I love researching the meanings and origins of words, especially slang words and well known sayings or expressions. If someone remarks on the "dog days of summer" I want to know why they are called that. (hint: it's based on a star in the sky). If you're "throwing me some shade" then I have to know not only what it means but where it began. (aha, it originated in the 1980's LGBT drag culture, as a finely finessed insult, without being blatantly tacky). I can be snarky but throwing shade is a more subtle skill, somewhere above the level of an eye roll.
In my many years of living through various forms of slang from "groovy" through "amazeballs" I AM actually amazed at the longevity of the word "Cool". Yes there have been variations from "Chill" to "Ice Cold" but "Cool" stays cool because it is the perfect word to define an elusive set of traits. People who are cool are effortless at what they do. If you try to be cool you are not cool, as any hipster or high school teacher will find out. Cool means being perfectly comfortable in your own skin, not easily affected or swayed by the opinions of others, not faddish but eternally in style, poised, self aware, and yet not taking yourself too seriously. It is effortless and unashamed, mysterious and yet accessible, different, sometimes strange, but not to the point of being bizarre or uncomfortably weird. Cool is outside the mainstream, but not too far out.
Shakespeare even described a character as cool, but the modern use came into being in the 1930's in African American culture and specifically the jazz music scene. Black musicians, like Duke Ellington, were the first cool people. In the Forties it migrated into the Beat culture, and into literature like Jack Kerouac's characters in On the Road. Film Noir had a lot of cool actors, from Bogey and Bacall to Alan Ladd and Robert Mitchum. Rock and Roll had loads of cool in the Fifties. Elvis was an example of someone who started out cool but had a hard time keeping it when fame overwhelmed him. John Lennon was the cool Beatle, Jimi Hendrix was definitely cool. (Disco was not cool. It just wasn't. It was fun, but not cool).
There's nothing wrong with not being cool. Some people are too brimming with emotion and passion to be actually cool, which usually requires a certain contained reserve. Janis Joplin was not cool but she was definitely a red hot ball of messy energy. Even I know I'm not cool. I just admire cool. So in that vein, after all that build up, here are my top five cool people of this year. May they always keep the faith.
#1 Prince
Prince was like a magic unicorn who existed in his own realm. (And I hate referring to him in the past tense.) With his passing everyone had a Prince story, from the pancakes and basketball, to killer ping pong matches, to acts of overwhelming generosity. He was the person who wandered into someone's concert, blew everyone away with a guitar solo, then just wandered off again into the ether. The opposite of every overexposed pop star, he was only occasionally sighted then retreated again to write another thousand songs. There was just something preternaturally calm and poised about the guy, even when an amused smirk played on his lips. Even performing in a downpour at the Superbowl it seemed as if the rain was deliberately avoiding him so as not to mess up his hair and outfit. Sure, some of his persona was smoke and mirrors, but there was also that core of authenticity, not to mention undeniable talent, that kept him so endlessly fascinating.
David Bowie:
Bowie is like the white version of Prince, that same quirky uniqueness, that same somewhat remote persona, and buckets of talent. If anything, Bowie was more detached than Prince, hiding behind a series of created characters that kept him always interesting, always evolving. He could blend into the pop culture scene, as he did in the Eighties, or remain on its' fringes, often being frustratingly obscure. In an age where everyone overshares on the internet, and gives away part of themselves and their private lives to strangers in an attempt to be "liked, the truly cool ones, like Prince and Bowie, keep that core of themselves away from the public eye.
Helen Mirren:
Helen Mirren makes being an older woman sexy, fun, stylish, and sassy. She continues to act in parts well outside the range offered for a woman in her Sixties. (Assassins! Queens!) And as a woman in my Sixties, I look to her as a role model. She is unadulterated in her appearance, showing her wrinkles, her generous nose, her small curvaceous body, without feeling the need for plastic surgery or photoshopping. She's blunt, smart, and funny, cool in a warm, feminine way.
President Barack Obama:
Even if you don't like Barack Obama, he is that rarest of animals, the cool politician. You only have to view the current selection of candidates to observe what is NOT cool. The closest any of them come to cool is Bernie Sanders, just because he's got the whole crumpled clothes, crazy hair, traveling coach thing down. But he tends to be a bit too stern and humourless for real cool. Obama has the dry wit, the unruffled exterior, and the subtle snark (a shade throwing President!) that cause many to view him as distant and detached, when in fact he is caring and personable. Cool people, again, don't wear their hearts on their sleeves, and they don't let their emotions get in the way of being calm, decisive, and rational. Probably the last cool President we had was John F. Kennedy. Jimmy Carter was not a cool President but now he is a cool ex-President, quietly fighting cancer, building homes for needy people, and showing the world what a real Christian is supposed to be. Sometimes coolness has the warmest of hearts. ( I will also argue that Jesus was cool but that's a longer discussion)
Emma Watson:
It's rare for someone this young to be cool, as they are usually struggling to find their identity and voice, and worrying about image, popularity, and being loved, but little Hermione has grown up to be an elegant young woman, a U.N. ambassador, and an eloquent spokesperson for the rights of girls and women everywhere. She is a voice for modern Feminism and has stepped into that role fearlessly and calmly. I would also place Malala Yousafsai in this category.
I first became interested in Cool back in the Eighties when I bought this little book. It's still available on Amazon, as is its sequel. It won't tell you who is cool now but it certainly discusses who was cool then. And if you know some cool people let me know. because that would be cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Catalog-Cool-Gene-Sculatti/dp/0446375152/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461872366&sr=1-1&keywords=the+catalog+of+cool
And if you want the lengthier explanation of Cool there is this article:
http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/how-did-cool-become-such-big-deal-0
