I'm Back
I'm officially back from vacation. I've been back in L.A. for a week, but since I was off from work, I've been pretty much out of contact with the online world. God, it was good having a REAL vacation.
Got a review of This Film Is Not Yet Rated up at TFL. It was kind of hard to get down, because there are just so many ways you could take the conversation about this film. One thing that struck me was the fact that the people on the ratings board don't have any real credentials (ie, no degrees in child development or anything), which Jack Vallente tried to spin as a good thing--no "self-appointed experts," just "real parents" of children between 5 and 17 (which turns out not to even be true). As if nobody could possibly be both? As if having knowledge in a subject automatically makes you LESS qualified than someone with no knowledge? I'm not saying that having a degree in developmental psychology necessarily makes your judgement of these things better, but the idea that it would make your judgement WORSE is...well, actually, it's a very typical expression of these anti-intellectual times, unfortunately.
By tonight every hack comedian will have perfected their Steve Irwin joke, which will remain in their act for at least five years. It's kind of a shame that the whole celebrity-gawking culture is so omnipresent that when something like Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray happens, something that really is interesting to talk about, I feel too ashamed to want to talk about it.
Elsewhere: Bubblegumfink has Dazed and Confused and Dawn of the Dead (197whatever) trading cards, and Something I Learned Today has Man...Or Astroman? mp3's.
Got a review of This Film Is Not Yet Rated up at TFL. It was kind of hard to get down, because there are just so many ways you could take the conversation about this film. One thing that struck me was the fact that the people on the ratings board don't have any real credentials (ie, no degrees in child development or anything), which Jack Vallente tried to spin as a good thing--no "self-appointed experts," just "real parents" of children between 5 and 17 (which turns out not to even be true). As if nobody could possibly be both? As if having knowledge in a subject automatically makes you LESS qualified than someone with no knowledge? I'm not saying that having a degree in developmental psychology necessarily makes your judgement of these things better, but the idea that it would make your judgement WORSE is...well, actually, it's a very typical expression of these anti-intellectual times, unfortunately.
By tonight every hack comedian will have perfected their Steve Irwin joke, which will remain in their act for at least five years. It's kind of a shame that the whole celebrity-gawking culture is so omnipresent that when something like Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray happens, something that really is interesting to talk about, I feel too ashamed to want to talk about it.
Elsewhere: Bubblegumfink has Dazed and Confused and Dawn of the Dead (197whatever) trading cards, and Something I Learned Today has Man...Or Astroman? mp3's.
posted by Chris Oliver at 10:27 AM
1 Comments:
Interlude,
I haven't started digitizing my vinyl yet, so at this time I can't. But it's really more of a conversation piece rather than anything you'd want to listen to--just straight covers of Herb Alpert tunes.
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