Child Culture Guide for Adults: the Generational Gap
In week six of the Out of Reach for Adults’ Guide (“OoTag” for kids at the classy dinner table), I draw attention to the generation gap. In the olden days, annoying hippies reflexively destroyed their parents’ values and cultures, without thinking about whether what they rejected was good or bad.
But today the children are all right. Youth pop culture is a refreshing mix of the new and time-tested, with the post-everything generation picking up acceptable aspects of their parents and grandparents’ environment (gothic fashion and roller skating) and rejecting bullshit (racism and butterflies all over the place).
Viral Video of the Week: DoggFace208 Wins Online, Free Truck
It was a bad year for everyone, young and old , but perhaps the universal evil of 2020 was needed to appreciate the redemptive power of “Morning Vibe,” DoggFace208’s viral video sensation that took over TikTok, then planet Earth.
In the video, Nathan “DoggFace” Apodaka, a factory worker from Idaho, listens to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” while skateboarding and sipping cranberry juice. That’s all, but better than a description.
Apodaka, a 37-year-old dude who commutes to work on his longboard, is the most unexpected online star, and his video is a triumph of three generations in which a dude born in the 1980s uses 1970s music to create a video for kids. 2000s of birth. It’s like America’s promise of less than a minute. Just great.
Anyway, he spawned many imitations, including one from Fleetwood’s Mick, owned by Fleetwood Mac . This pushed Dreams to the top of the streaming charts. And Apodaca even got a new truck and a ton of cash from the deal . It’s almost enough to make me believe that 2021 will be something other than endless suffering.
This Week In Music: Miley Cyrus vs. The Merrell Twins
At the time of this writing, pop royal familyMiley Cyrus’live performance“Heart of Glass” Blondie and YouTube stars, aparody of “The Murrell Twins” on WAP , are competing on the YouTube trending chart. It reminds me of the clash between Herman’s Hermits and The Beatles in 1966, or the time in 1992 when Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” battled Mark and “Wildside” Funky Bunch on the Billboard Top 100.
Cyrus is the Beatles / Nirvana in my script. She’s just destroying Blondie’s iconic new wave anthem. I can’t stress enough: Miley is killing this shit. It must be seen and heard. She takes the icy indifference of Blondie’s original recording and turns it inside out, creating a passionate, ferocious cover version that’s transcendental. How good pop music is … and it’s damn good.
On the other hand, The Merrell Twins “Guac” is an artless exercise in “parody” in which WAP lyrics become an ode to guacamole. This is not a good idea and is being thoughtlessly researched. I know it sounds harsh, but I don’t crush the Merrells. They are young, and only a few children this age have experienced enough personal desperation to be really funny or good at art so that they will feel better. And “Guak” is at least as funny as Weird Al Yankovich, and he turned dumb parodies of pop songs into an empire. (I loved Strange Al when I was a teenager, but damn it, like “Eat This” couldn’t take it .)
This contrast between the two songs is like the quintessence of teenage pop culture – sublime and ludicrous equal pay in the hearts of people who are too inexperienced and stupid to know the difference. The beat, as they say, goes on.
This Week In The Movies: Vampires vs. Bronx
Young horror fans have nothing to celebrate this Halloween. I mean, what’s the plan for the big night, dress up for Zoom? But as a consolation prize, there will be plenty of horror releases on various streaming services such as the excellent horror / comedy film Vampires Against. Bronx . This film reminds me of the skin change of the golden age, the light horror of the 1980s, as brave teenagers confront evil to save the day. However, this time the action does not take place in the suburbs of Spielberg. Instead, the battlefield is the Bronx, and the enemy invades gentrification in the form of a predatory real estate company made up of vampires. Great premise, nice line-up and huge respect for old school horror – four stars.
This Week In Video Games: The Destruction Of The PlayStation 5
I still play video games even though I’m 8000 years old, but I haven’t been thrilled with the console’s release since 1998. I just don’t care. I never think, “If only this Xbox One had better graphics, this game would be more fun.” This part of my brain is busy: “Wait, am I going to die too ?!” But it’s gratifying that the younger generation is still excited by the technical innovations in new hardware, as can be judged by how many people watched this video posted by Sony, in which a friendly Japanese takes apart the PlayStation 5 to show you all the shiny details inside. (It turns out that all these wires and other things made my homemade SteveStation 5 console unable to run Crysis .)
For more gaming fun, check out the many “reaction videos” where adorable nerds get terribly excited about the placement of vents, drive isolation, and expanded storage ports. Ah, be young again …