the poison of parachute pants

When being interviewed recently (for a blog no less), actor -and rock star, apparently- Jared Leto reacted to a question about promoting his new album and whether he'd be blogging while touring in a very strong way. I'll quote direct:

JARED: No, I think that blogging should die a sudden death.

G4: Why?

JARED: It's just ridiculous. It's like a playground for four-year-olds. People say and do things in the world of blogs that they would never do in real life, and I think it's a false experience. You know, it's, like, eating too much candy.

First of all, I love the imagery that he has managed to cram into those few sentences. It seems like such a hysterical honest reaction that I'm not questioning in anyway that this is a literal transcript. I am also very tempted to start up a celeb hot goss blog called Too Much Candy. Please start emailling me any paparazzi shots of Jared Leto picking boogers out of his nose you have taken sneakily on your cellphone. Apparently I won't have to worry about the man himself logging on...

G4: So you don't read alot of the celebrity gossip blogs, I take it?

JARED: Well, you know, one of the things along those lines that bothers me about when people start citing blogs as news sources is that when people are writing on these blogs, they feel like they don't feel they need to do any research or back up their opinions with facts or anything, you know what I mean?

G4: Why is there this inherent lack of responsibility when it comes to blogging as journalism?

JARED: I couldn't tell you. Times have changed. It used to be, to be a writer you had to have experience and talent, and learn a craft. Now anybody with an opinion, which is anyone and everyone, feels that it's worthy. Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill. So there will be some interesting developments from that, and also some things that are pretty worthless. Pretty soon anybody with a cell phone is going to be able to be a news reporter. The blog is yesterday's parachute pants. It's here now but it's gone tomorrow.

I considered going on a rant about how you couldn't really moniter standards of research and capability to any greater extent when the world of journalism was limited to print, and that internet access means that people can do background checks of their own if they bother to take two googling seconds.
That this line here "Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill" vexes me on several levels because he seems to be seeing this as such a negative thing and i disagree that 'skill' was the barrier previously.
That he does have a point about the world's obsession with celebrity growing in the last few decades in parallel to technology such as the internet, but the world of entertainment he chooses to work in being dependant on that.
That a complete rejection of that aspect of technology is not really the best way to deal with times that are moving so quickly, sunshine.

But then, blogger that I am, four-year-old in the playground, did a wee bit of research myself. It seems that Jared Leto's comment "The blog is yesterday's parachute pants" (yes, my absolute favourite- GOLD!) would be based on him having a very good understanding of what they look like. He was in attendance for Marc Jacob's show for NY Fashion Week, which according to the Go Fug Yourself girls (there in person reporting for New York Magazine ), which featured strolling down the runway "billowing genie pants" and the designer himself in a pair of "what looked like capris crossed with Hammer pants".

See here for their report on the show (complete with a pic of eyelinered-to-the-max Leto and accounts his pre-show antics)
And here for thumbnails/more of the clothes on the runway (some of the not-pants look gorgeous!! I love the necklines & the asymmeterical ruffles)

I think I'll let La Leto have the final word on this however - here's more from the interview [source]

G4: What does the title [of his band's upcoming album], A Beautiful Lie, refer to?

JARED: That's the contradiction of life, basically, the contradictions of humanity...of what it is to be human.

G4: In terms of?

JARED: Every rose has his thorn.