and you cried and you cried

Apparently, I'm on a roll with watching movies that I've been wanting to see, having rented the Darjeeling Limited a week or two ago. I watched Superbad last night, at the urging of some high school teachers. I've been told it's actually provides good insight into teenagers, and truthfully a lot of the awkwardness made me very uncomfortable because it was fairly reminiscent of my real-life, high school awkwardness. It was also very funny and fairly sweet, in a kind of crude way.
A couple of things totally drove me crazy, though: First off, it kind of felt like this was a movie about people in high school written by people who were in high school over a decade ago. I mean the teenage drama and awkward issues are the same over this time, but it almost felt like a lot of the fashions, high school cliques, and cars that high schoolers drove were the same as when I was in high school. Also, who actually would put pennants from their colleges in their rooms? Seriously? And if a student has been accepted to Dartmouth, he is most not likely taking gym, home ec., and shop in his senior year. Most school systems don't even require gym beyond freshman or sophomore year. And barely any schools actually offer traditional home ec. (making omelettes) and shop (using bandsaws) anymore. At least in some places around Seattle and in my home town, which in WV is certainly not ahead of the curve, more hands-on and/or vocational courses were offered at a centralized center. And, truthfully, students going on to schools like Dartmouth were not really the target students for these classes. Finally, I would love to know what high school math class teaches i (square root of -1) toward the end of the year? Other than all of these issues, which drove me crazy (though it might just be because I'm crazy anyway), I did enjoy the movie.
Also related to pop culture, kind of, I'm hoping for music for my birthday, which is coming up on Friday. I've been wanting to get the newer and/or only albums Los Campesinos, Vampire Weekend, Magnetic Fields, and Cloud Cult (I don't even know if their newest is technically out). I might want to get the new R.E.M. album, but I need to hear more beyond the awesome (super?) song Supernatural Superserious.
Anyway, this weekend is looking to be fun, with two local crits: Boat Street and Volunteer Park. And it looks like it might actually get above 60 degrees, which will be amazing. With how accurate the forecasts have been lately, it will probably be 35 and snowing, though.