Pop Culture
Hey , it's been a while since we took a poke at pop culture but I just saw Lady Ga Ga. WTF? A black guy starts out by dragging a blonde around on stage. She joins other blondes who have no faces. Post-modern transference agony? What else. Oh yea Larry the Cable Guy and all the comedic (?) spin-offs in the crass sex talk genre. We've already talked about cage fighting and NASCAR, pro wrestling, Rudy Guliani and Rod Blogoyavich but just consider this an open thread about the weirdest Weimar shit you have seen lately.
Somewhat in the same vein, I saw that movie by the Borat guy where he is the gay celebrity seeker. whoa. Paula Abdul sitting on Mexican chairs? ( live Mexicans)
posted by troutsky @ 7:34 PM
32 comments
32 Comments:
Troutsky: You've been reading Chris Hedges. Where does it lead?
I think I should make my own version
of a Borat film. Only my version
places Commies like Ren in North Korea.
Democracy is institutionalized pop culture — anything weirder is just less "pop"
troutsky, get straight !
Her audience will soon be listening to Mozart, as has been proven with the "Twilight"-to-Tolstoy phenomenon now sweeping the nation.
Renegade Eye: Hedges also struggles with the old question of "citizens who often seem unaware" or "vote against their own interests" etc. Some commentators tell us "authenticity has replaced economics" as a motivator in which case P.T.Barnum is now your best political consultant.
I am exploring the connection between pop culture and political culture since "authenticity" seems to be the last thing people crave in entertainment. The old Marxist analysis of "false consciousness" has been popularized but misunderstood. On an intellectual level it is fascinating to explore psychological aspects of fetishization and transference etc but not useful in organizing. Neither is the concept of the Spectacle,I have found, too esoteric.
I don't know how to simplify it while maintaining its explanatory power.??
Beak, Perhaps we will meet someday at a film festival.
Yodood. I have not given up on Democracy, just capitalist democracy.The project of radical and plural democracy extends democratic struggles for equality and liberty into the economic sphere. Where are you headed theoretically speaking?
Ducky. I'm adding Twilight to the list along with Grand Theft Auto, Octomom and Oprah.
Troutsky and Beak at a Godard festival. Can't beat it.
Beak, while we are discussing great moments in pop culture, any comment on New York's move to legalize cage fighting as a revenue source?
I've got this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19rG2CHvCQY
Will I Am of the Black Eyed Peas "has got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good good night", y'know having done his part getting Obama elected and solving the world's problems and all. He says: "I got my money- let’s spend it up" a nod to the fan base lining his pockets with $100 bills, most of whom are "living it up" with the McDonald's dollar menu right now. Let's not look at this disconnect too closely, though, the best is yet to come:
"Fill up my cup (Drink)
Mazel tov!
Look at her dancing (Move it Move it)
Just take it off"
This line, for some reason, reminds me of a little Weimar-era ditty by Bertolt Brecht that the Doors retooled back in the 60's:
"Show me the way to the next whiskey bar, oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why"
Basically, the Black Eyed Peas (who I've disliked since they were college-radio nobodies) are our new age burlesque performers, tap dancing atop the grand piano to drown out the sound of the goose steppers right outside the club door. Basically, I'm finding your Weimar allusion a little too apt, Dave.
Actually NYC has enough entertainment without adding fighting. We have done a terrible disservice by making tickets too expensive for ordinary residents. I wish they could just make a revival troop. Let one or two theaters be dedicated to classics that rotate every two months. Let young kids see Oklahoma, The King and I and A a Funny Thing Happened on the way to the forum. Locals could buy a seasons pass.
That would take real vision.
Troutsky, don't go down this road to cultural analysis! Madness and foolishness await you!
Brecht may have written theoretical pap when he wasn't doing plays, but nobody cares about that. If they want his take on pop culture, they watch Mahagony Songplay...which is FUNNY! I don't think you're going to improve on that, so check the false consciousness stuff at the door. It's just a fancy way of saying that people who don't think as you do are dumb, anyway.
Authenticity? Good luck with that one. The art historical record, at least since the 1800s when it became an issue, is littered with bad art that was authentic. Why on earth art should be "authentic" is beyond me. It's all a lie isn't it? The lie that tells the truth as Picasso said, (and he was quoting somebody, I'm sure...)
You don't like Lady Gaga and Mr. Borat - don't watch them. You spent an hour and half with Sascha Cohen? Did you pay for the privilege?!
On an intellectual level it is fascinating to explore psychological aspects of fetishization and transference etc but not useful in organizing.
Oh yes, so fascinating, but only on an "intellectual" level...The slogan of all "material studies" scholars who want nothing more than to watch TV all day and forget about that scholarship junk! How much water can you squeeze out of a stone?
@beakerkin:
Let one or two theaters be dedicated to classics that rotate every two months. Let young kids see Oklahoma...
In the vile welfare-state commie regimes of western Europe, this is exactly what they do. They subsidize theatre like crazy to make sure that tickets stay somewhere near what ordinary people who want to see the classics can afford.
Beak - you wouldn't be advocating for some sort of State Theatre, now would you..?
@Lichanos --- I think Beak is advocating government arts funding. He'll never live that down with his blogging buddies.
It would also be worthwhile reminding Beak that the vile National Endowment for the Arts funds activities like community theater but the right wing fear of government is so nonsensical they imagine the NEA would have High Schools stage "Marx in Soho" ... hmm. I'll get back to you.
Sorry, I just can't let this go...
Beak also says:
We have done a terrible disservice by making tickets too expensive...
What YOU mean WE, laissez-faire man? Isn't that just the market working it's magic. Surely, we must not intervene. Beakerkin seems to be implying some sort of collective responsibility here!
As with William Bennett, when the culture starts going in a way that doesn't sit well with conservative tastes (and not BAD taste, necessarily) time to bring out the big collectivist solutions! (I'm thinking of Big Bill's absurd attempts to jawbone some chastity into the products of the media moghuls.)
@Lichanos --- You don't like Lady Gaga and Mr. Borat - don't watch them. You spent an hour and half with Sascha Cohen? Did you pay for the privilege?!
----------------------
But what if distribution has limited your alternatives. The inevitable output of a market driven arts culture is least common denominator. No way around it.
As Godard pointed out, you can always get the film made. If you can't afford 35mm. do it in 16. The trick is distribution.
If 60's Godard is not about the corrosive effects of pop culture on the young then I am seriously misreading him.
Absolutely not
The classics make their money all the time. They do not require subsidies. But a troop dedicated to the classics makes sense.
I like the idea of seeing the classics but 125 a ticket for Guys and Dolls is too steep. Moreover, the classics should be seen in a season ticket type of way. Each ticket costs %50 and you subscribe to all six shows. The idea is to get locals back into Broadway.
@Ducky:
But what if distribution has limited your alternatives... inevitable output of a market driven arts culture is least common denominator. ...As Godard pointed out...
Personally, I could do without Jean Luc, but that's me.
Alternatives? Sure, there are great artists languishing in obscurity because they can't get their stuff shown, but that doesn't mean Troutsky has to watch junk. Really, Netflix is even in Montana.
Lady Gaga, Bad Romance... It seems to me an ironic and self critical spectacle... satirizing the alienation and anonimity of life in the post-digital world. Complete with masked faces, bodies covered in white polyester, fingers reaching out for keyboards, computers, digital toys galore, and her chronic complaint that she is stuck in a bad romance, and that "I don't want friends.' (a reference to the ubiquitous claim of facebook); it is a thoroughly engulfed look at the spectalce, unable to tear itself free.
(see video link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I
There we go! Let me first add Perkins and Cracker Barrel into the cuisine category and now let me respond to Lichanos. First, no ,actually Borat was stolen. And no I don't STARE at this stuff, I'm all documentary channel and book tv, cmon. And- you are going to see a post on fetishization thats going to knock your Anthro- climate-change denying socks off.I will prove once and for all it is not about dumbness! From the stone will flow a river to fill the ocean!
Go easy on Beak fellers, anybody who liked "We are Siamese if you please" has a core of decency. I would like to add Damn Yankees to subsidized theatre. Soon we will have Dorothy Lange and Woody back on tour.
kultur, I expected her(?) to say something like "friends bore me. Life bores me." followed by a little cynical laugh.
The US is the only country without a national theater or dance company.
Beakerkin is wrong about the economics of classical theater. The prices are high to see The Glass Menagerie, so that a theater can afford to introduce the new edgy playwright.
In classical music concerts Beethoven pays for the new composer. The audience is built in for the classics, even though it's graying.
The movie Avatar is anti-imperialist and the number one box office in history.
As usual one can typically learn much
by reading the exact opposite of what
Communist stooge Ren Writes. The reason ticket prices are so high is generally due to very steep Union rates for a whole variety of people and feather bedding. There was an issue over how many musicians are required at performances. Stage hands earn in the low six figures in NYC. The jobs are passed from father to son.
There were articles pointing to the insane ticket prices and a plethora of gay themed shows causing attendance to go down. For the cost of a ticket to guys and dolls I can go to Washingtom DC for the day on Amtrak.
The United States does not need a national stage troop, likely run by commies. Let the market decide
what is run.
Paraphrasing Charlton Heston "Get your stinking Communist Paws of my
wallet you filthy ape". No jobs for commies with my tax dollars.
Sorry, but producing Mission to Caracas 2010 will have to be subsidized by Hugo directly. He has been known to do so.
Where is Gambone? Is he still confused about his gender. He needs
to star in Rigoberto/Rigoberta a Communist version of Victor/Victoria based on the Menchu
fraud.
@lichanos The discussion is pop culture and nobody has understood it better than Godard in the 60's. Band of Outsiders, Masculin/Feminin, Two or Three Things I Know About Her ... he understood the dangers of adolescents living in a world formed by pop culture.
We are being "entertained" to death. Entertained in passivity. "The children of Marx and Coca-Cola" indeed -- coca-cola won.
Oh, it's not all that bad, Beak. I can go to a classical concert at the Isabella Gardner for $15. Top end musicians and a very varied program.
Everything from the complete Beethoven concertos to Stockhausen's "Mantra".
Sorry they have to pay the crew, Beak, but no crew, no show. I don't see why you resent them earning a living.
So, Beak, how much to you pay for decent seats to watch the wretched New York Spankees.
You telling me that watching Nick Swisher play right like he's lugging a freaking oxygen bottle is worth that kind of dough.
Folks will pay up big time for sports but as I say, we are being entertained in passivity. When's the next show at the Colosseum?
The United States does not need a national stage troop, likely run by commies. Let the market decide
what is run.
I don't get Beak. First he complains that there's no wholesome family fare available, then he says, "Let the market decide."
Oh...forgot...the market is being "distorted" by the big bad Unions. Sorry, that analysis of the theatre world leaves me unconvinced regarding the lack of classic theatre fare and the high price of tickets. Television would be a more likely villain.
Fools to the right of me, highbrows to the left of me!! What does "entertained in passivity" mean? I like Neil Postman - he's a great critic (Amused to Death, and all...) but what is your criterion? Why is watching Lady Gaga more passive than watching...Bruce Springsteen? Or Shakespeare? Don't the fans sing along? Entertainment doesn't have to be great art. The problem is not knowing the difference between entertainment and art, and not caring. But most people never have...It's just that these days, the entertainment industry dominates all. Why? It's big business! Shakespeare made money, but it was a pretty small audience, all told. We do things on a bigger scale today.
I quoted a critic long ago in my senior thesis on kitsch who said something like: "The only way to deal with kitsch is to be too busy with real art to have any time for it." All your sophisticated spectacular analysis is a waste of your time and simply entrammels you with what you claim to detest.
Well Lichanos, the market when left to itself creates homogeneity. You get lip synched, auto-tuned Lady Ga-Ga doing what has been done since Madonna and probably before.
Now just where would we go for political analysis on a par with Richard III?
You can get into the art vs. entertainment dichotomy if you like (I say a very basic requirement of art is that it be entertaining, i.e. engaging).
But pick a genre - humor? You can follow the arc from Keaton to South Park, through the American screwball comedies, Jacques Tati and wonder why we have come to the point of settling for fart jokes.
I say it's the mark of a passive (i.e. powerless) people. A people that has given up even trying to understand their environment.
I agree Ducky and will try to prove it to Lichanos through a clever combination of neuroscience. psychology and Marxist theory. Soon as I get these dishes done.( the everyday problems of a poor, organic highbrow)
Now just where would we go for political analysis on a par with Richard III?
If you go by my rule that most of what is produced is junk in all ages, then you will know where to look, and not be surprised or disappointed when it takes a while to find.
The library is always a good place to start. From what I gather, you people are pretty familiar with its contents already...
I say it's the mark of a passive (i.e. powerless) people. A people that has given up even trying to understand their environment.
Mebbee soo...So what? You expect everyone to sit around pondering their situation in critical depth? That would be nice, but it's never happened, won't ever happen. Only difference is that now everyone has more free time and money, and they live longer, so we need entertainment to fill in the time. What else are people going to do..?
You "thinkers" seem bereft at the notion of your minority status. Lonely and isolated, you crave fellow travellers, believers, comrades in critical thinking. Tough luck. Get used to the fact that you live on a different planet, and thank heavens for small favors. Even as the corporate Gogolizers commercialize all aspects of the Web, they have left you this little space in which to vent and find like minded miscreants.
You apparently agree with me, Lichanos.
The market is going to turn out piles of material with no gauge of merit other than its ability to make money.
As a result, government subsidy can play a very useful function.
Lichanos
I suggest you start looking at the W2's of stage hands 130,000 and musicians 1000000. When a theater is bloated with these insane salaries costs go up.
There are strict rules about how many musicians must work and the situation is widely described as feather bedding.
Ducky
Nick Swisher has a unique talent
and as such he should be compensated. The stagehand jobs are
nepotism and even someone as talentless as Larry Gambone or Kultur could do that job if either ever decided to do a real job.
@Ducky:
Yes, I agree with you mostly. Of course, there is always a market, albeit smaller, for good stuff. But we live in mass society, and big scale is the dominant mode.
As for musicians and stagehands making very large salaries - there may be a few, and I have no doubt that corruption and featherbedding exists - I just doubt that's what's driving the economy of theatre.
I’ve written on the blog about how well-designed, CSS-compliant sites can get a lot of link love from
minibus reklamlari
Post a Comment
<< Home