Back from the dead!
Wow, my last regular post was a long time ago. I’d like to think it’s because I was pursuing some fantastical or profound intellectual endeavor, but mostly it’s a combination of a lack of anything substantial to write or a healthy buildup of self-loathing that squashed any words before they were written. And yet, my history of being gung-ho about certain areas followed by a quick fall-off will not continue with this blog! Sure, I’ve considered a number of things to be my future, like music, screenwriting, suger-mama’ness, but none of those seem to have panned out (unless anyone reading this is an 80 year old oil baroness, in which case, I’m listening), so what the hell, I’m enjoying some sake and it seemed like the right time to resurrect this thing.
Previously, I attempted to devote this blog to either a) somewhat serious academic readings of films and b) tipsy rants. I don’t know how successful I was at either, but I figure that 99% of blogs are useless anyway, I may as well cast my voice into the void, be it social or artistic commentary. After all, what does the internet grant all of us but an endless artistic platform from which to spew our rhetoric? Perhaps this pessimism about opinion emerges from my current curriculum, which is perhaps ironically entitled ‘critical studies’. On the one hand, the word ‘critical’ means ‘important’, but how many people are really concerned with Laura Mulvey’s analysis of classic Hollywood cinema? Will her version of the ‘men like to watch women’ paradigm honestly change any conscious woman’s perspective of the modern world? Are there any women that have not noticed that straight men like to look at them, or that straight male filmmakers would embody these characteristics in the films they make? For being so ‘critical’, so much of this field is a dressing up of common sense. On the other hand, ‘critical’ can mean ‘to give criticism to’, which I am happy to do, but I also realize that my opinion is only one person’s opinion. Granted, I’ve seen more films than most people, but who am I to tell a person what kind of movies he or she should enjoy? I can’t possibly take into account the life experiences of every viewer on the planet, so the best I can do is describe the film as I saw it, and hopefully someone with a similar background to myself can use that opinion to decide if he or she wants to use the finite amount of time on earth we have to enjoy this art. The best thing I can hope for in this whole filmic world is to turn people on to art they may not have experienced otherwise, to provide heretofore unknown experiences, and to make people value the time they have spent either listening or being around me. In short, I want to be a museum curator for an art form that has no museums. (Extreme pretension aside, I was told by ‘Brain Age’ on the Nintendo DS that I have the brain of a curator, so consider this blog entry and that game to be corporate synergy. Me = slave to the man)
This ballooning wordsplosion aside, a few quick words about the current events.
Health care bill: as one of the ’30 million’ that keeps being bantered about, I’m a little aggravated that I’m being forced to become a customer of the same corporations that have systematically engendered suffering for many others, but like many movements, small steps must be taken. Hopefully, within a few years the extreme language in opposition to this bill will subside and more profound progression can take place. As it stands, consider me on the ‘skeptical optimist’ side of the divide.
Marijuana legalization in California: VOTE YES! The evidence for legalization is far stronger than the limp, emotionally driven arguments against, so please let the people enjoy their relief from the stress inducing, heart-disease causing society we are all a part of. I refuse to acknowledge the argument that pills manufactured by Wall Street traded corporations are somehow better at reducing stress than the great green herb. Not that the science is wrong, but shouldn’t people be allowed to pursue whichever avenue they prefer for relief? Don’t conservatives love freedom? (and by extension of this, can’t we let the gays get married already? This shit is getting ridiculous)
That’s all for now, and if some poor souls read to the end of this missive, I sincerely apologize, for the aforewritten words were strongly influences by sake, perhaps the greatest drink ever concocted by humans. Future posts will (hopefully) up the eloquence quotient by at least 10 points.
