Phase Two, Day 2: Save the Emo Kids

Is it just me, or are there fewer emo kids around these days? The herds used to be plentiful in malls, by the Hot Topics, under spreading trees. I even used to see one or two in my ballet classes. Xanga was full of terrible poetry involving the rhyme of "splinter" and "winter," and words like "shatter," "ink," and "bitterness." Now I can't remember the last time I saw one. And I miss them, you know? The way they made Perks of Being a Wallflower the new teen Bible, the way they fully mined the potential in the combination of black and red, or black and pink, those sad little panda eyes looking up at you.

Hipsters, now, we have aplenty. There's one at my job at the law office, wearing faded chucks in the elevator until he needs to put on work shoes. Dark-rimmed glasses are the new dark-rimmed eyes. And I enjoy the hipster kids as much as the next person, but I have to wonder whether they are the wisteria and ivy to emo's sapling elms. We can't let "offbeat quirkiness" become our only odd side group. We need to take whatever steps we can to preserve emo kids for the next generation.

Here's where video comes in. I am interested in making a video to heighten awareness of the plummeting emo kid population, remind people that emo kids are the most woefully adorable thing since Eeyore, and encourage them to support an emo kid today. The plan is to recruit some minions to stand in for the emo kids, since we don't want to disturb the few still out in the wild. I can use 30 seconds of "Use Somebody" for the soundtrack, and try and get some filming done in a bookstore or music store, and maybe some in the mall, the original habitat before other groups began to edge emo kids out.

I hope to bring some initial footage to class to work with, so we will see what I've got. The minions and I don't have a whole lot of time to shoot together, but there's got to be something we can do before the last of the Black Hoodies disappear.