Transcendence. Big word, big idea. I'm going to bastardize it and use it for my own purposes.
To move from one state to another. Specifically how film and music move us from a relative "normal" state
to another more "heightened" one. Normal being a relative term, depending on the day and circumstances and
heightened whether it be a state of angry, sadness, depression or joy or a mix of these from moment to moment.
Stodgy to say the least, reduce it down to a film or album moves us from where we were to where we are presently, reality being flexible and warpable.
The best of them alter our altitude, open spaces into unexamined parts of our brain, emotion, psyche.
How do movies, music and books move us; move us to tears, anger, enlightment, excitement. I'll leave this to the fine medical establishment to probe and explore.
My ideas in this blog are not to explain how or why but what - in essence what moves me and what I find immovable junk in these here modern times. Not strictly just relegated to the present continuous collapse of all things "cultural", - a turd is a turd no matter when it got birthed, but to push people to examine their consumption of culture and why there's such a creeping low standard when it comes to amusing ourselves to death.
Another man's feast is another's famine but then again shit is just shit there's no excuse it just is, it's a fact.
"High" art is not my providence, although if you pushed me, I might grumbly confess that it does exist.
I don't pursue it like a cultural zealot, I weave my way through the detritus of film and music etc. looking for that one 'hit'! That one thing that day, hour or instant that will change my outlook from gloom to hope or ecstatic joy.
Do we get the culture we deserve?
Stay tuned for this and more like:
Why modern hip hop is the return of Uncle Tomism to a once great musical force?
Why 1967 was a shit year for music?
Why online music services as a whole stink?
What are the five typical music consumers and how they affect the role and availability of music in our culture?
Okay enough, enough! It's not going to be all that serious but it'll definitely be a rantastic journey.
The great, the good and the crap!
Cheers
Thanks for joining
Come on in the water's warm
Pappy
The water is warm indeed -- and not just because it's laced with high-fructose corn syrup infused grandpa piss. I dig man! This was a great post and I look forward to more.
ReplyDeleteCan I suggest as a topic? How bout "Lusting After a Chestnut Mare: Bestiality Myths in the Work of Roger McGuinn."