Off Center

Americana
Originally uploaded by aqui-ali.

I feel torn between the outright bizarre and the underground outlandish, but not too often.

I mostly appreciate things left of center, but only slightly, or least only slightly in an immediate manner.

You know, those surprising individuals who display a certain degree of quirkiness and eccentricity, but only after we've been exposed to their personality over some time. Over-the-top craziness almost always bores me, particularly when it seems to be contrived and pretentious, as if some mediocre plea for attention based on perceived notion that the more outlandish the better.

Give me the closet poet weirdo who wears a suit, the philosophy-wielding neighbour that works as an accountant, the sex-addict madam under the veneer of someone prim and proper, and oooh-so responsible.

That's the real fun, the true eccentric, the verdadeiro freaking mind twisting conundrum, slowly revealed to us, causing astonishment and respect, wonder and a slight tinge of bewilderment.

Stimulation by stealth, I like to call it...