Howard Ho Click Here for more articles by Howard Ho hho@media.ucla.edu

I sat watching others play this game at a friend's house, smoothly doing car spin moves and taking shortcuts. When my turn came, I confidently relied on my Megaman, Mario and Tetris skills to navigate the terrain. After crashing into everything and missing the destination points, it became clear that this was not the Nintendo I grew up with.

Indeed, I started to get bored with the games, which involve too much visual stimuli and pointless victories. I left my friend's place to look for a more natural, quiet and reflective environment, where I could think instead of just react, and where I could do real things, instead of virtual ones. Then, it dawned on me, I'm getting old.

I know I'm only 21 and my whole life is ahead of me, but in terms of my ideas of fun, I've become a grouch who shuns city life in favor of a retirement-like existence of writing poetry and listening to classical music.

When you were a wee little thing, you dreamed of getting older and being able to have power and control over your life. Parents were foes you wanted to topple. Getting older was a blessing since it meant that you no longer had to hear, "You're too young to understand."

But now, getting old means losing contact with youth culture, hip trends and the cool. Responsibilities are creeping up and understanding is strangling the punk or slacker within you. Maturity means perceiving the sober reality of life, not just a hyped-up kiddie fantasy. Eventually, you'll watch a movie based on its politics, cinematography or director rather than which star is in it or whether it has explosions and sex (well, maybe there will always be a place in your heart for explosions and sex).

Music will be chosen based on experimental or artistic qualities instead of an unquestioning reliance on TRL's musical taste. Scary, huh?

It doesn't have to be this way. Old people have a bias when they assume all this youth stuff is inferior in quality or lacks complexity.

Rap is seen by many as lacking emotional complexity and artistic merit while academia still fails to explain why its complex rhythms (yes, they are complex) and postmodern-collage sound captures the imagination and body gyrations of millions. What classical music has in stone-etched complexity, rap, jazz and rock has in improvisational experimental virtuosity.

I'm not suggesting you get rid of all the taste and sophistication you've developed here at UCLA or otherwise. I don't want people wholly rejecting the classical arts just because it's not the flavor of the month.

I do, however, believe the chic trends provide cultural vitality you should partake in. When you unveil the mask, you'll find you can identify with parts of it and, as bad as some of it is, there is always a redeeming value.

For example, "Shrek" is a kiddie movie, with its fairy tale niceties, even though it ventures into adult territory with criticisms of Disney and an overall message of self-acceptance. Lots of rap songs sample old, forgotten music and put them back on the map for a new generation.

Though the adult art world is about purity, the youth counterpart is about promiscuity, marrying together completely unrelated things to create a chimera.

Don't scream when the latest "Hamlet" film excises much of Shakespeare's work.

Don't fret when the latest Oxford dictionaries start including slang.

Don't worry if supposed rock music starts incorporating turntable scratching or funky beats.

What you are witnessing is the beating of culture's arteries through the vast, infinite possibilities of fusion. If, however, you do make a peep about the loss of artistic purity, don't be surprised to find some teenybopper give you the evil eye.