I Might Be Brilliant

Does anyone speak Jive?

An unconfirmed report that high school football standout Storm Johnson has committed to LSU via his facebook page.  Reportedly, this is his quote:

“Storm Johnson Say that these things are blessing for me my family and friend man but we did it my hater can follow me to LSU cause i am finally commiting so fan the amazing 5 is doing to have fun in LSU and shout outs to my haomeboy for life my nigga that i grew up with and we dreamed about this $**t my bestfriend daunte carr do ya thang at standford man lol WE MADE DAWG WE HERE!!!!”

I've been ripped off.

rottentomatoes.com headline:

“The 2012 trailer: disaster porn at its finest”

The revolution has begun.

Robot Porn

I have always been a strong believer in “whatever makes you happy.”  As long as your actions don’t have a direct negative impact on others…have at it, Hoss.

However, I’m also a big believer in making an attempt to do right.  If you have the ability to make the world around you a better place you should.  I’m not just talking about the obvious, such as charitable works (I am certainly guilty of falling short of my obligations on that front).  I’m talking about using your brain to make informed decisions about the life that you lead and the impact that it makes on others.

Smart, educated people, often participate in the advancement of our society by debating politics or our impact on our environment.  Yet, we often overlook how our decisions affect art and the ability for critical thinking in this country.  This is a terrible oversight, resulting in the rapid decline of what’s left of our culture.

It was announced this week that “Transformers 2” made over $60 million dollars…in one day…a Wednesday…breaking a box office record.    At this point, I shouldn’t be surprised.  With the way that these films are marketed, a majority of the automatons will have no choice but to flock to the shiny robots.  What is shocking is that I know several intelligent people who have chosen to see this debacle and one who actually loved the film.

In fairness, I have not seen the picture.  In all fairness, I don’t need to see the picture.  It sucks.  It’s universally regarded by those who study films for a living as worse than the first Transformers movie…which also sucked…hard.  It is akin to porn.  The part of your brain stem that fires when you see people fuckin’ is right next to the part that fires when you see robots blowing shit up.  The pool guy and the MILF have as complicated a relationship as the boy and his car, so don’t try and rationalize it as having an element of story.  But the graphics are amazing!  They were amazing in the trailer too, and you saw that on-line in HD for free.  The best review I heard was from a friend at work who said “this film could have been in Japanese and it I would have had the exact same experience.”

So what’s the big deal? Why not just shut off your brain and watch Japanese robot porn for two hours like everyone else?  In a word…money.  Money will determine what gets produced for our consumption.  There are millions of unintelligent people in this country that can’t handle a story more complicated than the one offered in the Transformers franchise.   But as long as those who should be demanding something more pay to see a substandard product, the less chance there is for true art to find funding.

I see very few movies anymore.  Most releases are torturous to watch.  Wonderful stories go under-funded and often fall flat on screen, while marketable mediocre stories get fully produced and watered down for the masses.  It’s a phenomenon that permeates our entire pop culture from movies, to TV, to music.  There’s a reason why the Oscars (what little legitimacy they have left) are being overwhelmed by foreign filmmakers.

So, I’m asking you to please join the cause.  If you want to see American cinema flourish as an art form and not just pop culture, please join the ranks of the critical thinkers that don’t feed the beast.  Be selective about the movies you watch, and encourage the friends that you see movies with to do the same. It may be a losing battle, but it will be a sad day when none of the Best Picture nominees are in English.