I Gotta Be Me #3 - Thoughts on Cinema

Have you ever taken a look at a list of the top ten movies at the current box office? If you have and you consider movies an art form rather than disposable entertainment, you must feel as disheartened as I do sometimes about the state of our culture. I would say on average that maybe 3 or 4 of the top 10 movies are actually worth paying money to see at the theater, for those of us who actually care about movies. The rest are usually either big, dumb action movies, romances built almost entirely on treacle, or comedies that seem to cater to undiscriminating 12 year olds, yet are marketed to adults. Rare are the films that are actually challenging, original, intelligent, with memorable stories and interesting characters. A few years ago, I actually overheard a couple of teenage girls lauding the classic film Citizen Kane at my local library. Maybe we yet have hope. Last week, on the blog, I wrote that I would only review contemporary films from now on. I have changed my mind and have decided that if I so choose to, I will review films from any and all eras, and any and all genres. I watch movies from all eras and genres, so I see no good reason to pretend that I watch contemporary films only, certainly not because I might gain more readers(yet lose myself in the process). I watch a lot of contemporary films, but I also love old black and white films, foreign films, silent films, and documentaries. Cinema is one of the great modern art forms:  less subtle and intellectually absorbing than literature, but perhaps even more empathetic and humanistic in its immediacy. To take the potentials of the art form and devolve it into entertainment to be watched today and forgotten tomorrow is to throw part of our cultural heritage into a wastebasket. If you love cinema like I do, avoid bad, even mediocre movies like the plague, because culturally, that's what they are.

I Gotta Be Me #2 - Thoughts on Music

Last week, I said I had decided to review only Electronic Music albums, mainly for marketing purposes, but  after trying that and some serious consideration, I have decided that it just doesn't feel right. It almost feels like selling out, in a way. I have no problems selling my music, as long as it done with honesty and integrity, but trying to pretend I only listen to Electronic Music simply because it is the genre I produce music in just doesn't seem ethical to me. I love all kinds of music and I want to express that fact in my reviews. By only reviewing Electronic Music, I actually may have eventually ended up with more readers that listen almost exclusively to that genre, but they would be very little like me, even though I am a thoroughly dedicated Electronic Musician. In my music writing, I want to impress on people the importance of loving music itself as an art form and not to get too caught up in the wobbly dynamics of genre. If anything, I want to encourage music listeners to keep as  open a mind  as possible, not only in terms of genre, but with many other aspects of music that mainstream music listeners often get hung up on, such as popularity, era, length, and instrumental music. From now on, my reviews will consist of music that I like, regardless of genre or any other generalized concepts. Music is one of the most mysterious, magical, invigorating, types of art there is. To limit its importance by only listening to mainly one genre or only what you hear played on the radio or TV is not only doing yourself a disservice, but the culture at large. Music is the sound of humanity and humanity comes in many different styles and flavors. Enjoy as many of them as you can.