“Why is hair growing here?” I recently asked out loud to no one in particular.  It was rhetorical, of course.  I’ve been losing hair on the top of my head, but gaining in other unexpected areas for several years at this point.  I’ve come to understand that this is all part of aging.

I am middle aged.

This is the future predicted by my parents, grand parents, and other ‘elder’ encounters that usual began or ended with a “just wait, you’ll see”.  I’m not sure I believed them.  Maybe I thought it would take longer to get here.

When I first thought about writing reviews from this ‘middle’ perspective, I needed to research what middle age actually is.  I was 45 at the time.  The Google machine told me that middle age officially starts at 45.  Perfect timing.  I’m 47 years old now.  It took me a minute to get started.  I had questions.  Would this be a hobby?  Do I want a hobby?  Would anyone give a shit?  Why does my back hurt?  I never answered those to any real degree, but as the saying goes:  I’m not getting any younger.

So, what exactly is a middle age review?  Good question.  Let’s figure that out as we go.  As a proud member of the MTV generation navigating today’s entertainment, technologies and daily realities, I hope to provide insight, humor and confirmation that you are not going crazy.  I write this for us, my fellow middle-aged, Gen-X, MTV generation.  That generation firmly sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, and is annoyed with each.

Will I provide my take on the latest blockbuster?  Sure. Eventually.  But you don’t actually expect me to go to the theater, do you?  Certainly not opening weekend.  That would just be crazy.  I’ve known for sometime that I experience pop culture very differently than I once did.  A few years ago, I was really looking forward to seeing The Martian.  I saw it once it came on-demand on my cable box.  My desire to see it never overtook my desire to stay in.

This wasn’t always the case for me.  I remember buying, in advance, a ticket for the opening night of the Will Smith classic, Independence Day.  My Alexa thingy tells me that movie opened in 1996.  I was 24.  I remember him, that young man I was.  He seems nice, but with a lot of extra time on his hands.  Probably because he stayed up past 10 o’clock.

So, let’s see where this goes.  I’ll try to capture all the crazy stuff that goes through my head when I experience our world, and maybe some of it will be helpful, or funny.  Hopefully both.

I should probably mention to you that I often experience our world with a gin and tonic.