fotD 27

Cool picture. Depressing story.

fotD 26

I don't care if they've become cliches. Hiking canyons like this is very high on my travel list.

Not in Chicago? That's right, bitches!

I'm not sure how Detroit got included in that very short list of cities showing Medicine for Melancholy, but I'm sure glad it did. Unfortunately, when we saw it at the remarkable Detroit Film Theater (want a beer and a brownie before the movie in a beautiful setting? no prob) there was an issue with the whole digital vs. 35mm format thing so the colors and crispness were pretty much nonexistent. But, for our troubles, the theater manager not only let us know up front, but handed out free passes as everyone left. A class act, one of Detroit's finest. M4M will be playing there three more days, Feb. 20-22. You should go. If you can't, the website says it's available now on IFC in Theaters or on DVD this spring.

Bike-friendly fixie tour of San Francisco! Indie soundtrack!

It only sucks if you're the co-optee

Even my dental hygienist, a nice lady but not what you'd ever call 'cool,' is on Facebook. Time (about as cool as my hygienist) jots down ten reasons why X-ers are shoving the cool kids away from their social networking table and taking over; flab, mom support groups, twenty-year-old cassette tapes, and all.

There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

What's interesting to watch as our culture really sharpens its Peter Pan chops is how the irrelevant and uncool (read: anyone over 30 with a boring job) are now not passively being left behind as each younger generation adopts and casts off their fads. We're actually wresting those fads away from the younger set, practically forcing them on to redefine cool away from us and (in Facebook's case at least) helping the thing to gain marketabilitty even as it loses bleeding-edge coolness. I can't think of any examples of this happening before, can you?

Michigan Central Station - 1987