nerd guys that don't know how to pick up chicks. Nerd chicks can be pretty obnoxious to guys they don't know how to properly pick up. Especially since they're so busy only being interested in the ones that aren't already creepily obsessed with them.
Wait, see how that works?
Be easy, baby.

Oy. Anyway. Song's been stuck in my head, now I've passed it on.

Comments

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

Oh no. You can't pass an earworm on to ME! (Fortunately, I don't know the tune! LOL)