Friends display identities
through Web community
By Helen Schumacher
Pulse Columnist
It all starts innocently enough.
An e-mail sent by an acquaintance
that reads: "Invitation to Join
Friendster." But it is only a week or
two before that innocuous-sound
ing subject line has you hooked on
the best fad to come out of the Inter
net since the pairing of the colon
and end parenthesis. As Spin maga
zine recently put it, "Friendster is
more addictive than crack."
For those of you who have been liv
ing in a black hole the past few
months, Friendster is a Web site. Its
home page describes it as "an online
community that connects people
through networks of friends for dat
ing or making new friends. Create
your own personal and private com
munity, where you can interact with
people who are connected to you
through networks of mutual friends."
Yes, I realize it sounds like a cheesy
dating service, and I suppose it could be
if that's what you're looking for. But for
most people, Friendster is part message
board, part popularity contest. It's like
fantasy football, except it's for hipsters.
To join, you are either invited by a friend
or sign yourself up. Then you fill out a
profile, consisting of your age, location,
occupation, interests, favorite books,
movies, music, whether you're interest
ed in meeting people for dating, look
ing for activity partners or "just here to
help." Then, you begin collecting
friends and writing testimonials.
When 1 joined last July 1 had no idea
what to make of the whole thing. At
first it felt like I was part of some secret
cult. Then, 1 discovered that half of the
people I knew were already members.
Helen Schumacher
Notes from the underground
They all had the witty profiles filled
with obscure rock references, self-dep
recating humor and listings of "Donnie
Darko" as their favorite movie.
Oh, the hours 1 spent perfecting my
profile. 1 labored over every word, ask
ing myself "Does my liking Joy Divi
sion make me more attractive?" and
"Will people think I'm a hippie if 1 say
that 'On the Road' is my favorite
book?" A big part of Friendster is prov
ing, through the profile or testimonials,
just how clever you are to everyone else.
Every time I got on the Internet I
was tempted to check my account. My
heart would leap every time I got an
e-mail announcing that my friend re
quest had been accepted or that 1 had
a new testimonial to approve.
Even though I haven't met anyone
new because of Friendster, I have been
able to view my old friends in a differ
ent light. 1 now know that some of
them are really bad spellers, and that
I'm not alone in my love of die movie
"Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai."
In the beginning, I thought Friend
ster was the kind of thing that couldn't
be talked about in public places — that
it was only meant to be discussed in
hushed tones with no one around.
However, the addiction soon got the
best of everyone, and by September 1
couldn't get through a conversation
without someone bringing it up.
The power of Friendster became so
great that a whole new way of commu
nication between us developed. As peo
ple scrambled to outdo each other, a
hybrid language, based on who could
use the least vowels and who would be
the first to quote OutKast, was created.
The buzz surrounding Friendster has
died down since the school year began.
I'm already friendsters with most peo
ple 1 know, and I've run out of ways to
tell them, in testimonial form, how
great I think they are. I Iowever, I still
check my account almost daily, just in
case there's a party I need to know
about, to see if someone new joined
and, also, because despite its shallow
exterior, I <3 Friendster.
Contact the Pulse columnist
at helenschumacher@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
Visual brilliance of‘Dark City’
underlines quest for humanity
Filmmaker Alex Proyas
creates a masterpiece that
is being hailed as one of the
best films of the 1990s
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
Of all the dark, disturbed visions of
urban decay, Alex Proyas' "Dark City"
has to stand as one of the greatest. With
its sad, mys
FORGOTTEN
FILMS
t e r 1 o u s
streets and
rotting
structures, it
could stand
as a monu
ment to art direction for its twisted dis
tillation of German expressionism and
every crime film of the 1950s. Much
like "Blade Runner," "Dark City" cre
ates an entire world out of abandon
ment and decay — an urban society
ruled by fear and distrust.
When the film came out in 1998, it
got some critical acclaim but was
passed over by audiences and quickly
forgotten. It has since gained some
popularity on video and DVD, and a
few critics, notably Chicago Sun
Times critic Roger Ebert, have called it
one of the best films of the 1990s.
The film could certainly defend
that title. The story concerns John
Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes
up one night in a bathtub with no
memory of his past. Me also finds he
is suspected of multiple murders
and is being hunted down by police.
After numerous close calls, he ends
up wandering the streets.
All of this is merely a pretext to
the film's true plot, which concerns
a grand experiment being performed
on the denizens of the city by a race
called The Strangers. They control
the city — move buildings, change
the memories of the people and re
fine the entire system — while trying
to find what makes humans the way
they are. Images of the black-clad
Strangers wandering the streets are
some of the most memorable in the
film, not to mention one incredible
set of special effects. As Murdoch
comes to realize what is really going
on and who he really is (or is sup
posed to be), the film really takes
off, with the Strangers chasing him
through the city as it reorganizes it
self like a living entity.
This story, while compelling, is al
most buried under the visual appeal
of the film. The movie's tone and in
tensity are set entirely by the visual
style, with the acting serving only as
a functional piece of the whole. This
style is so ingrained into the film
that it's often easy to miss some of
things the director does.
For instance, notice how there are
very few tracking shots. Instead, the
camera stays in place for a moment,
then cuts to a new angle of the same
image, moving forward in a subtle
but awkward fashion, like pieces of
a puzzle being put together but nev
er quite fitting. That this style plays
into the themes of the film is a won
derfully sly example of technical and
artistic ability being combined.
The film also works as a combina
tion of styles, mixing dark visions of
Turn to DARK, page 12
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