A common source of misdirected bitterness among the no-longer young is the resentment of “kids today,” coupled with a revisionist depiction of the past. At 28 years old, I belong to a proud generation of entitled losers. Our delusions of grandeur are spouted prolifically through means of minimal effort (such as posts like this one.) Even though we have very few qualifications for real world survival, we don’t care. Our senses of superiority remain intact because we are neither those distinguished by their unprecedented levels of childhood obesity and indiscriminate sexting, nor those with precariously overextended credit who know what a peer reviewed source is.

If you find this boring, check out sketerbret123:

Great, right? But back to what I was trying to say…

Snowboarding existed as a small but established anti-sport when I became obsessed with it in the early 90’s. The generational divide presented above translates snowboarding-wise into to the fact that I was allowed to do it– by resorts and by my parents. I was blessed with the resources to go, and loved every minute of it. Yet my formative years were also spent wishing there could be a trail with a bunch of perfect jumps on it, or a machine groomed halfpipe at any of the mountains where I rode.

In my own mind, it was only for this lack of opportune training ground that I became legitimate, but never became great. Employing the signature mentality of my age group, I believe that I could have been really good if only I could have been. Kids have it so much easier these days with their terrain parks, broadband internet, flip videos and social networking facespaces. I eagerly self impose a badge of honor for my time-served struggling. I also bear minimal personal responsibility in the reality that I never achieved what I initially set out to do with snowboarding (BS 3’s mainly.)

So here I am, not having gone riding at all this season and feeling more old than young at a very specific point in time when all the buzz is about Google buzz. According to Google: Blogs are not literature; twitter is dumb; we are dumb because we track current events through twitter; snowboarding sucks; life was better before the internet.

Given all of that, I’d like you to meet wookiecookies112. He offers a well-rounded series of uploads that showcase his snowboarding, scooter trick, sledding FAIL and guitar soloing talents. Since you can’t read the “discription” you’re being urged to, I’ll include it. “all that this video is is 180s. some sketchy some not. i learned yesterday”:

:D.

I am alive in 2010 and have my own ideas about what that means. I sometimes seek affinity with others here on earth. Sometimes that translates to staying up way too late, clicking around on YouTube and overindulging voyeuristic digital glimpses into the lives of strangers that they have, for whatever reason, chosen to share with the internet. Very seldom do the steps in this process induce feelings of joy, inspiration and satisfaction. On the rare occasions that they do, the experience is akin to the best dose of the best virtual reality drug.

I stumbled across the videos included here by clicking various links, a process by which I make many of my greatest discoveries these days. When I watch these YouTube’s I feel happy as the direct result of being an anonymous observer to these seemingly perfect encapsulations of what it’s like to be young and to love snowboarding…minus any of the buzz. This is the very specific spirit that defines my youth and had previously defied capture, “can’t bottle that” recorded, compressed and unpretentiously cast out to the world wide web on a whim.

My chosen ender is this true work of art from Bisque98:

**These are my personal favorites from just the tip of a vast online iceberg. In the spirit of Web 2.0, readers are urged to comment and share theirs.

Click to listen and please support these independent artists by buying their albums if you want to hear more of what they have to offer!

1. ECSR - Having a Hard Time Intentionally rudimentary, snotty punk from Australia to set your alarm clock to. This band’s ST release is my favorite album at the moment!

2. The Anals - Commando of Love A great, shitty synth punk track from a French 7″ that centers on the theme of forbidden love between a Nazi and a Jew during WWII, with drumming to match!

3. Life Partners - Aids of Spades I liked this song so much that I spent hundreds of dollars putting it out on vinyl so that I can listen to it whenever I want. Please buy it!

4. Children of The Sixth Root Race - Beggar Wait for it…..R&B infused, psychedelic cult rock that will make you feel simultaneously happy and insane. There is a fascinating back story behind this music that I highly recommend investigating if you’re bored with life, sound and/or everything right now.

5. Luxurious Bags - Bury My Heart A favorite track from the world’s greatest one man band that typifies the best of mid 90’s indie rock. If you buy two cds in the next five years, it should be both of his.

6. Bolt Thrower - World Eater I’ve been spending a lot of time on The Dark Side lately and this tune from these legendary death metalheads keeps popping up on the jukebox over there. Fantastically brutal.

7. State of Fear - Blind Pride A crust classic! I love to listen to this band while feeling like a hypocrite while also feeling stuffy and suffocated by my (office) job.

8. Oren Ambarchi - Highway of Diamonds I tend to favor relatively inaccessible, loop driven minimalist/ bullshit as a musical form. Ambarchi is masterful in that regard, as illustrated by this perfect track from his new 7″, “Destinationless Desire”

9. ECSR - Turn Your Page See #1. While you’re at it, put this song on a mix tape for your crush.

10. Etta James - At Last A KILLER wedding song that also doubles as an ideal one to listen to over and over again during intense bouts of romantic failure.