.....And not a moment too late. Barack Obama has finally clenched the nomination for the Democratic party, and I couldn't be happier. Not for the reason you may think, but now at least the nation can finally focus on what has been essentially the inevitable race between John McCain and Barack Obama. It didn't take long for the bare-fisted assaults from McCain to start, coupled with a not-so-subtile bitch slap from Hillary, as both waited for Obama to make his victory speech and both vied for airtime right alongside him. No time for Obama to bask in his well-earned glory, but how apropos that he is not the type who feels the need to do so.
What should be interesting is watching whether or not Obama's campaigning style changes under the direct fire of McCain and the Republican machine. While Obama has been able to keep his cool cerebral demeanor about him while campaigning against Hillary, it is questionable whether it will be enough to help him weather McCain's likely repeated attacks on his lack of experience. Of course, there is also what the general public is going to start expecting from Obama in the months ahead. People can only listen to so much of what he will not do before they expect to start hearing from him what he will do about the economy, Iraq, Iran, Israel, oil prices and so on. There haven't been too many proactive responses from either side about any of these issues but to be sure, it will only be a matter of time before we should expect to. It is time for Obama to provide concrete, unwavering answers rather than rhetoric and while he searches for those answers, McCain needs to make it his full-time mission to sell the fact that he can conjure up the McCain of old, circa 2000, who has the gumption to strike out on his own and depart from the failed policies and legislation of the past nearly eight years.
On the Dems side, there looms a two-faceted problem: What does Hillary want, and should Obama give it to her. There has been much speculation going both ways, as it isn't painfully obvious that Hillary is vying for the number two slot on the Obama ticket. It doesn't go without notice that no one is any longer telling the public that its too premature to be discussing this prospect. Truth be told..... It still kind of is. Vice presidential nominations are made at the respective partys' conventions, and typically not a minute sooner. The search has barely begun, as talk of the veep search has only surfaced in the past couple of weeks. On the much less dramatic Republican side, there has been some light courting on the part of McCain, complete with a barbecue interview of three candidates for the bottom half of the McCain ticket. Fortunately, we have all summer long to wait while the hopefully mute process of running mate selection takes place.
More so than in the past, there is a varitable treasure chest of independant voters for both candidates to appeal to. The mashup of long-time true independants and disenfranchised republicans with "Bush buyer's remorse" that are there to be tapped truly fall under the category of "anybody's game". This demographic is the one both candidates need to capitalize on to be seen as more 'across the board' than being too far left or right. With a crumbling economy, an unpopular war, and soaring gas prices, it's time for both candidates to truly state their cases to the middle-grounders of this nation whose numbers are rapidly growing. There are plenty of people who are against the war, want solutions to the nation's economic troubles yet don't want to be taxed, and are tired of rising fuel costs. It is this demographic that will keep the race tight through November.
This Presidential race can already be categorized as historical and promises to be a tight and interesting race. Unlike in the past, there doesn't portend to be much, if any, of the typical mud-slinging or standard negative ads, the likes of which have always been part of the campaign landscape. Both candidates, if recent history is any indicator, look to run clean and honorable campaigns which will be a welcome departure from campaigns past. This promises to be a memorable and a historic race that we all should be proud to be a part of. Regardless of who you think you favor today, watch closely and hear what both sides have to say as too much is at stake. The past eight years of Bush should not be looked at as any sort of baseline or center of any spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable. Explore the history of this country and remember the better times under presidents past. We owe it to ourselves to look upon both candidates through new eyes, listen to them with open ears, and vote our full hearts. May the best candidate win.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
The Flickering Flame: The fall of Pop Culture amidst the rise of Pop Culture
Every once in a while, you experience the remnants of a former era, be it a movie, a song, an article of clothing, or even an old car you see on the side of the road, and think to yourself "I remember what life was like when that (thing) was in its prime." It happens to me all the time, particularly with music. I have been known to hold the position that the real feeling and soul has completely gone right out of the music of today. Of course, my opinion is not limited strictly to music. Most everything we hold dear as 'pop culture' today seems to have no message in comparison to pop culture from the past few decades. In the eighties, when slash-and-gash horror films were all the rage, there was some true artistry to some of the storylines with some fairly decent cinematic technology, given the era. Even outside of the horror genre, there are movies that have become cult classics and/or major landmarks of an era that will never be forgotten. Movies such as The Lost Boys, St. Elmo's Fire, the Breakfast Club and even The Karate Kid are readily conjured up by thirtysomethings everywhere who could also tell you what clothes were in fashion back then, what songs owned the airwaves, and depending on where you are in the thirtysomething spectrum, the color of their Trapper Keeper and roughly how many friendship pins they had on their shoelaces.
Going back even further, movies such as the first three of the 'Rocky' series were beyond great movies, they were epic. The music from the 70's was some of the most provocative and definitive music ever produced. Of course its inspiration came from pioneering artists of the 60's such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Doors, Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones. Music from that time used to stand for something, which made it all the more artistic. In those days, music could either have sent a message of peace during the time of the Vietnam conflict or provided an escape for the men fighting there. Some artists chose to chronicle their experimentation with drugs and others just seem to paint the background of an age that seems long forgotten. Regardless of what you listened to, there was some intellectual or philosophical property to the music back then. In the days of true Americana, wide-open countryside with air you could breathe, even water you could swim in filling our lakes and forming our rivers ans streams seemed never to be at a shortage. No cell phones, PDAs, laptops, bluetooth, Xbox, Playatations or internet to keep you trapped indoors. When I think of the 70's I always seem to arrive in my mind at that scene in 'Easy Rider' where the two long-haireds rode side by side in the vast countryside that seemed so pure and clean. Gas prices were lower, music and film both told stories, even television shows went on for far longer than six years, so long as there was a viewership. No matter what you looked at, be it music, television, the Big Screen, or activist movements such as the women's lib movement, the mods, the hippies or the Black Panther Party, everything seemed to at least have some sort of message.
When did we as a society become so fickle and obsessed with people we aren't likely to emulate and their posessions we aren't likely to have in our lifetime? I see people like the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan (and don't forget Mom Dina!) plaguing our television screens as though they are entitled to be there. For crying out loud, the very reason some of these people are famous are nothing more than the fact that they live in the right neighborhood or have some obscure tie to someone who happened to come into the right financial opportunity. The rest are either fortune heirs and heiresses or actors and actresses who have starred in forgettable films released the last 10 years. Entire shows are dedicated to making sure the viewer gets at least thirty minutes of exposure to houses, cars, clothes, vacations and other lavish things such as shopping sprees that these celebrities are afforded. What is the message in this? Other shows are dedicated completely to exposing the charmed life some of these people lead and its dubbed 'reality TV'. Is it really? Whose reality is it? Not mine, to be sure. I will probably never own a house that could fit my current house inside it ten times over. At this point, I'll be grateful when I can afford a free-standing house rather than a townhouse. I will most likely drive the kind of car I have now for the rest of my life, as it only took 10 years of driving experience to finally find what I want in a car, rather than own a small fleet of expensive exotic cars. Almost more so than the 80's, it is a life of lavish and extravagent excess and the only message that can be discerned from any of this is "look at me".
It bothers me that pop culture today can be so distracting and so damaging to those who follow it. It creates a sense of envy that is completely unhealthy and breeds in the general public a contempt for their own lifestyles because theirs do not match up well against those of celebrities and other well-to-dos (which these days is essentially the new threshold for celebrity.) Long gone are the days of celebrity modesty or activism, unless of course you wish to be put on some sort of terrorist watch list. There are no Abby Hoffmans, there are no Martin Luther King Jrs, and there certainly are no John Lennons left to spread any sort of message, let alone a positive one. This generation has become a one of complainers sans backbone, thereby having no real means or will to do anything about the source of their angst. Perhaps it is the inherent fear of paying any sort of price for voicing their beliefs therefore leaving it to others to do something about their woes that keeps the whining, sobbing masses in their current state. We now seem to be a generation of princesses who wait in their respective lairs, waiting for that charming, valiant rescuer to come save the day. If history has taught us nothing else, it is that there is power in numbers. When you wonder why it is you never hear about Linsday Lohan, Paris Hilton and other pop culture icons doing anything noteworthy with their celebrity or notoriety, let alone bellyaching about the problems plaguing our society, it's because deep down inside, they personally don't have anything to bellyache about, naturally. Their life is charmed to the hilt and they want for nothing, so why bother going out on a limb for anyone else? For all the celebrities that seem to think they have political stances on issues such as Darfur, the Iraq war, or anything else going on in the world, keep in mind when you go to recite the rants of these celebs gone political that other than telling you how you should feel or what you should do about something, they don't want a single thing to do with you.
I think we as a generation need to revisit our younger years and figure out what wound our respective clocks and what got things done and tap it for what more we can get out of it. There were good times had back then, and I believe that we can have them again. To patronize something is to give it credence and and for better or worse, we need to get more selective about who we devote our time and attention to so as not to spoil the up-and-coming generation any more than it already is. Woodstock was great, I'm sure but let's put something together on our own that we can look back on in our 50's and 60's and smile while we tell the story. Let's find a way to put the soul back in music rather than trying to survive on the drivel that is churned out by performers that care more about eeking every penny they can out of their music than the music itself. Let's show with our numbers our disdain for what vexes us and show the powers that be what we won't stand for rather than sit in our little circles with our kleenex and bitch about it. Whether you were on one side of the fence or the other on any given issue in decades past, something always seemed to get done and some of the pop culture icons of the time used their celebrity for a genuine cause. I just hope that soon there emerges a great icon or group of revolutionary types with an effective voice that resonates to the masses rather than paying attention to those who are famous for being famous who produce nothing but jealousy and contempt. Bring back the real musical and screenwriting talent that is so few and far between and provide us with quality entertainment. I just hope that someday, pop culture will once again have a reason to 'pop'.
Going back even further, movies such as the first three of the 'Rocky' series were beyond great movies, they were epic. The music from the 70's was some of the most provocative and definitive music ever produced. Of course its inspiration came from pioneering artists of the 60's such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Doors, Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones. Music from that time used to stand for something, which made it all the more artistic. In those days, music could either have sent a message of peace during the time of the Vietnam conflict or provided an escape for the men fighting there. Some artists chose to chronicle their experimentation with drugs and others just seem to paint the background of an age that seems long forgotten. Regardless of what you listened to, there was some intellectual or philosophical property to the music back then. In the days of true Americana, wide-open countryside with air you could breathe, even water you could swim in filling our lakes and forming our rivers ans streams seemed never to be at a shortage. No cell phones, PDAs, laptops, bluetooth, Xbox, Playatations or internet to keep you trapped indoors. When I think of the 70's I always seem to arrive in my mind at that scene in 'Easy Rider' where the two long-haireds rode side by side in the vast countryside that seemed so pure and clean. Gas prices were lower, music and film both told stories, even television shows went on for far longer than six years, so long as there was a viewership. No matter what you looked at, be it music, television, the Big Screen, or activist movements such as the women's lib movement, the mods, the hippies or the Black Panther Party, everything seemed to at least have some sort of message.
When did we as a society become so fickle and obsessed with people we aren't likely to emulate and their posessions we aren't likely to have in our lifetime? I see people like the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan (and don't forget Mom Dina!) plaguing our television screens as though they are entitled to be there. For crying out loud, the very reason some of these people are famous are nothing more than the fact that they live in the right neighborhood or have some obscure tie to someone who happened to come into the right financial opportunity. The rest are either fortune heirs and heiresses or actors and actresses who have starred in forgettable films released the last 10 years. Entire shows are dedicated to making sure the viewer gets at least thirty minutes of exposure to houses, cars, clothes, vacations and other lavish things such as shopping sprees that these celebrities are afforded. What is the message in this? Other shows are dedicated completely to exposing the charmed life some of these people lead and its dubbed 'reality TV'. Is it really? Whose reality is it? Not mine, to be sure. I will probably never own a house that could fit my current house inside it ten times over. At this point, I'll be grateful when I can afford a free-standing house rather than a townhouse. I will most likely drive the kind of car I have now for the rest of my life, as it only took 10 years of driving experience to finally find what I want in a car, rather than own a small fleet of expensive exotic cars. Almost more so than the 80's, it is a life of lavish and extravagent excess and the only message that can be discerned from any of this is "look at me".
It bothers me that pop culture today can be so distracting and so damaging to those who follow it. It creates a sense of envy that is completely unhealthy and breeds in the general public a contempt for their own lifestyles because theirs do not match up well against those of celebrities and other well-to-dos (which these days is essentially the new threshold for celebrity.) Long gone are the days of celebrity modesty or activism, unless of course you wish to be put on some sort of terrorist watch list. There are no Abby Hoffmans, there are no Martin Luther King Jrs, and there certainly are no John Lennons left to spread any sort of message, let alone a positive one. This generation has become a one of complainers sans backbone, thereby having no real means or will to do anything about the source of their angst. Perhaps it is the inherent fear of paying any sort of price for voicing their beliefs therefore leaving it to others to do something about their woes that keeps the whining, sobbing masses in their current state. We now seem to be a generation of princesses who wait in their respective lairs, waiting for that charming, valiant rescuer to come save the day. If history has taught us nothing else, it is that there is power in numbers. When you wonder why it is you never hear about Linsday Lohan, Paris Hilton and other pop culture icons doing anything noteworthy with their celebrity or notoriety, let alone bellyaching about the problems plaguing our society, it's because deep down inside, they personally don't have anything to bellyache about, naturally. Their life is charmed to the hilt and they want for nothing, so why bother going out on a limb for anyone else? For all the celebrities that seem to think they have political stances on issues such as Darfur, the Iraq war, or anything else going on in the world, keep in mind when you go to recite the rants of these celebs gone political that other than telling you how you should feel or what you should do about something, they don't want a single thing to do with you.
I think we as a generation need to revisit our younger years and figure out what wound our respective clocks and what got things done and tap it for what more we can get out of it. There were good times had back then, and I believe that we can have them again. To patronize something is to give it credence and and for better or worse, we need to get more selective about who we devote our time and attention to so as not to spoil the up-and-coming generation any more than it already is. Woodstock was great, I'm sure but let's put something together on our own that we can look back on in our 50's and 60's and smile while we tell the story. Let's find a way to put the soul back in music rather than trying to survive on the drivel that is churned out by performers that care more about eeking every penny they can out of their music than the music itself. Let's show with our numbers our disdain for what vexes us and show the powers that be what we won't stand for rather than sit in our little circles with our kleenex and bitch about it. Whether you were on one side of the fence or the other on any given issue in decades past, something always seemed to get done and some of the pop culture icons of the time used their celebrity for a genuine cause. I just hope that soon there emerges a great icon or group of revolutionary types with an effective voice that resonates to the masses rather than paying attention to those who are famous for being famous who produce nothing but jealousy and contempt. Bring back the real musical and screenwriting talent that is so few and far between and provide us with quality entertainment. I just hope that someday, pop culture will once again have a reason to 'pop'.
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