After you graduate high school and get a couple real world years under your belt, you start to realize that being "cool" is an elusive concept that probably has more to do with your personal demeanor than what bands you listen to, what books you read, and what you wear. I love Atlanta, but there is total Cool Kid syndrome here. This surely isn't specific to this city, or to punk rock culture, but this IS specifically what this blog will be about. A few months ago, I was talking to one of my girlfriends about Lady Gaga at a bar in East Atlanta. The dude she was dating at the time was pretty offended that this conversation was even taking place. You know, because Lady Gaga (insert any pop artist here) is contrived, not nuanced, requires no critical thinking, and perpetuates the aspects of "mainstream" society that many sub cultures reject. We were talking about women in music and the guy started telling me that if I wanted to support female artists, I should...