The Scene and Herd

I’ve been getting old recently. I know I have because I watched Toronto Stories last night and I really enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t good. During the opening credits I actually breathed a sigh of relief. “Canadian Cinema is so refreshing,” I said out loud.

 Now, I don’t remember ever saying or thinking anything of this sort before. Let it be known that there is a safe and permanent place in my heart for Canadian Cinema, but “refreshing” is a not the way I would generally describe it.

When I was in San Diego last week, I heard a song in a frozen yogurt place and really liked it. Johnnie’s little sister told me it was MGMT, a group I vaguely recalled hearing about before. I went home and watched all their videos on youtube, wondering how they’d flown under my radar for so long.

I don’t “get” Miley Cyrus or The Jonas Brothers, and sometimes I don’t understand facebook lingo. But that’s fine because these are boring cultural phenomenon. I’m comfortable being disconnected from pop culture so long as it’s stupid. What struck me about Johnnie’s fifteen-year-old sister having to tell me about MGMT, was that the song was pretty good.

For a while now, there has existed a culturally forceful demographic that is at least ten years behind me. Up until now, that demographic has been made up of children: half-people with no taste. Now that I’m 26, the group I don’t “get” is made up of sixteen year-olds, kids that are starting to form half-decent opinions. They’re making good music popular without my permission. It’s terrifying.

I think I’m suddenly finding Canadian Cinema so refreshing because I feel in on it. I’m almost offended by how much I enjoyed Toronto Stories, but I recognized the place and I recognized a lot of the people. I rarely feel this way about popular music anymore, even if it’s good. I like electric feel, but the video is just a bunch of kids messing around doing who knows what.

It’s not as fun to pay attention to music anymore, because the realm of pop culture is shifting further and further away from me. Today, sixteen years-olds are ten years younger than me. But there will come a day when I am separated from mainstream culture by thirty years. I don’t wish to completely detach myself from pop culture, so hopefully by then someone will be making movies about Toronto that are actually good.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtUI5MC9tVM]