I’ve received some nice gifts from my colleagues this holiday season, but my favorite was a Bratz doll from two 20something girls in the office:

Their note--"Merry Christmas, Office Pimp!!!  Love, the Hoes"--is in reference to the fact that one of the girls, who is new to the company, apparently saw me talking to women and only women.  The fact is, I talk to many genders.  Well, at least two of them. But she told her boss, who is a good friend of mine, that she considered me to be the Office Pimp.  When I heard this, I sent her an email regarding some other subject and replaced my job title with “Office Pimp” in my email signature.  And so a nickname was born.

She and an ally of hers subsequently joined forces to bequeath me with Yasmin, a highly fashionable Bratz doll.  I wrote a carefully considered thank-you note to the both of them:

“Thanks for helping me find my new best friend.  We had a great time over the weekend putting glitter on ourselves and shopping.  And it’s great having someone else just like myself who understands the need for ‘High-Fashion STYLE!’ As office pimp, of course, she is available for general use.  Please contact me for rates (special seasonal discounts now in effect).”

Now that all the banter has died down, though, I’m wondering if this is really all just a joke. After all, the economy isn’t doing so well and we all need to be considering ancillary revenue streams.  10% of the gross doesn’t seem like such a bad deal to me--and besides, I think I’d really rock a leopard skin hat.

In my day, we went to a music show and we listened to the music.  Okay, sure, you could often see flashbulbs popping around the club or stadium as people attempted to capture a visual souvenir.  But it’s become completely out of control these days with people’s digital cameras and blackberries, clicking away during the show at all times as they try to snag an image or a video clip.  I’ve seen people practically watch the show through the lens of their mobile devices, recording away instead of losing themselves to the music.

Why do they do this? Is it so necessary that your YouTube page get tons of hits?  Are you bragging to your friends that you’re at a show, when they, in fact, probably had something better to do--like see a band and actually listen to the music? 

Don’t you understand that the few weeks have been terrible, like a brick bat slamming against the back of your head?  And that next week could very well be like a wheelbarrow of granite rocks being dumped on your face? And that this is potentially your only chance to escape it all as LoveFoxx, lead singer of Brazilian indie dance outfit CSS, launches into an awesome version of “Let’s Make Love (And Listen to Death From Above)”?  And that you really need to detach yourselves from your material objects and dance? And that if you don’t, there’s a very good chance that I’m going to punch you in the back of the head?

And that I’m not just saying all this because I failed to catch a single good shot of LoveFoxx?