For a few years in High School (and for one brief, glorious week in college...) I thought it was possible that I was the Coolest Guy in the World. It used to seem that, when people came to me to ask about a movie, a book, a band, a celebrity, or anything else dealing with the entertainment world, the answer always seemed to be at my fingertips. I knew lead singers AND drummers, actors AND directors, the biggest shows on AND off Broadway, and authors AND their publishing houses.

But there's the problem with Cool: it's fleeting. I once knew these things...

But as soon as you master one corner of the Cool World (Brad Pitt, 1992, director: Bakshi), somewhere else there's a new scene brewing, and your knowledge of Seattle Grunge becomes a worthless tool when the New World Order of Britney and her Clones take over...and my proverbial hat goes off to anyone that can keep track of the R&B/Rap world: With everyone featuring everyone else, a roadmap through Rapland has to look like a plate of spaghetti, or a chart of the London Underground.

I do my best to keep in touch. I brandish my copies of Entertainment Weekly with equal doses of fervor and paranoia, but even they recognize that they can't cover it all. And I just don't have time to devour Rolling Stone, Premiere, Spin, and People like I did in High School. Over the last decade, though, it's gotten even harder. Media companies found out that they were stronger together, so we've seen mergers and acquisitions like nothing else over the past few years. There's no doubt that when less is more, more can also mean less. But that hasn't stemmed a constant barrage on our ability to take in the media world:

  -Though the number of big record companies has dropped, we're still being fed more new acts and more albums than ever before. And many of them matter less.
  -Cable television has blown past the 200 channel marker (Making ANOTHER of Bruce Springsteen's songs an anachronism). Most are 24 hour-a-day networks, many have as much advertising as they do programming.
  -Movie studios found out that they could make any movie profitable. DVD sales, foreign markets, and sales to upstart cable networks means that there's a market for Poison Ivy 3.

And none of these trends take into account the growth in publishing (check out the magazine racks these days!), or mind-blowing trends like iTunes, that we have almost instantly assimilated.

Yes, it may be wonderful to live in a world where Donnie Darko can make a profit (and deserve a Director's Cut!), it's undeniably becoming more and more impossible to keep up with everything.

So welcome to Assailable Cool, the one place where it's safe to admit that you still feel cool, but you may not know everything... and that there's always room for growth. This will be a forum for discussing things that matter now, will continue to matter, and things that mattered to us once upon a time. There's plans in the works to honor pieces of the world that deserve special recognition, as well as plans to honor those things that may not be brilliant, but keep us moving forward on any given day. Music, Movies, Books, and the Electronic World will all be represented in due form. I truly hope you enjoy your time here.

The Assailable part comes when you decide to respond to posts. Positivity is desired (everyone loves to be agreed with!), but earnest and thoughtful rebuttals will be honored as well. I have already admitted that my shot at the Coolest Guy in the World title have slipped away. Sure, I could have been a contender, but That Was Then, This is Now (Emilio Estevez, 1985, director: Chris Cain, based on the novel by S.E. Hinton). These days, I want some help!

The good news is, I know there are others out there just like me. The bad news is, it may take a while for them to join the party. We'll have to see what we can do about that...