myspace: 5/31/06

"you should be in my space you should be in my life you should be in my space you should be in my life you could be in my space" -INTERPOL the narc i met abby from viva almost two years ago, she had just arrived to the coachella valley to work on the latino based monthly. she's from LA and doing the job that no local seemed interested on taking on. she's the perfect editor--she has an eye for seeing the things that are new and familiar and bringing them into your home in a colorful bright format. its funny that one night at that 'rock the boat' show on the queen mary i began to approach her as her man began to approach carlos. turns out her carlos and my carlos knew each other. huh? what? she's cool people, and i left the valley happy that someone like her is doing a paper like that. it's needed. after reading the first issue i hit her up, what experience did i have? not much professional writing experience; i have bad grammar, i write in lowercase, i use tons of fragments and i don't care. i communicate in the way i think, i write like how i talk, i make words up and they make sense so i give her much respect for letting me freelance once in a while. i remember i met her over coffee, she said to bring some work...um? i took my A paper that ruben martinez graded from like 1997 and other A works from professors, i don't think she wanted to read my weak interviews from the high school paper that are most likely lost. i also took the MUJER publication that had some journal entries ripped out and were unsigned. haha. she's allowing me to write again, i told her i wanted to pen a piece about this myspace thing. i freewrite, i didn't have a name for it until the mighty chela sandoval (who sergio, kora and i adored and wanted to drop acid with just to get to her level) labeled it. ***** with more than 50 million people on the social networking website myspace you either have an account or know someone that does. the website has quickly become the new obsession for bands trying to promote their music (the original mission of the site), for singles trying to hook up, for people to spy on each other and for teenagers to redeem themselves as worthy by racking up friends and begging people to "pleez comment my pix". welcome to myspace. i admit that i was cautious of the site, and was hesitant after carlos signed up. we wanted to support our friends band, the health club, so we made an account and added them as our first friends. for me, it works out as an instant publication. i write, and i want you to read my words. to say that i have important issue to discuss, i don't, i just type up my thoughts and somehow i get 100 views a week-- what a thrill. oh, did i forget to mention that? myspace is addictive for this reason, people, whether they admit it or not, get a rush from the tally. it's only natural, its an ugly american trait to care about popularity and how much you amass. if you're actually a band you can view how many times your songs have been heard, if you have videos you can see how many times your videos have been seen. myspace counts your friends for you and lets other people know, they chart your profile views to make you feel special and they tally your blog entries so you can somehow know that you are not writing in vain. come on now, those things really matter. i have over 100 friends, out of those 100 i see the health club and oscar on a semi- regular basis. i see my UCSB sokorrista homies about once a month, i see the oakland crew on holidays and special occasions, i see maria everytime i'm in indio, i see belinda whenever she's available and that's about it. i do love that i found old college friends, i get to share stories with a new mami friend, i'm able to keep track of my friends' lives and stay connected at some level. i even added a girl for the sole reason that her profile is the best of anyone's. i reject bands i don't care for, even punk bunny a band i had never heard of but still has like thousands of 'friends' got deleted. i delete people with no regard to feelings, why should i stranger get hurt? this is internet people, not real life. or is it? myspace has become people's realities, like they live for this. there's so many digital cameras everywhere now, people doing the myspace poses, saying 'myspace' instead of 'cheese'. when you hear about teen crimes the first place that the law looks up is myspace to get a sense of who they are and what they blogged. it's everywhere...at coachella this year, a computer lab type of tent was set up. carlos and i walked in and laughed at all the teens on myspace, the next day there was a line to get in-- a line!! our friend, while vacationing in jamaica said she walked into the resort's computer room to see a kid on myspace--in jamaica!! i started my account about 3 days before i found out i was pregnant. so i wrote in it as much as i could, from baby being an embryo, to 6 month old baby. i thought it was fun, i love posting up a pic or two but i also hate that anyone could see her. people that i don't care for, carlos' ex girlfriends, my ex boyfriends, pervs, who knows. so after 114 entries i realize that i'm the only one of my friends that write. so now i'm bored, i wanted to read more than glittery graphics and reading comments that say 'stopping by to show some love'. i ask around 'why don't you write' apparantly people don't have time for that. umm, but you have like 30 pictures up and moving graphics and videos and you can't write? oh well, it's the eternal yearbook with weak generic entries "...blah blah have a nice summer, have a great new year, keep in touch, don't ever change" but the end of the school year never comes. whatever reason it's used for it seems like it's here to stay. so go show me some love www.myspace.com/xulitron oh and go comment my pics while you're there.