I've been meaning to post something about this year's Oscars being symbolic in two ways regarding Generation X.
The first is what I see as a parallel between The King's Speech winning best picture over The Social Network and Driving Miss Daisy winning the Oscar over Do The Right Thing in 1990. Both winners were about the past. Both losers were about significant events happening in the present. And I believe both are symbolic of the changing of the guard.
More significant to me was the casting of hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway. It's not that they are not talented or smart. It's that the Oscar gig takes more experience than they have. I don't have to write about how it didn't work - that's been done. It's that it's really hard to replace a seasoned Boomer with a green Millennial. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin had that gig last year. They are Boomer Kings. Think about all the Gen Xers who could have done that gig this year, still pulled a younger demographic, and not bombed.
I'm voting for Xers Drew Barrymore (born 1975) and Robert Downey Jr. (born 1965) - or maybe Matt Damon (born 1970) and Sarah Silverman (born 1970). Who would you pick?
