Consumerism:
Today we live in the
post-consumer society. Where the most important thing is
not our responsibilities as citizens but our rights as
consumers. Where everyone wonders how much Nike would pay
them to put a swoshtike tatoo on their arm. This is the
world we live in.
I believe that this type of
thinking slowly rots the soul, until humans beings
take the same status as objects simply designed to meet our own selfish needs.
Remember you are what you consume!
Cynicism and Conspiracy:
Todays movies no longer
require the director to illustrate a government
conspiracy. It is assumed automatically. Each high
government official is assumed to have been killed as
part of some grand plot to keep the truth from the
American people.
Never mind the fact that no
administration or special prosecutor can keep a secret
for more than five or six minutes.
Never mind the fact that a
couple of hicks from Arkansas can't even seem to pull the
wool over a few retirees and speculators in a land deal.
The conspiracy is assumed. Your denial only serves to
cement your guilt.
Stupidity:
Some of today's best loved
movies do not tap into our feelings of love and longing.
Rather they tap into the type of stupidity that is best
equated to the type of humour most of us left behind in
the sixth grade. Million dollar movies with real
production values, given to jokes about
farting.
Why is this phenomena so
prevalent? I suggest it is because it taps into one of
our worst fears, that we are indeed stupid. If we succeed
in convincing ourselves we are indeed smart then we
smugly congratulate ourselves for being better than they.
So I need to tell you that
among my favorite movies, I would list Tommy Boy, and The
Blues Brothers. These movies are silly but not stupid.
The characters have a redeeming sweetness that is far
different from the dumb and dumber genre. Of course a
friend Michael Jackson III, once remarked "...not
all shows should be the Walton's but at least one of them
should be." So in conclusion, I would like to state
rather randomly that I would like less dumb movies and
more silly movies.
The reason for this page
Very simple.
I really like this little
trick where the folders open when you click on them. It
is such a cool trick I decided to build a whole page
around it even though I really didn't have any content
for the page. Of course, it only works with IE4.
I hate Browser stuff that only works on one platform, but
this effect degrades very gracefully, and is extraordinarily cool, IMHO.
