I turned 29 today. Which means that in one year's time I'll be 30, and no longer in my 20s. (Five years after that, I'll no longer be in the prime demographic for lifestyle-product advertising; an unperson, invisible to marketers, missing, presumed mortgaged in the suburbs somewhere.)

One thing this getting old business makes you do is take stock, and think about where your life is heading. Because as the numbers add up, the opportunities for change dwindle, and younger, fleeter birds get what was your share of the worms.

But more on that another time.

Posted by: billy | http:// | Tue Jan 7 05:40:42 2003

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Posted by: mark | http://cyberfuddle.com/infinitebabble/ | Tue Jan 7 07:32:58 2003

Yes, happy birthday, Andrew.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com | Tue Jan 7 07:49:57 2003

And meanwhile, everyone over thirty goes, geez, I wish I was 29 again. The best cure for ennui is to do something about it.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Jan 7 12:18:27 2003

Well, I'm working on that...

Posted by: Reen | http:// | Tue Jan 7 15:49:15 2003

Happy birthday! Have you developed a fondness for contemporary jazz yet? For then, you are truly an adult.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Jan 7 16:16:10 2003

No, I haven't. Nor have I done the usual grown-up-music-buff thing and gotten into roots/blues (or even country, like Cos). I'm still listening to indie electro-pop, Austrian laptop music, and other juvenile fancies.

Posted by: sam | http://www.humbug.net | Wed Jan 8 15:01:07 2003

Mmm, yes, because you're only grown up if you listen to jazz (I do) and young if you listen to indie music (I do only occasionally). By the way, I'm 23. I also listen to various electronic outfits/persons (stereolab, aphex twin, negativland, severed heads, ..). Where does this put me? Am I already an unperson, doomed to never fit in to a particular demographic?? *sob* My life is over, I'll never buy another <insert CD a 23-year-old is supposed to buy here> CD.

Posted by: Jim | http://found.pale.org/ | Wed Jan 8 15:58:55 2003

Happy belated birthday, mate. You're only as young as the demographic you mostly intersect with. Me, I'm getting younger if my tastes are anything to go by.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed Jan 8 16:20:10 2003

"Indie" isn't just for young people; that'd be alternative, rap-metal, skate-punk, and various other teen-angst music. And anything describable as goth that has a beat. (I've seen a lot of more mature people (late 20s/30s) at indie-pop shows, and indeed in indie-pop bands.)

Though once you turn 25, you're legally prohibited from listening to JJJ.

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