um, it's like being overly emotional, but involving music...and sometimes eyeliner. i guess.

Thanks to a t-shirt I was wearing touting the line "Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems," I found myself in the unenviable position last weekend of trying to explain to my father-in-law what "emo" means. Turns out that the word emo, much like existentialism, free verse poetry, satire and obscenity, is a word that I have a nearly impossible time defining without resorting to examples. So naturally I chuckled a bit when, while still pajama-clad, homebound and reading PopCandy at 10:30 am (spring break!), I found a link to this flipbook, containing excerpts from a book due to come out later this month titled Everybody Hurts: A Essential Guide to Emo Culture. Not only does it explain the word but it also describes all sorts of varieties of emo culture, ranging from the traditional "indie emo" to other manifestations such as the "alt-country emo" and the "christian emo."

So Tom, in case you're truly interested in what emo is (and I suspect you're not), you can check out the link for a much more comprehensive definition than the lame one I gave you.