Dear Avid Reader,
Is Pee-Wee supposed to be a kid or just a weird dude?
Children are people, but they just kind of suck at everything. And they are kind of selfish and mean. Kids are just a-holes who are bad at everything. There, I said it.
Be Sure And Tell 'Em "Large Marge Sent Ya"!
Pee-Wee I think is supposed to be kind of a kid. "Kind of a kid". What the heck am I writing here? Pee-Wee exhibits all the signs of being a child. He has no job. He rides a bike. He uses alternative methods to power his home. Wait...is Pee-Wee a hippie? Or a hipster? Why am I asking questions in the middle of this post?
The distorted reality is reflective of a child's distorted reality. The clown in the parking lot changes from a happy clown to a nightmarish clown in the aftermath of the bike theft. This embeds as a full blown phobia in the fragile psyche of a child. Later int he movie Pee-Wee is further tormented by image of the clown in his dreams. That and clown's are scary.
Things You Wouldn't Understand. Things You Couldn't Understand. Things You Shouldn't Understand.
The movie is cartoonish in that it exaggerates reality. When something is taken from them, people become suspicious. Do they normally gather everyone they know in a basement and begin hurling accusations? No. When someone is sitting next to a singing hobo, they become annoyed. But do they fling themselves from a train? Usually not.
But is the cartoonishness the fantasy? I think it may be reality in that the cartoon is how we actually perceive thing once we add emotional color to the facts. So, perhaps when we are children, we are as we truly are. Unfiltered. Tantrum-throwing. Suspicious. Obsessed. Dancing on a bar for bikers. Do our impulses wane with age, or do we learn to suppress them? Are extreme behaviors us escaping reality, or embracing reality? Is the person you are deep in your bones the civilized cog in the machine, or the violent warrior in the video game you play?
Is Pee-Wee a child, or an adult that is finally at peace with his true identity?
Until Next I Blog,
James
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Week 3: Terminator 2
Dear Avid Reader,
What is post-modernity? Obviously it's the thing that follows modernity. And that may be really the only thing you need to know.
Probably not.
It's Not Everyday You Find Out You're Responsible For 3 Billion Deaths
Modernity is all about rules, rationality. Terminator 2 is also a movie about rules. Machines WILL turn on humanity and there WILL be a war. John Connor WILL lead the humans against the robot uprising. John WILL send a man back in time that WILL become his father. That WILL be awkward for John.
The really annoying thing about the fatalism of the Terminator timeline is that it should be broken at the end of Terminator 2. They throw all the Terminators and Terminator leftovers into the molten steel. They blow up Skynet with the inventor dude inside. The future is changed. There will be no uprising. And yet there are plenty of other Terminator movies and TV shows. So while The Terminator is like modernity, in that it is about rules, the Terminator franchise is not unlike post-modernity, in that it about breaking rules. But post-modernity is more complicated that just rule-breaking.
At least I think it is.
No Fate, No Fate But What We Make, My Father Told Me This
Let's look at another rule violator...the T-1000. The liquid guy. See, he can't be a bomb and he can't be a gun. The reason being is that bombs have chemicals and guns have complex moving parts. But if he can't form complex parts, then how can he hear? How can he speak?
I'm gonna change gears here. I realize that I am now doing that thing that people do when they talk about sci-fi films and that is to try and undermine the fiction with science. It isn't interesting.
I'm not sure I'm feeling this post. Let's try and get it back.
I Don't Know...How Much Longer I Can Ho...Hold This
The Terminator must follow the orders of John, without question. This is he ultimate in modernity. John speaks, Terminator listens. But in the end, the Terminator defies John's orders and sacrifices himself in order to ensure a peaceful future. One could argue that he is following his larger directive of protecting John. But I guess that is the point.
See, with modernity, the goal is that everything can be solved rationally. We can know everything and understand everything. If we just implement the right rules, then the system will regulate itself. Breaking a rule isn't in the program. You can't break the rules.
But the Terminator is faced with a post-modern dilemma. The best way to protect John is to destroy himself. But John orders him to stay alive and to not destroy himself. He is going to break a rule.The timeline is already set. It is inescapable.
I Asked That Very Same Question And You Know What They Told Me?
You know what? Why don't I just tell you that I love the one-liners. After watching this movie for the first time in a while, I totally forgot the saturation of "I'll be back", "Hasta la vista baby", and "Come with me if you want to live". I mean everyone has heard those lines even if they never saw the movie. And that dude became California's Governor. That's crazy right?
Yeah. I like that better than looking for how the Terminator's decision to jump into lava shows how a modern worldview is unsatisfactory and cannot work.
Until Next I Blog,
James
What is post-modernity? Obviously it's the thing that follows modernity. And that may be really the only thing you need to know.
Probably not.
It's Not Everyday You Find Out You're Responsible For 3 Billion Deaths
Modernity is all about rules, rationality. Terminator 2 is also a movie about rules. Machines WILL turn on humanity and there WILL be a war. John Connor WILL lead the humans against the robot uprising. John WILL send a man back in time that WILL become his father. That WILL be awkward for John.
The really annoying thing about the fatalism of the Terminator timeline is that it should be broken at the end of Terminator 2. They throw all the Terminators and Terminator leftovers into the molten steel. They blow up Skynet with the inventor dude inside. The future is changed. There will be no uprising. And yet there are plenty of other Terminator movies and TV shows. So while The Terminator is like modernity, in that it is about rules, the Terminator franchise is not unlike post-modernity, in that it about breaking rules. But post-modernity is more complicated that just rule-breaking.
At least I think it is.
No Fate, No Fate But What We Make, My Father Told Me This
Let's look at another rule violator...the T-1000. The liquid guy. See, he can't be a bomb and he can't be a gun. The reason being is that bombs have chemicals and guns have complex moving parts. But if he can't form complex parts, then how can he hear? How can he speak?
I'm gonna change gears here. I realize that I am now doing that thing that people do when they talk about sci-fi films and that is to try and undermine the fiction with science. It isn't interesting.
I'm not sure I'm feeling this post. Let's try and get it back.
I Don't Know...How Much Longer I Can Ho...Hold This
The Terminator must follow the orders of John, without question. This is he ultimate in modernity. John speaks, Terminator listens. But in the end, the Terminator defies John's orders and sacrifices himself in order to ensure a peaceful future. One could argue that he is following his larger directive of protecting John. But I guess that is the point.
See, with modernity, the goal is that everything can be solved rationally. We can know everything and understand everything. If we just implement the right rules, then the system will regulate itself. Breaking a rule isn't in the program. You can't break the rules.
But the Terminator is faced with a post-modern dilemma. The best way to protect John is to destroy himself. But John orders him to stay alive and to not destroy himself. He is going to break a rule.The timeline is already set. It is inescapable.
I Asked That Very Same Question And You Know What They Told Me?
You know what? Why don't I just tell you that I love the one-liners. After watching this movie for the first time in a while, I totally forgot the saturation of "I'll be back", "Hasta la vista baby", and "Come with me if you want to live". I mean everyone has heard those lines even if they never saw the movie. And that dude became California's Governor. That's crazy right?
Yeah. I like that better than looking for how the Terminator's decision to jump into lava shows how a modern worldview is unsatisfactory and cannot work.
Until Next I Blog,
James
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Week 2: Rudy
Dear Avid Reader,
Movies are propaganda. I'm like totally certain on this. When you realize that I'm right, you will be like "OMG".
Rudy is a prime example of propaganda served as light entertainment. The propaganda's goal: to convince you that shooting for the middle, that settling for less, is noble.
Yeah, I know. You're all "OMG" and et cetera.
How is it am already bored with this project? The boredom lobe in my brain is like Frank in the movie. He's screaming, "Are you kidding me? You can't write this article! Grow up! Quit NOW!"
These last four paragraphs are small, but I don't care. Frank can die a dark, lonely, screaming death in my brain. Where was I?
Five Feet Nothing, A Hundred And Nothing
Rudy begins the movie wanting to go to Notre Dame. Eventually he come across a copy of the Agama by The Buddha. From this simple text he begins to understand that his father, his brother Frank, and his fiancee are all trapped in their own suffering because they have desires. His father wants his family to be content. Frank wants a different life from his father. Sherry wants to be a mother. Throughout the movie they are disappointed because their desires go unfulfilled. Having discovered enlightenment, Rudy rejects the idea that the road to happiness is paved with Post-World War II conformity. Rudy must find his Bodhi Tree. Perhaps it grows on the campus, of Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, Rudy is merely an novice. He doesn't know yet that he has substituted one set of desires (comfortable middle-class furniture, cheap domestic beer) for another (fame via inclusion into a football program on the decline...an epic-sized "I-told-you-so" for apparently everyone he's ever met). Unfortunately Rudy has no spiritual adviser in his new found belief system. This is why the vacuum left by the desires of his family and community fills up with the desires of Notre Dame. He becomes obsessed. Notre Dame is all he can talk about. Understandably, every other character in the film is annoyed with Rudy.
There Is A God, And I'm Not Him
Fortunately, Rudy's ability to turn any conversation into a conversation about The Fighting Irish results in him having no friends. And no...D-Bob is not a friend. He doesn't even think to tell Rudy that he's moving until seconds before he skips town. It's like he was on his way out and remembered that he forgot to tell one of tutoring clients he was leaving. "Crap," he thinks, "Should I drive back?" If they were friends, Rudy would've already know that he was leaving. And he certainly would've been more crushed at the news. Instead, all Rudy thinks about is the fact that the new football coach might not dress him for a game, (i.e himself). Some friend.
The lack of distractions/friends propels Rudy's studies. He is able to conquer his learning disability and get the best grades of his life. But this doesn't bring him happiness, so he follows in The Buddha's footsteps, adopting an ascetic philosophy and begins living in an equipment closet. To further the punishment of his body, he becomes a walk-on football player. The coaches inform him that they intend to "beat the shit" out of him and the other prospective footballers. It seems to be exactly what Rudy is looking for. Rudy, delighted, promptly has the shit beaten out of him.
You Just Summed Up Your Entire Sorry Career Here In One Sentence
Still, Rudy is unsatisfied. The denial of pleasure becomes a desire itself. But there are glimmers of hope. He begins to show signs of the Noble Eight-Fold Path. The fact that he realizes that God did not put him on the earth to play football is an example of "right view". That he won't ease up in practice is an example of "right action". But of course self-actualization eludes him. That he lies about being a student to the president of the Football Boosters is a failure of "right speech". That he rubs the fact that he made the team in her face is a failure of "right intention". Let's face it, Rudy can be kind of an a-hole.
Despite his early failures, Rudy finally sheds his desires and quits the team. This brings Rudy close to reaching Nirvana, enlightenment. And what does everyone else do in the face of this incredible moment? They pile crap on him.
Seriously, this part of the movie really resonates for me. These people just spent the whole movie telling the guy he can't make the team and that he should quit. But then, when he finally does quit, when he finally realizes that the world does nothing but kick him like dog, when he finally stands up for himself, they all huddle around him and laughingly call him a quitter.
While most of the movie is sappy, this part is really the most true to life. Living life outside of what is generally accepted as normal/good brings criticism. But secretly, the critics really wish they had the courage to live by their own rules as well And that is why when the outsider relents and accepts the rules of the group, the taunts become more vicious. The act of conforming by an outsider reinforces what the rule-followers feared all along: they are trapped in the prison of tradition and communal expectations forever. No escape. Rudy, by quitting, locks the door tighter for everyone else.
The Problem With Dreamers Is They Are Usually Not Doers
This only furthers Rudy's spiritual ascendancy. By being mocked for quitting as well as not quitting, he realizes playing football is the same as quitting football. All actions are freed from moralizing. Nothing is good or bad, it simply is. Rudy rejoins the team, fully comfortable with whatever his existence becomes. This breakthrough quickly spreads to the other players. Now, being the captain of the team could mean playing against Georgia Tech, but it could also mean not playing at all. It could mean playing for the other team. It could even mean cutting up a bunch of Frisbees. The possibilities are endless.
Then we come to the final game, the end of the movie. And here is where I bring back my earlier point. I mean, there is no great significance to Rudy's accomplishment, that's obvious. He merely set a goal and met it. But the bar was so low that he couldn't help but jump over it (or even stagger over it). And that is why the movie is propaganda. In essence, the movie suggests that we set our sights for the outside rings, not the bulls-eye. That way each miss is actually a hit.
See, I proved my point. The movie is brain-washing you to settle for the middle.
I know you're at least "LOL-ing" right now.
Until Next I Blog,
James
Movies are propaganda. I'm like totally certain on this. When you realize that I'm right, you will be like "OMG".
Rudy is a prime example of propaganda served as light entertainment. The propaganda's goal: to convince you that shooting for the middle, that settling for less, is noble.
Yeah, I know. You're all "OMG" and et cetera.
How is it am already bored with this project? The boredom lobe in my brain is like Frank in the movie. He's screaming, "Are you kidding me? You can't write this article! Grow up! Quit NOW!"
These last four paragraphs are small, but I don't care. Frank can die a dark, lonely, screaming death in my brain. Where was I?
Five Feet Nothing, A Hundred And Nothing
Rudy begins the movie wanting to go to Notre Dame. Eventually he come across a copy of the Agama by The Buddha. From this simple text he begins to understand that his father, his brother Frank, and his fiancee are all trapped in their own suffering because they have desires. His father wants his family to be content. Frank wants a different life from his father. Sherry wants to be a mother. Throughout the movie they are disappointed because their desires go unfulfilled. Having discovered enlightenment, Rudy rejects the idea that the road to happiness is paved with Post-World War II conformity. Rudy must find his Bodhi Tree. Perhaps it grows on the campus, of Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, Rudy is merely an novice. He doesn't know yet that he has substituted one set of desires (comfortable middle-class furniture, cheap domestic beer) for another (fame via inclusion into a football program on the decline...an epic-sized "I-told-you-so" for apparently everyone he's ever met). Unfortunately Rudy has no spiritual adviser in his new found belief system. This is why the vacuum left by the desires of his family and community fills up with the desires of Notre Dame. He becomes obsessed. Notre Dame is all he can talk about. Understandably, every other character in the film is annoyed with Rudy.
There Is A God, And I'm Not Him
Fortunately, Rudy's ability to turn any conversation into a conversation about The Fighting Irish results in him having no friends. And no...D-Bob is not a friend. He doesn't even think to tell Rudy that he's moving until seconds before he skips town. It's like he was on his way out and remembered that he forgot to tell one of tutoring clients he was leaving. "Crap," he thinks, "Should I drive back?" If they were friends, Rudy would've already know that he was leaving. And he certainly would've been more crushed at the news. Instead, all Rudy thinks about is the fact that the new football coach might not dress him for a game, (i.e himself). Some friend.
The lack of distractions/friends propels Rudy's studies. He is able to conquer his learning disability and get the best grades of his life. But this doesn't bring him happiness, so he follows in The Buddha's footsteps, adopting an ascetic philosophy and begins living in an equipment closet. To further the punishment of his body, he becomes a walk-on football player. The coaches inform him that they intend to "beat the shit" out of him and the other prospective footballers. It seems to be exactly what Rudy is looking for. Rudy, delighted, promptly has the shit beaten out of him.
You Just Summed Up Your Entire Sorry Career Here In One Sentence
Still, Rudy is unsatisfied. The denial of pleasure becomes a desire itself. But there are glimmers of hope. He begins to show signs of the Noble Eight-Fold Path. The fact that he realizes that God did not put him on the earth to play football is an example of "right view". That he won't ease up in practice is an example of "right action". But of course self-actualization eludes him. That he lies about being a student to the president of the Football Boosters is a failure of "right speech". That he rubs the fact that he made the team in her face is a failure of "right intention". Let's face it, Rudy can be kind of an a-hole.
Despite his early failures, Rudy finally sheds his desires and quits the team. This brings Rudy close to reaching Nirvana, enlightenment. And what does everyone else do in the face of this incredible moment? They pile crap on him.
Seriously, this part of the movie really resonates for me. These people just spent the whole movie telling the guy he can't make the team and that he should quit. But then, when he finally does quit, when he finally realizes that the world does nothing but kick him like dog, when he finally stands up for himself, they all huddle around him and laughingly call him a quitter.
While most of the movie is sappy, this part is really the most true to life. Living life outside of what is generally accepted as normal/good brings criticism. But secretly, the critics really wish they had the courage to live by their own rules as well And that is why when the outsider relents and accepts the rules of the group, the taunts become more vicious. The act of conforming by an outsider reinforces what the rule-followers feared all along: they are trapped in the prison of tradition and communal expectations forever. No escape. Rudy, by quitting, locks the door tighter for everyone else.
The Problem With Dreamers Is They Are Usually Not Doers
This only furthers Rudy's spiritual ascendancy. By being mocked for quitting as well as not quitting, he realizes playing football is the same as quitting football. All actions are freed from moralizing. Nothing is good or bad, it simply is. Rudy rejoins the team, fully comfortable with whatever his existence becomes. This breakthrough quickly spreads to the other players. Now, being the captain of the team could mean playing against Georgia Tech, but it could also mean not playing at all. It could mean playing for the other team. It could even mean cutting up a bunch of Frisbees. The possibilities are endless.
Then we come to the final game, the end of the movie. And here is where I bring back my earlier point. I mean, there is no great significance to Rudy's accomplishment, that's obvious. He merely set a goal and met it. But the bar was so low that he couldn't help but jump over it (or even stagger over it). And that is why the movie is propaganda. In essence, the movie suggests that we set our sights for the outside rings, not the bulls-eye. That way each miss is actually a hit.
See, I proved my point. The movie is brain-washing you to settle for the middle.
I know you're at least "LOL-ing" right now.
Until Next I Blog,
James
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Week 1: Top Gun
Dear Avid Reader,
Let's get one thing straight...I'm not gonna recount the movie. So go watch it or this whole project goes up in smoke before we get a chance to start. Ill wait....No. No I won't. I'm starting right now. Here's why Top Gun is awesome.
(Sidebar: Actually, after I wrote this intro, I kind of ended up recounting the movie.)
The Need For Speed
The movie has two speeds: Highway To The Danger Zone (HDZ) and Take My Breath Away (TMB). Did you notice that the movie actually uses these two songs to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to scoring the movie? The typical movie convention is to use a pop song once and if you have a scene that has a similar feeling, use a different song. Top Gun defies this convention and uses HDZ and TMB again and again to paint with the EXACT SAME emotional color.
Nevermind that Take My Breath Away is the worst song ever. I mean it's just the worst. I don't care that it won a Grammy and an Oscar. It's awful. And Top Gun in turn doesn't care that I hate TMB. It needs TMB like Rothko needs red. No breaks, not rest. Turning and returning to some secret place inside.
The return to these songs reinforces the story of Maverick. When the movie isn't in a airplane scene, the pace is slow, real slow. And by contrast the dogfights are very fast. This allows the viewer to better understand Maverick's worldview. When he isn't in the air, everything feel less urgent. Nothing can match the adrenaline of flying. Even the love scene is slow, passionless. To Maverick even sex is less thrilling than flying.
Flying Against A Ghost
Top Gun is a movie about men struggling to cope with the expectations on them to perform, particularly in a traditional family. At the beginning of the movie Cougar is driven nearly mad with the thought that he might die, that he might "orphan" his child. The fear that he might fail as a father crushes his ability to perform at all. The terror overtakes him and in turn fulfills the prophecy that he will fail.
Goose handles his responsibility by pushing it on to Maverick. He "can't afford to blow this" but it is not Goose that must change, it is Maverick. During the chastisement of Maverick's recklessness and it is revealed that it is the welfare Goose's family that must be considered. In this conversation, Goose effectively moves the responsibility of fatherhood onto Maverick. Maverick is no longer to "fly against a ghost" as that makes Goose "nervous". It seems the person Goose wants to be nervous about his family isn't Goose, it's Maverick.
While we're talking about Maverick and Goose, let's start looking closer at this relationship. The most common interpretation if Goose/Maverick is Goose as "ultimate wingman" to super-star Maverick. I think there is something happening beneath the surface. Goose is not the friend he appears to be. I mean doesn't he try to sabotage Maverick's date with Charlie? One wonders who decided to have a volleyball game right before the date. Maverick surely would have told Goose that he finally got the date with Charlie. Perhaps Goose, feeling that his hold over Maverick was threatened, played into Maverick's competitive nature by setting up a little game, a game with his arch-rival, Iceman. There's no way he could back down from the challenge to show-up the Salieri to his Mozart. And then, when Maverick remembers himself and tries to leave, it is Goose that approaches him and asks him to stay. "I need to take care of some things", maverick reminds Goose while attempting to keep the relationship a secret from bystanders. But Goose implores him to stay. And why should he stay? "For me," says Goose. Some wingman.
Checks Your Body Can't Cash
Throughout the movie other characters are laying responsibility on Maverick as well. And it seems to me that Maverick gets conflicting views about what he is expected to do. When Cougar has trouble landing his plane, Maverick goes back in the air to rescue him. But then he is chewed out by his CO for being reckless. Iceman wonders if Maverick abandoned his wingman to investigate the MIG but Charlie will do anything to get more information about the rare enemy airplane sighting. What should he have done exactly? Maverick breaks the rules by going below the training hard deck only after Jester uses the hard deck unfairly to avoid being attacked. Shouldn't Jester also be reprimanded? He is accused of leaving Hollywood defenseless to pursue Viper, but why couldn't Hollywood take care of Jester on his own? Is Maverick being unfairly blamed for Hollywood's failure? Maverick, like the typical modern man, is lost on what the "right" thing to do is.
In the classroom, Maverick is singled out and dressed down for making maneuvers that are too risky. However, Slider secretly tells Maverick that his moves are "gutsy". Early in the movie, Viper claims to like arrogance/brashness in his pilots, but in the class, he doesn't seem to appreciate the aggressiveness of Maverick's flying. Charlie likewise recants and tells Maverick that his flying is "genius". Maverick is caught in the classic pitfall of education. While Fightertown may be the home of the best flying school, it looks like it still teaches to the high stakes test, asking its students to not learn but rather repeat back the answers it wants to hear. This is why a consummate rule follower like Iceman is able to excel. The apple polishers always do.
Right Up Until The Part Where You Get Killed
All of these swirling responsibilities come to a head in HOP 31. The evening before, we glimpse how Maverick's acting out is the product of a dysfunctional relationship with Goose. We learn Goose has betrayed his friendship with Maverick when Carol reveals embarrassing secrets of Maverick's love life to Charlie. In this way, Goose controls both sides of the Maverick equation. He enjoy Maverick's exploits, tempting him into more and more danger (i.e. sleeping with an Admiral's daughter, having sex in a public bar) but he can also make Maverick feel the shame of those actions by telling his wife the details of the antics who looks on them as foolish, even harmless.
Upon closer examination, we see that Goose has become the father figure that Maverick lacks, and also Carol his mother. in the shower scene after HOP 19 (Viper shoots down Maverick) Maverick explains to a disappointed Goose that it will never happen again. Goose coldly replies that he "knows". This emotional distance is obviously a ploy by Goose to control Maverick by withholding his affections until Maverick performs adequately.
Realizing that Charlie may become a threat to their control over Maverick, Carol invites Charlie into the family by stating that Maverick is in love with her. By doing this, Carol implies that Maverick is incapable of figuring this out for himself, or at least that he lacks the ability to articulate it. To her, Maverick is a child, not a man. The family then adorns a Rockwell-ian mask of normalcy by gathering around the piano to sing.
Later that night Charlie repeats the line "Take me to bed or lose me forever" as a sign that she wants to emulate Carol. Perhaps she sees that acting like Carol is the only way Maverick will love her, or maybe she want to replace Carol as the dominate female in the family. At any rate, by becoming Carol, Charlie allows Maverick to give in to his oedipal fantasies. This scene, and it's underlying subtexts, I feel aptly reflects the complicatied relationship between the private defense industry and the military.
No Points For Second Place
HOP 31 begins ordinarily enough but quickly changes. Iceman attempts to quell his impotent rage by finally breaking a rule and cutting off Maverick while in pursuit of a target. Iceman is unable to complete the task of firing upon his target as he is not used to flying in such an unorthodox manner. With his plan to be more like innovative Maverick backfiring and he disengages causing Maverick's plane to go out of control by catching him in his jet wash. This leads to Goose dying during the emergency ejection. Later on, Iceman apologizes to Maverick about Goose's death. Is the statement "I'm sorry" merely an attemtp to share sympathy over the loss of a common friend? Or perhaps it is the slip of a guilty conscience? Perhaps the ice-cold flyer they call Iceman finally made a mistake? Pehaps Iceman realized that a man died becasue it was he, IT WAS HE, that foolishly flew too close to the sun? What now Iceman? The curtain is drawn! We SEE you Iceman! There is no escape! You have finally slipped up and it is me, ME who has truly seen your face! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
At any rate, like Cougar, Maverick is faced with his greatest fear: having to fully accept his role as a man, husband, and father. Outside the door before meeting with Carol, Maverick pauses to fight off the tears. "Real men don't cry," he seems to say. What Carol says to Maverick is truly revealing. "God, he loved flying with you Maverick. But he'd have flown anyway, without you. He'd have hated it but he would have done it." By saying this Carol is explaining that as the new father, Maverick must put aside all emotions and doubts and accept his new place as leader. Even if he hates it, the role demands total service. As Maverick struggles to fight the tears, Carol gentle touches his face and coos at the show emotion. She leaves, unable to watch as Maverick shows this weakness leaving Maverick in total humiliation.
You Got To Let Him Go Sir
In the aftermath, Maverick is sent reeling for what to do now that another father has left him. He looks a a photograph of he and Goose. This continues a motif of photographs being a link to what a man must be. Cougar looks at a photo of his family and, in staring at that image of his responsibilities, is driven mad. Maverick stared at a photo of him and his birth father after he disappointed Goose. Maverick stares at the photo of him and his replacement father, Goose, tragically dies. And as he looks at a picture of his father in Viper's home, Viper enters the room, potentially becoming the next man to control Maverick.
But Viper is a different sort of man. "You have to let him go," he tells Maverick in the locker room after the training accident. The universe seems to push push Maverick to a more enlightened state. The first thing Maverick hears after Goose's death is "You gotta let him go." But who should he let go? His real father? Goose? Maverick begins to realize that he must defy the expectations that others have created for him. The ideal father is nothing more than a photograph, two-dimensional, frozen, unreal, inhuman. It is impossible to become the perfect man seen in the picture. Maverick glimpses another way in Viper. Viper was in a similar situation when Maverick's father died. He could have become a surrogate to Maverick. But Viper refused, leaving Maverick to cling to anyone that wanted the job. Viper wants no part of the traditional, macho-man construct that Maverick believes he must become. Maverick begins to realize there is another way. He must let "him", the man others what him to be, go.
The final dogfight is a mini-drama of Maverick's spiritual journey. He must struggle with fear of blowing it at the key moment. Once again Iceman pins the entire outcome on the performance of Maverick. Can Maverick endure the pressure? Iceman also seems to be thrilled with the prospect of dying as proof that he is better/braver/more of a man than Maverick. He must think that dying "honorably" would probably fit nicely in his application for grad school. His morbid desire for approval will likely serve him well come scholarship competition time.
The final battle for Maverick happens in that final dogfight. It's when Maverick begins to say, "Talk to me Goose." In the most dire of situations he reverts to his old way of beliefs, that he must rely on the expectations and desires of his father. And as he cries out for daddy, what is the response? Silence. Maverick is alone in the empty sky. There is no one but himself. He must fill the empty sky with his own desires and beliefs. He hits the breaks, and everything flies right by.
Negative Ghost Rider The Pattern Is Full
I don't want to listen to your comments on intentionality. So save them.
I think there are layers to this movie. I mean it's an action film right? But there is so little action. So what kind of movie is it? Watch for what is in each of the frames, they are so sparse. You don't see a lot of crazy explosions. People move slowly in each shot. This creates a delicate feel to the movie. It really does feel fragile. How is this achieved?
And another thing to consider, who is the villain in this movie? The Russians? They only appear for like a total of 10 minutes. Iceman? Isn't he more of a d-bag teammate than villain? The real villain is Maverick's inner demons. This is remarkable for a so called "action" movie. Shouldn't there be an over-the-top bad guy to beat up? These are what I'd consider bold choices for a mindless action movie.
Slider, You Stink
Now the AFI includes The French Connection and Jaws in their lists. They even include Rocky, but I'm not sure why (That's right, I went there). So the AFI is aware that action is a valuable genre. But here are the films that were up for Best Picture in 1987:
Platoon
Children of a Lesser God
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Mission
A Room With A View
I submit that, with the exception of Platoon, Top Gun is a better picture than these films. Especially now that you know what is really going on with regards to the plot. You probably haven't even seen these movies. Have you? I haven't. And I didn't even know they existed until I went to Wikipedia to look up the nominees. They surely aren't as enjoyable or memorable as Top Gun. If they were, someone would have recommended them to me by now.
Anyway, that's all. That's the first post. I don't know if I'll be able to match the output, or creativity, on other films. We'll see.
Until Next I Blog,
James
P.S. Can you believe I came up with all this bullcrap in one day? I did. You know this is gonna be a great blog. And also, why does the character Wolfman keep mentioning the status of his erections? He does this twice in the movie. I wonder how the actor felt knowing that he essentially had one line, and it was about his junk?
Let's get one thing straight...I'm not gonna recount the movie. So go watch it or this whole project goes up in smoke before we get a chance to start. Ill wait....No. No I won't. I'm starting right now. Here's why Top Gun is awesome.
(Sidebar: Actually, after I wrote this intro, I kind of ended up recounting the movie.)
The Need For Speed
The movie has two speeds: Highway To The Danger Zone (HDZ) and Take My Breath Away (TMB). Did you notice that the movie actually uses these two songs to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to scoring the movie? The typical movie convention is to use a pop song once and if you have a scene that has a similar feeling, use a different song. Top Gun defies this convention and uses HDZ and TMB again and again to paint with the EXACT SAME emotional color.
Nevermind that Take My Breath Away is the worst song ever. I mean it's just the worst. I don't care that it won a Grammy and an Oscar. It's awful. And Top Gun in turn doesn't care that I hate TMB. It needs TMB like Rothko needs red. No breaks, not rest. Turning and returning to some secret place inside.
The return to these songs reinforces the story of Maverick. When the movie isn't in a airplane scene, the pace is slow, real slow. And by contrast the dogfights are very fast. This allows the viewer to better understand Maverick's worldview. When he isn't in the air, everything feel less urgent. Nothing can match the adrenaline of flying. Even the love scene is slow, passionless. To Maverick even sex is less thrilling than flying.
Flying Against A Ghost
Top Gun is a movie about men struggling to cope with the expectations on them to perform, particularly in a traditional family. At the beginning of the movie Cougar is driven nearly mad with the thought that he might die, that he might "orphan" his child. The fear that he might fail as a father crushes his ability to perform at all. The terror overtakes him and in turn fulfills the prophecy that he will fail.
Goose handles his responsibility by pushing it on to Maverick. He "can't afford to blow this" but it is not Goose that must change, it is Maverick. During the chastisement of Maverick's recklessness and it is revealed that it is the welfare Goose's family that must be considered. In this conversation, Goose effectively moves the responsibility of fatherhood onto Maverick. Maverick is no longer to "fly against a ghost" as that makes Goose "nervous". It seems the person Goose wants to be nervous about his family isn't Goose, it's Maverick.
While we're talking about Maverick and Goose, let's start looking closer at this relationship. The most common interpretation if Goose/Maverick is Goose as "ultimate wingman" to super-star Maverick. I think there is something happening beneath the surface. Goose is not the friend he appears to be. I mean doesn't he try to sabotage Maverick's date with Charlie? One wonders who decided to have a volleyball game right before the date. Maverick surely would have told Goose that he finally got the date with Charlie. Perhaps Goose, feeling that his hold over Maverick was threatened, played into Maverick's competitive nature by setting up a little game, a game with his arch-rival, Iceman. There's no way he could back down from the challenge to show-up the Salieri to his Mozart. And then, when Maverick remembers himself and tries to leave, it is Goose that approaches him and asks him to stay. "I need to take care of some things", maverick reminds Goose while attempting to keep the relationship a secret from bystanders. But Goose implores him to stay. And why should he stay? "For me," says Goose. Some wingman.
Checks Your Body Can't Cash
Throughout the movie other characters are laying responsibility on Maverick as well. And it seems to me that Maverick gets conflicting views about what he is expected to do. When Cougar has trouble landing his plane, Maverick goes back in the air to rescue him. But then he is chewed out by his CO for being reckless. Iceman wonders if Maverick abandoned his wingman to investigate the MIG but Charlie will do anything to get more information about the rare enemy airplane sighting. What should he have done exactly? Maverick breaks the rules by going below the training hard deck only after Jester uses the hard deck unfairly to avoid being attacked. Shouldn't Jester also be reprimanded? He is accused of leaving Hollywood defenseless to pursue Viper, but why couldn't Hollywood take care of Jester on his own? Is Maverick being unfairly blamed for Hollywood's failure? Maverick, like the typical modern man, is lost on what the "right" thing to do is.
In the classroom, Maverick is singled out and dressed down for making maneuvers that are too risky. However, Slider secretly tells Maverick that his moves are "gutsy". Early in the movie, Viper claims to like arrogance/brashness in his pilots, but in the class, he doesn't seem to appreciate the aggressiveness of Maverick's flying. Charlie likewise recants and tells Maverick that his flying is "genius". Maverick is caught in the classic pitfall of education. While Fightertown may be the home of the best flying school, it looks like it still teaches to the high stakes test, asking its students to not learn but rather repeat back the answers it wants to hear. This is why a consummate rule follower like Iceman is able to excel. The apple polishers always do.
Right Up Until The Part Where You Get Killed
All of these swirling responsibilities come to a head in HOP 31. The evening before, we glimpse how Maverick's acting out is the product of a dysfunctional relationship with Goose. We learn Goose has betrayed his friendship with Maverick when Carol reveals embarrassing secrets of Maverick's love life to Charlie. In this way, Goose controls both sides of the Maverick equation. He enjoy Maverick's exploits, tempting him into more and more danger (i.e. sleeping with an Admiral's daughter, having sex in a public bar) but he can also make Maverick feel the shame of those actions by telling his wife the details of the antics who looks on them as foolish, even harmless.
Upon closer examination, we see that Goose has become the father figure that Maverick lacks, and also Carol his mother. in the shower scene after HOP 19 (Viper shoots down Maverick) Maverick explains to a disappointed Goose that it will never happen again. Goose coldly replies that he "knows". This emotional distance is obviously a ploy by Goose to control Maverick by withholding his affections until Maverick performs adequately.
Realizing that Charlie may become a threat to their control over Maverick, Carol invites Charlie into the family by stating that Maverick is in love with her. By doing this, Carol implies that Maverick is incapable of figuring this out for himself, or at least that he lacks the ability to articulate it. To her, Maverick is a child, not a man. The family then adorns a Rockwell-ian mask of normalcy by gathering around the piano to sing.
Later that night Charlie repeats the line "Take me to bed or lose me forever" as a sign that she wants to emulate Carol. Perhaps she sees that acting like Carol is the only way Maverick will love her, or maybe she want to replace Carol as the dominate female in the family. At any rate, by becoming Carol, Charlie allows Maverick to give in to his oedipal fantasies. This scene, and it's underlying subtexts, I feel aptly reflects the complicatied relationship between the private defense industry and the military.
No Points For Second Place
HOP 31 begins ordinarily enough but quickly changes. Iceman attempts to quell his impotent rage by finally breaking a rule and cutting off Maverick while in pursuit of a target. Iceman is unable to complete the task of firing upon his target as he is not used to flying in such an unorthodox manner. With his plan to be more like innovative Maverick backfiring and he disengages causing Maverick's plane to go out of control by catching him in his jet wash. This leads to Goose dying during the emergency ejection. Later on, Iceman apologizes to Maverick about Goose's death. Is the statement "I'm sorry" merely an attemtp to share sympathy over the loss of a common friend? Or perhaps it is the slip of a guilty conscience? Perhaps the ice-cold flyer they call Iceman finally made a mistake? Pehaps Iceman realized that a man died becasue it was he, IT WAS HE, that foolishly flew too close to the sun? What now Iceman? The curtain is drawn! We SEE you Iceman! There is no escape! You have finally slipped up and it is me, ME who has truly seen your face! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
At any rate, like Cougar, Maverick is faced with his greatest fear: having to fully accept his role as a man, husband, and father. Outside the door before meeting with Carol, Maverick pauses to fight off the tears. "Real men don't cry," he seems to say. What Carol says to Maverick is truly revealing. "God, he loved flying with you Maverick. But he'd have flown anyway, without you. He'd have hated it but he would have done it." By saying this Carol is explaining that as the new father, Maverick must put aside all emotions and doubts and accept his new place as leader. Even if he hates it, the role demands total service. As Maverick struggles to fight the tears, Carol gentle touches his face and coos at the show emotion. She leaves, unable to watch as Maverick shows this weakness leaving Maverick in total humiliation.
You Got To Let Him Go Sir
In the aftermath, Maverick is sent reeling for what to do now that another father has left him. He looks a a photograph of he and Goose. This continues a motif of photographs being a link to what a man must be. Cougar looks at a photo of his family and, in staring at that image of his responsibilities, is driven mad. Maverick stared at a photo of him and his birth father after he disappointed Goose. Maverick stares at the photo of him and his replacement father, Goose, tragically dies. And as he looks at a picture of his father in Viper's home, Viper enters the room, potentially becoming the next man to control Maverick.
But Viper is a different sort of man. "You have to let him go," he tells Maverick in the locker room after the training accident. The universe seems to push push Maverick to a more enlightened state. The first thing Maverick hears after Goose's death is "You gotta let him go." But who should he let go? His real father? Goose? Maverick begins to realize that he must defy the expectations that others have created for him. The ideal father is nothing more than a photograph, two-dimensional, frozen, unreal, inhuman. It is impossible to become the perfect man seen in the picture. Maverick glimpses another way in Viper. Viper was in a similar situation when Maverick's father died. He could have become a surrogate to Maverick. But Viper refused, leaving Maverick to cling to anyone that wanted the job. Viper wants no part of the traditional, macho-man construct that Maverick believes he must become. Maverick begins to realize there is another way. He must let "him", the man others what him to be, go.
The final dogfight is a mini-drama of Maverick's spiritual journey. He must struggle with fear of blowing it at the key moment. Once again Iceman pins the entire outcome on the performance of Maverick. Can Maverick endure the pressure? Iceman also seems to be thrilled with the prospect of dying as proof that he is better/braver/more of a man than Maverick. He must think that dying "honorably" would probably fit nicely in his application for grad school. His morbid desire for approval will likely serve him well come scholarship competition time.
The final battle for Maverick happens in that final dogfight. It's when Maverick begins to say, "Talk to me Goose." In the most dire of situations he reverts to his old way of beliefs, that he must rely on the expectations and desires of his father. And as he cries out for daddy, what is the response? Silence. Maverick is alone in the empty sky. There is no one but himself. He must fill the empty sky with his own desires and beliefs. He hits the breaks, and everything flies right by.
Negative Ghost Rider The Pattern Is Full
I don't want to listen to your comments on intentionality. So save them.
I think there are layers to this movie. I mean it's an action film right? But there is so little action. So what kind of movie is it? Watch for what is in each of the frames, they are so sparse. You don't see a lot of crazy explosions. People move slowly in each shot. This creates a delicate feel to the movie. It really does feel fragile. How is this achieved?
And another thing to consider, who is the villain in this movie? The Russians? They only appear for like a total of 10 minutes. Iceman? Isn't he more of a d-bag teammate than villain? The real villain is Maverick's inner demons. This is remarkable for a so called "action" movie. Shouldn't there be an over-the-top bad guy to beat up? These are what I'd consider bold choices for a mindless action movie.
Slider, You Stink
Now the AFI includes The French Connection and Jaws in their lists. They even include Rocky, but I'm not sure why (That's right, I went there). So the AFI is aware that action is a valuable genre. But here are the films that were up for Best Picture in 1987:
Platoon
Children of a Lesser God
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Mission
A Room With A View
I submit that, with the exception of Platoon, Top Gun is a better picture than these films. Especially now that you know what is really going on with regards to the plot. You probably haven't even seen these movies. Have you? I haven't. And I didn't even know they existed until I went to Wikipedia to look up the nominees. They surely aren't as enjoyable or memorable as Top Gun. If they were, someone would have recommended them to me by now.
Anyway, that's all. That's the first post. I don't know if I'll be able to match the output, or creativity, on other films. We'll see.
Until Next I Blog,
James
P.S. Can you believe I came up with all this bullcrap in one day? I did. You know this is gonna be a great blog. And also, why does the character Wolfman keep mentioning the status of his erections? He does this twice in the movie. I wonder how the actor felt knowing that he essentially had one line, and it was about his junk?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Intro To The Project
Dear Avid Reader,
Smooth segue intros are for lame advice columnists. Let's just jump right in shall we?
I'm gonna try to watch an awesome movie each week. I will then blog about the movie and the merits of what makes it awesome. That's pretty much it.
What sparked this idea is that I realized whenever it comes time to consider what movies are the greatest of all time, there seems to be a mold the films that are forged from. It's usually movies that attempt to reveal a larger truth, or they're epic in scope. The movies are hopeful but tinged with melancholy. They are almost always dramas. I say "almost' because they will usually include a few token off-dramas to the list. You know, to keep it honest. But when a romantic movie is picked, it's usually old film (read: It Happened One Night). The horror representative is always a Hitchcock flick. Comedy is always Marx Brother. Why? Have these kinds of movies never progressed past 1950? 1980?
And where are the slasher films? And the action films? Where are the weirder independent films? In essence my question is, why is that the assumption of greatness is so narrow?
And thus we begin our project. The goal, to watch movies and discuss why greatness should be a bigger tent than it is. Awesome, for the purposes of this project, means movies that are undervalued because the generally accepted criteria of what makes a "great" movie is snobbish. I'm sorry I shouldn't say snobbish. Stupidly restrictive and totally weak.
Now there are some limitations of this project. I am aware that this is a list that I, an individual, have created. So I accept that this is not a definitive list of the top 52 most awesome movies. There are others that may be more "awesome". However, I do feel like the movies I have selected allow for an examination of a wide variety of movie. By watching these 52 movies, the smallness of what is generally accepted as "great" will become apparent.
Or maybe this can just be an excuse to do something fun during the work week. I've been kind of bored latley.
I feel like I should set some conventions up. Here are some common themes that I intend to return to:
1) If Everyone Likes It, It Just Might Be Good
I do not believe popularity should be the only consideration when determining if something is of good quality. I also do not believe that if something is popular it is necessarily of bad quality. Mass appeal is generally looked at with suspicion when it come to credibility in art. I blame college radio.
I guess I will probably end up sounding like a cranky populist in most of the entries. Or worse, a trashy movie apologist. But my thought is that if people really like it, it just might be great. It seems so simple but I predict this idea will meet the most resistance. Take this as a fair warning and an attempt to absolve myself preemptively of criticism.
2) The AFI Top 100 and The Oscars
I have watched all of the movies on both the AFI Top 100 lists (1998 and 2007). I try and stay up on the Academy Award nominees each year. I like both the AFI and Academy. The problem is that institutions like these are why greatness is so narrowly defined. They are why don't see a lot of dance in movies any more. They perpetuate the idea that dramatic acting is more meaningful than comedic acting. And they place no value on understated acting. They want acting that they can see (i.e. "serious" acting).
Let me put it this way: the AFI and Academy are trying to kill musicals in this country. And I refuse to let them get away with this.
Anyways, I'm gonna be using these two institutions for comparative grounds. There are other film organizations that are in the world, and maybe other organizations deserve more criticism than these two. However, I am not as familiar with them and I am lazy.
3) Stupid Nostalgia
Here is some truth: movies that come out now are generally better than movies released in past. You just started an argument with me in your head.
I assume your knee-jerk response to my truth bomb was disagreement. Why? We as humans are faster and stronger than people of the past. We live longer, we are smarter. So why assume that we are regressing when it comes to making movies? I mean we make them in color now for starters. Color is better than black and white. I will not argue about this.
And yes the movies of the past informed and taught the movie-makers of today. Why is this important to the conversation of greatness? So what if the movies of today are building on the movies of the past. If I asked "what is the greatest toaster of all-time", no one would submit a bunch of old toasters that only could only cook one slice. Heck no! It'd be the ones that can cook twenty slices. The greatest toasters can determine darkness within a millionth of a degree thanks to a digital display that includes a stock ticker crawl along the bottom. You may think art is very different from material products, like toasters, but you'd be absolutely wrong. They are basically the same thing.
And don't try and find me and argue that you would pick the one-slice toaster. I won't stand for being lied to. Especially concerning art/toasters.
4) Permission
I publicly give myself permission to be sloppy with the blog. When I blogged before I spent too much time worrying about it. I want to change this. I mean look at the intro for this post. Pretty freaking stark. Well, I didn't feel like writing a gentle, witty descent into what this post is about. So I didn't write one. It makes the whole thing easier if the edges are unfinishe. I mean it's not like I'm getting paid.
And isn't the whole point of this blog that the general definition of "good quality" maybe too narrow. Maybe intros are overrated. Yeah. That idea is pretty rad. I'm liking this project already.
I wonder why I felt the need to set-up conventions. I'll most likely end up abandoning them. It's too late now. I refuse to rewrite this blog post.
Check it out. I'm gonna do the same thing I did with the beginning here at the end.
Clever, "wrap-it-up" endings are for hacks. Hacks that get paid.
Till Next I Blog,
James
P.S. I hope to use the word "awesome" less than the title of the blog would suggest. Of course this may be the most impossible goal ever. I mean I assume a lot of the time I will be trying to define words like "good" and "quality" using poorly understood Socratic methods.
Smooth segue intros are for lame advice columnists. Let's just jump right in shall we?
I'm gonna try to watch an awesome movie each week. I will then blog about the movie and the merits of what makes it awesome. That's pretty much it.
What sparked this idea is that I realized whenever it comes time to consider what movies are the greatest of all time, there seems to be a mold the films that are forged from. It's usually movies that attempt to reveal a larger truth, or they're epic in scope. The movies are hopeful but tinged with melancholy. They are almost always dramas. I say "almost' because they will usually include a few token off-dramas to the list. You know, to keep it honest. But when a romantic movie is picked, it's usually old film (read: It Happened One Night). The horror representative is always a Hitchcock flick. Comedy is always Marx Brother. Why? Have these kinds of movies never progressed past 1950? 1980?
And where are the slasher films? And the action films? Where are the weirder independent films? In essence my question is, why is that the assumption of greatness is so narrow?
And thus we begin our project. The goal, to watch movies and discuss why greatness should be a bigger tent than it is. Awesome, for the purposes of this project, means movies that are undervalued because the generally accepted criteria of what makes a "great" movie is snobbish. I'm sorry I shouldn't say snobbish. Stupidly restrictive and totally weak.
Now there are some limitations of this project. I am aware that this is a list that I, an individual, have created. So I accept that this is not a definitive list of the top 52 most awesome movies. There are others that may be more "awesome". However, I do feel like the movies I have selected allow for an examination of a wide variety of movie. By watching these 52 movies, the smallness of what is generally accepted as "great" will become apparent.
Or maybe this can just be an excuse to do something fun during the work week. I've been kind of bored latley.
I feel like I should set some conventions up. Here are some common themes that I intend to return to:
1) If Everyone Likes It, It Just Might Be Good
I do not believe popularity should be the only consideration when determining if something is of good quality. I also do not believe that if something is popular it is necessarily of bad quality. Mass appeal is generally looked at with suspicion when it come to credibility in art. I blame college radio.
I guess I will probably end up sounding like a cranky populist in most of the entries. Or worse, a trashy movie apologist. But my thought is that if people really like it, it just might be great. It seems so simple but I predict this idea will meet the most resistance. Take this as a fair warning and an attempt to absolve myself preemptively of criticism.
2) The AFI Top 100 and The Oscars
I have watched all of the movies on both the AFI Top 100 lists (1998 and 2007). I try and stay up on the Academy Award nominees each year. I like both the AFI and Academy. The problem is that institutions like these are why greatness is so narrowly defined. They are why don't see a lot of dance in movies any more. They perpetuate the idea that dramatic acting is more meaningful than comedic acting. And they place no value on understated acting. They want acting that they can see (i.e. "serious" acting).
Let me put it this way: the AFI and Academy are trying to kill musicals in this country. And I refuse to let them get away with this.
Anyways, I'm gonna be using these two institutions for comparative grounds. There are other film organizations that are in the world, and maybe other organizations deserve more criticism than these two. However, I am not as familiar with them and I am lazy.
3) Stupid Nostalgia
Here is some truth: movies that come out now are generally better than movies released in past. You just started an argument with me in your head.
I assume your knee-jerk response to my truth bomb was disagreement. Why? We as humans are faster and stronger than people of the past. We live longer, we are smarter. So why assume that we are regressing when it comes to making movies? I mean we make them in color now for starters. Color is better than black and white. I will not argue about this.
And yes the movies of the past informed and taught the movie-makers of today. Why is this important to the conversation of greatness? So what if the movies of today are building on the movies of the past. If I asked "what is the greatest toaster of all-time", no one would submit a bunch of old toasters that only could only cook one slice. Heck no! It'd be the ones that can cook twenty slices. The greatest toasters can determine darkness within a millionth of a degree thanks to a digital display that includes a stock ticker crawl along the bottom. You may think art is very different from material products, like toasters, but you'd be absolutely wrong. They are basically the same thing.
And don't try and find me and argue that you would pick the one-slice toaster. I won't stand for being lied to. Especially concerning art/toasters.
4) Permission
I publicly give myself permission to be sloppy with the blog. When I blogged before I spent too much time worrying about it. I want to change this. I mean look at the intro for this post. Pretty freaking stark. Well, I didn't feel like writing a gentle, witty descent into what this post is about. So I didn't write one. It makes the whole thing easier if the edges are unfinishe. I mean it's not like I'm getting paid.
And isn't the whole point of this blog that the general definition of "good quality" maybe too narrow. Maybe intros are overrated. Yeah. That idea is pretty rad. I'm liking this project already.
I wonder why I felt the need to set-up conventions. I'll most likely end up abandoning them. It's too late now. I refuse to rewrite this blog post.
Check it out. I'm gonna do the same thing I did with the beginning here at the end.
Clever, "wrap-it-up" endings are for hacks. Hacks that get paid.
Till Next I Blog,
James
P.S. I hope to use the word "awesome" less than the title of the blog would suggest. Of course this may be the most impossible goal ever. I mean I assume a lot of the time I will be trying to define words like "good" and "quality" using poorly understood Socratic methods.
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