I know that in the past I’ve expressed some rather strong opinions against the band Linkin Park. Well, this afternoon I saw a music video of theirs on MTV2 (why I was watching MTV2 is beyond me) and my opinion of them has changed a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I still say they’re largely worthless and I hope that in ten years time they will be more or less forgotten, but nonetheless I must admit that they do manage to reign supreme as the current masters of manufactured angst-pop. Amazing what you can do with a decent formula, a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign, and an all-too-easily satiated general public.
I won’t go into a “where has all the good music gone?” rant because no matter how annoying and saturated with unredeeming qualities a portion of the music industry may be, there’s always good music out there somewhere. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look for it. The trouble, as I see it, is that people aren’t bothering to look. I know, I know, to some extent it’s always been like that. A big portion of people are content to never look beyond what is fed to them via Top-40 radio and other obscene products of mass communication. And if they’re truly happy with that, who am I to object? Bollocks. Everybody can benefit from learning to appreciate things other than mass-market manufactured sensory fodder.
I’m getting really annoyed with the nouveau-riche. Seriously, I saw THREE Hummers today within five minutes. That’s absurd! Not surprisingly, two were parked in the driveways of a couple McMansions built in all their hideous glory on the West side of town. I look at this stuff and all I can think of is ridiculous and unnecessary all of it is. It’s all just conspicuous consumption. It’s all a fucking fashion statement. People seem to think that the more expensive something it is, the more they need to have it. What’s the point of having lots of money, after all, if you’re the only one that knows it?
Just spend an hour watching the “Fine Living” network on your cable or satellite TV providor of choice. What you will find is one of several channels wholly dedicated to giving these nouvo-riche morons all sorts of great new ideas on how to spend their money in the most publicly-visible ways possible. These people don’t have taste, they don’t have style, they just have money – and all they seem to want to do with it is make sure everybody else in the world knows they have it. What ever happend to living modestly (which isn’t to exclude living comfortably). Why show off what you have with physical posessions? Why not show the world what you’ve got with your actions. I will never respect someone for driving a Jaguar, though I very well might respect someone for taking the cash equivalent and giving it to a charitable organization. But then, I suppose wallowing in your own wealth without consideration of the good you could do with others is one of those perverse byproducts of that whole “American Dream” thing.
To change lanes quickly and inexplicably, I think there’s a hell of a lot that could be better when it comes to porn. I consider the vast, VAST majority of porn to be ridiculously bad. Bad in every sense. The people, the expressions on the people’s faces, the lighting, the composition, etc. EVERYTHING is so completely unrealistic and absurdly un-erotic that at this point I find it more funny than anything else. How did it get this way? Is it just a sign of how severely distorted the American view of human sexuality really is? Seriously – what else could produce such a bizarre attitudes? On the one hand, we have puritanical laws and legislation that demonizes all things sexual, including many things that are so natural it’s unsettling that they’re considered bad. On the other hand, we have closet sex criminals all over the place, an “information superhighway” that is extremely well-saturated with porn sites, and a media that uses sex to sell every manner of product you can possibly think of.
Dammit, someone needs to produce some kind of high-end porn that’s more in line with well-balanced views on human sexuality, with an eye on quality and expression. Fine art porn, really. I’d like to see what it would be like.
And while I’m talking about potentially-perverse things, I would like to know why everyone seems to ahve this huge grudge against body hair. And not just in porn, obviously. Apparently it’s not OK in American society to have a hairy chest, even. Granted, even I have something against having a hairy back, but still. And why do so many people seem to find pubic hair so unattractive or even disgusting? It’s natural, people. I still say a bald beaver just looks weird on an adult woman (not that I’m looking elsewhere for comparison, mind you). Humans are mammals, mammals have body hair. STOP FIGHTING IT!
