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I started this project at least in part because of the number of times I read a tweet from one of them and say What? out-loud to my screen. The last six months have, if nothing else, been a crash-course in current pop-culture, or at least, certain parts of it. The following are some general observations, an attempt at synthesis and discussion of things I have learned from annotating their public personas.
1. Film/TV
Ryan is really, really not a film snob. He does tend to be attracted to cult-favorite directors, like Woody Allan, Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, but he's also enjoys things like Big Daddy. His favorite tv show is America's Funnies Home Videos, which, really now, that's nothing but visual comfort food. Brendon will apparently watch anything on tv, but he seems to generally appreciate musicals (Golden age and current) and comedies, with the occasional horror movie thrown in for spice. He also gravitates towards cult-favorite directors, but less so than Ryan. Spencer seems to align with Brendon (and did before the divorce, as well) in the sense that while he's clearly the resident horror movie buff, he also seems to enjoy some truly god-awful movies, I'm assuming for comedy value. (Which I say as a fan of really terrible films, by the way.) Jon has mentioned significantly fewer films than the other three, and what he has mentioned, with a few exceptions (Mall Rats and Office Space) the only word I can think of to describe them is bland.
2. Music
Shortly after the divorce due to "musical differences", I looked at Ryan's and Brendon's lists, and saw that indeed they were like opposing bell curves, Ryan almost entirely focused on music made between 1968 and 1972 with periodic excursions into the present, and Brendon lodged firmly between about 1993 and the present, with excursions into the 1970s. That trend has largely continued. Spencer and Jon both have significantly shorter musical lists, but Spencer does seem to again align with Brendon, though with a more even mix of the 1970s and the present. For a while there it felt like Jon was All Beatles, All The Time, but they've been absent recently. I have noticed his commentary-via-music seems to be more, shall we say, direct than some of the others, but, still: It's Twitter, you can't take it too seriously. That said, his latest Alkaline Trio/Built to Spill run did cause me to frown thoughtfully at the screen.
3. General/Current Events/Internet/Other
Brendon watches a metric fuck-ton of YouTube and other videos. He and Spencer also seem to watch the news with some regularity, whereas Ryan, unsurprisingly, floats along in his own little world. (I wonder sometimes if his life is like being on vacation somewhere and trying to figure out what's going on the world by watching the TV over the bar, which is on mute, or perhaps an endless series of airport channels. You get the general highlights, but no depth.) Jon is largely a series of seasonal nonsequiturs and science and/or historical facts.
1. Film/TV
Ryan is really, really not a film snob. He does tend to be attracted to cult-favorite directors, like Woody Allan, Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton, but he's also enjoys things like Big Daddy. His favorite tv show is America's Funnies Home Videos, which, really now, that's nothing but visual comfort food. Brendon will apparently watch anything on tv, but he seems to generally appreciate musicals (Golden age and current) and comedies, with the occasional horror movie thrown in for spice. He also gravitates towards cult-favorite directors, but less so than Ryan. Spencer seems to align with Brendon (and did before the divorce, as well) in the sense that while he's clearly the resident horror movie buff, he also seems to enjoy some truly god-awful movies, I'm assuming for comedy value. (Which I say as a fan of really terrible films, by the way.) Jon has mentioned significantly fewer films than the other three, and what he has mentioned, with a few exceptions (Mall Rats and Office Space) the only word I can think of to describe them is bland.
2. Music
Shortly after the divorce due to "musical differences", I looked at Ryan's and Brendon's lists, and saw that indeed they were like opposing bell curves, Ryan almost entirely focused on music made between 1968 and 1972 with periodic excursions into the present, and Brendon lodged firmly between about 1993 and the present, with excursions into the 1970s. That trend has largely continued. Spencer and Jon both have significantly shorter musical lists, but Spencer does seem to again align with Brendon, though with a more even mix of the 1970s and the present. For a while there it felt like Jon was All Beatles, All The Time, but they've been absent recently. I have noticed his commentary-via-music seems to be more, shall we say, direct than some of the others, but, still: It's Twitter, you can't take it too seriously. That said, his latest Alkaline Trio/Built to Spill run did cause me to frown thoughtfully at the screen.
3. General/Current Events/Internet/Other
Brendon watches a metric fuck-ton of YouTube and other videos. He and Spencer also seem to watch the news with some regularity, whereas Ryan, unsurprisingly, floats along in his own little world. (I wonder sometimes if his life is like being on vacation somewhere and trying to figure out what's going on the world by watching the TV over the bar, which is on mute, or perhaps an endless series of airport channels. You get the general highlights, but no depth.) Jon is largely a series of seasonal nonsequiturs and science and/or historical facts.
