The man in black

by Jim

Yes. A straight guy is devoting an entire blog post to talking about what he wore today. What is this world coming to?

Anyway,
I tend to think that people who dress in all or mostly black are at least a wee bit pretentious - come on, guys, The Matrix is now ten years old.

Sorry, I actually have to pause to take that one in. The. Matrix. is. ten. years. old. Wow.

Eh, in a world where your Treasury Secretary is a tax cheat, there's not much that should take you by surprise. I guess it's a reflection of my general disdain for all things Hollywood (I want George Lucas to re-release the Prequels with every visual effect removed and see how little a movie he has - though there would be no Jar Jar Bongs, so I guess that's some improvement), but I still consider The Matrix to be on the cutting edge of visual effects technology.

(By the way, the obvious political jab at the start of the previous paragraph does not necessarily reflect Tom's view on the Treasury Secretary or anything else, for example, tennis balls.)

Anyway, The Matrix came out a surprisingly long time ago. But, seriously, if you go around wearing all black (and are a guy), I'll be inclined to think that you think you are:
a) Neo
b) Angel
c) the Ninth Doctor
d) a member of Metallica
e) any of the above, and/or also choking on your own oversized ego.

There are certain other people who like wearing all black who will get absolutely no mention here.

P.S, if you're legitimately famous (for example, in addition to everyone in Metallica, author Neil Gaiman has been known to wear all black), you have an excuse, your ego is warranted, and go for it. This is for all the nobodies.

Okay, hypocrisy self-examination; at the moment I am wearing black boots, black socks, black pants, a white t-shirt, and, when I go outside, a black leather jacket.

Explanation for the black socks - it is laundry day.
Explanation for the black pants - they were the first ones I pulled out of the drawer. I looked outside (remember I have a new masochistic habit of waking up at 6:45, so this was before the weather got bad) and decided I could get by with a sweater and a tan trench coat, and thus avoid wearing my leather jacket with black pants and be a hypocrite.
Explanation for the white t-shirt - what, you think I was gonna wear a clever t-shirt under a sweater where nobody could see it?
Explanation for the leather jacket - the weather did not, as anyone who was paying attention today, stay good for very long. The trench coat did not cut it.
Explanation for the boots - uh, it started raining.

In addition to me showing up to my PoliSci exam dressed like the night-shift worker at a funeral home, a raven (or maybe a crow) decided to land right in front of me as I was walking to the exam.

Yeah, God likes messing with me.