Tonight was the screening of Babel (imdb | rotten tomatoes) to which I won a free pass last week. It was, like the last Iñárritu film we saw — 21 Grams — intricate, even delicate in how it displayed human frailty and trauma. It was compelling and well told; we didn’t really notice that it was 2.5 hours long.
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Sadly, the same can’t be said for a film I watched earlier in the week. Slacker (imdb | rotten tomatoes) may be a cultural document, but it feels badly dated fifteen years on. I actually stopped it 1/3 of the way through; it was alternately getting on my nerves and boring me. I wish I’d watched it in 1991, but I truly had no idea anything like that was happening in the world in 1991. I was in cultural Siberia.
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I downloaded two new albums from eMusic: Dust Bowl Revival by Ox and Quiet Waters by Woolly Leaves. Both are alt-country/folk style, and quite mellow. Ox is a band my brother turned me on to, and they do some mean Woody Guthrie covers; Woolly Leaves are the band of a member of The Constantines.
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After giving it an honest-to-goodness try to see what all the fuss was about, I deleted my MySpace account this morning. I found it both a popularity contest (which I want no part of) and an entry-level blogging tool (which I have no use for). On top of that, it looks like it was designed by a drunk guy in 1998. MySpace is the AOL of our decade; it’ll be dead (or massively repurposed) soon enough. Good riddance.
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What would Alex P. Keaton say about stem cell research? Forget that; what would Jennifer do? Or Nick? Or Andy? Or — God help us — Skippy? By the way, whatever olympic-class fuckwit asked Michael J. Fox that question should be sterilized. No sense keeping those genes in the mix.
[tags]babel, inarritu, slacker, ox dust bowl revival, woolly leaves quiet waters, constantines, myspace sucks, alex p keaton, michael j fox[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
You’re wrong about MySpace. It will continue to thrive. I think the fact that it’s thriving despite its brutally clunky and ugly interface says something about its attraction.
Don’t underestimate the popularity-contest aspect: what could be more appealing to 14-year-old emo kids? I don’t think teenagers will get bored of it anytime soon. But this isn’t anything that people like you and me (i.e., “old”) care about.
And the band aspect – which is why I’m there – is significant. I’ve found lots of new music that sounds quite good. And I’m getting bulletins from the more popular bands about tours and contests and things that I wouldn’t get any other way.
But I think the popularity contest is moving elsewhere. Facebook’s already a popular alternative and people are migrating there (and to other sites) to escape MySpace’s hideous layouts and pervy stalkers.
I’d be surprised. I’ve been on Facebook for a while; they are growing, but I think they’re insufficiently customisable (graphics and music) for most of the spotty-faced teens.
But it’s probably wise to bet any money on predicting any ‘net trend. Technology + kids = who the hell knows?