film phlegm

There’s no doubt I am officially done with Web 2.0. However, every time I think I’m done, a new, fun, and amazing site appears out of nowhere…so below is my attempt to categorize my current favorite Web 2.0 sites (with links to my profiles in case you feel so compelled to follow/add/fan/stalk me). I will update this list periodically as I get tired of certain sites and ejaculate over others.

Web 2.0 List (Version 1.0)

1. Facebook (Profile) - Still the champion of Web 2.0 sites, Facebook is using its strength in sheer size, breadth, and numbers to allow other Web 2.0 sites to plug in, which is a compelling proposition since people are sick and tired of having profiles on a bajillion sites and having to log into each to burn inordinate amounts of valuable time doing nothing. Luckily, all the sites I mention below have Facebook applications which allow me to, if not update, then at least view activity on them in one single place. Facebook is also the first Web 2.0 site on which a good majority of my friends, even the technophobes from the middle of Kansas, reside.
2. Twitter (Feed) - The most brilliant and simple concept to hit Web 2.0 since this whole disgusting phenomenon started. It’s essentially a personal RSS feed of my status/random thought/rant at any point in time, easily updatable from a cell phone. Considered by those in the industry a “microblog”, Twitter boasts an update field that is limited to only 140 characters, so you literally can’t write more than 15 words. I think it’s badass…and it plugs directly into my Facebook status message which is ideal.  UPDATE: I use Twitter so much now, I’m sure it’s annoying the crap out of my Facebook friends…so I pulled it from Facebook.
3. GoodReads (Profile) - This site is allowing me to give away all my real books when I’m done reading them. I used to have a sentimental attachment to them, but what I realized is that attachment was purely a display of egotism and self-worth to others. When friends visited my apartment, I wanted them to physically see what I had read and I wanted to be proud of my literary accomplishments. Well, isn’t that what Web 2.0 is about anyway? Everyone claims to keep their books so they can reread them. I call bullshit, asshole. You keep them so you can feel smart around people you’re trying to impress. With GoodReads, I can just point my friends to my profile and they can see how fucking smart I am. It’s also a good place for reviewing the books you’ve read, connecting with your friends and getting their recommendations and providing them with your own. The UI isn’t great, but it’s still the best book review site out there.
4. Yelp (Profile) - Ugh yes I opened a new account with Yelp after deleting my first one. Ugh it’s sucking up my life again. And no, I have not become more reserved the second time around. I’m just as obnoxious and incoherent as I always was. There are many levels on which Yelp succeeds. Unfortunately, as a local review site, which is its primary purpose, it’s not as successful. However, Yelp is a big reason why I’m in this Web 2.0 space and why I’m somewhat enjoying it (I think). It does a great job of providing a local San Francisco venue where I can converse with like-minded intellectuals. I’ve managed to make some amazingly close friends over the past two years and I thank Yelp for that. Unfortunately, it’s been matched by an equal amount of time-sucking frustration. My reviews have become far more useful, and I am enjoying conversing with my closer friends the second time around. If you want to see my frustrations with Yelp, check out my review of it.
5. Tumblr (Blog) - It’s blogging at its simplest. No frills, no crap. It’s a step above the microblogging that is Twitter, but it’s not the rich blogging that you see on Blogger or TypePad. Personally, when I want to jot down a few thoughts and get all philosophical, this is where I like to do it. It’s good for the casual blogger like me. And as we’ve seen in Web 2.0 over and over again, it’s “the simpler, the better” that succeeds.
6. Spout (Filmblog) - Honestly, the UI is total crap. You can tell this site was not created in Silicon Valley. It would drown. Some asshole could come up with a better site from their living room on a weekend (like Pierre Omidyar did with eBay back in 1995). In fact, this site even looks as janky as eBay. But that said, there is NO GOOD WEB 2.0 site for film reviews (one that’s completely user-generated content I mean). So Spout is the best thing we’ve got and I don’t mind it. The conversation threads are fun and interesting. Get that many film buffs in a room and it’s bound to. As a Spout Maven, I’m a part of this elite crew of film buffs that gets a FREE MOVIE every month on DVD which I need to review on the site. They’re lesser known films by smaller, independent production companies which makes it even more fun. For that reason alone, they get a huge thumbs up. I think it’s a brilliant idea.

Under discussion:

American Teen  (2008)

Have you ever been catapulted head first into a brick wall at 150 mph? Now imagine that brick wall was high school, and imagine that catapult was American Teen.

Last night, I was instantly transported back 13 years to my high school days. The nervous tick came back. The pain pulled from the very depths of my innermost, repressed soul came shooting to the surface. I was reminded of my own high school experiences, the same experiences that molded me, the tough love I received from my peers, and the thick skin I developed as a result. But I was also reminded of how unhealthy an environment adolescence can be in the US for those living it.

Nanette Burstein documented the lives of Warsaw, Indiana high school students, immaculately picking out what almost seemed like caricatures of the different types of students we all knew in high school. We follow four main students: the jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl, and the band geek. We become intimately involved in all aspects their high school lives; the pressures they face from their peers, their parents, and their futures. However, these students weren’t caricatures, they were real, dealing with the reality that has become the disgusting state of American teen culture taken from American pop culture and exploited in the worst manner ever in our public schools.

What this film made very clear, is that the state of parenting, of education, of adolescence, of human values is so amazingly warped, that American families have completely lost touch with reality. The things that matter most are the things that should matter least and vice versa. We’ve led such sheltered lives that we forgot what it means to be human, and American Teen documents this reality very well.

I realized that high school was no longer about getting a scholastic education, rather high school has taken on a far larger role of parenting - forcing our kids into the harshest of environments into a sort of “baptism by fire”. Parents have forgotten how to raise kids, and teachers have forgotten how to teach them. The best education a kid is getting in high school is from other kids.

I could pontificate on the deplorable state of American families and American education, but all you need to do is watch this film to realize how scary a state it’s in.

That said, Nanette Burstein did a fantastic job of filming American Teen. There were warmer moments throughout the film, but the dark undercurrent of each of these moments was never swept under the rug, and lingered uncomfortably among the viewers. I feel like this film is like taking medicine, it’s something you hate to do, but you know you have to…if for no other reason than to educate and remind yourself what it means to be young, to be human, to be a parent, and to influence the fragile and vulnerable lives of those around you.

Under discussion:

Solitary Fragments  (2007)

To call this film brilliant would be an understatement.

Few films come out nowadays which attempt to breach the boundaries of the status quo and explore the idea of radical, new filmmaking.

Solitary Fragments is one of those films.  And it inspires on so many levels.  It is a film which excels in subtlety and uses this subtlety to evoke strong, deep emotion out of its viewers.

The plot follows two parallel storylines which share nothing more than a relationship between three characters that live together.  The first storyline is that of a woman, Adela, who leaves her small town life to forget her past and to forge a new future in Madrid with her one-year old son.  The second is that of Ines and her family and the strong, but tense relationship they all share.  Tragedy strikes twice through out the film, once on each storyline, and the characters are forced to pick up the pieces in order to move on with their lives.

The film is a feat in storytelling.  It prides itself on the ability to set aside acting in favor of true emotion and real dialogue using silence, awkwardness, joy, sadness.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a film where I felt like I was sitting in the living room with the characters and sharing their emotions as if I were talking to them directly.  Solitary Fragments accomplishes this better than any film I've seen.

And the basic storytelling is only a small part of it.  It's hard to ignore the many technical innovations the director and editor chose to employ to tell the story further.  The use of multiple cameras to film a single scene and to cut them together simultaneously and splitting the screen was really incredible.  I've never seen anything like it.  There wasn't a single moment of music.  Silence was the film's score.  Finally, there wasn't a single tracking shot or pan throughout the entire film.  The cameras were always stationary (with the exception of the POV shots from within the vehicles, where the vehicles moved, but the camera was still stationary).  Every shot was filmed from a stationary camera and the characters moved in and out of the frame.  I've never seen anything like it before.

It's a film I can only watch once for a myriad of reasons.  But it only takes one viewing to fully appreciate the enormity of such a film.