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Movies - some good ones here and there - loved Argo for example - go BA! I just think Hollywood is out of ideas. We are glorifying the wrong crap; the Kardashians - are you kidding me? If they can make millions, maybe we should all brand ourselves. Is this what we want our kids to aspire to? (Recent movies I have liked: The Call, Temptation, The Company You Keep).
TV - Reality - the dumbing down of America - Honey Boo Boo (that poor kid - in 10 years, you watch; Lilo won't have anything on her; the shows just get dumber and dumber. Hey, here's an idea - how about building up America - how about building up our fellow man/woman?
Sports - when I was a kid, we had tons of sports heroes - it was rare that you read about someone in trouble; those in sports understood what it took and you needed to keep it clean in public.
Video Games - not into them but give me a good pinball machine (LOL).
Music - Wow, I'd say the 60's to the 80's were the best. I'm glad I'm not 17, otherwise, I'd have to be a Belieber (ugh, the thought) - that's what the girls love today, yikes, where is the Springsteen of today?
(I do really like Jake Owen though).
I think as a culture we're trying so hard to be zapped that why not just tone it down a bit and enjoy the people around you, where you live, the nature, the culture, what there is to do, (for me, it's the beach).
Oh well, I just think Hollywood is out of ideas and the music industry is too. (Tons of 4 letter words don't make a great song).
Apparently we think a lot alike, I totally dislike those money & fame hungry Kardashians, their lifestyles are a very bad example for today's young girls, and now there's a scandal with the Mom and stepdad too, yikes! And I like the idea of building better people instead of inundating young minds with junk "entertainment", which is really for simple minds. LMAO when I read the "Belieber", so glad to see I'm not the only one who can't stand that kid, and it's not because I'm "old", I love younger people, but he looks so much like a girl and his music didn't tell me anything so I'm dumbfounded as to what today's girls see in him. Another one I couldn't stand is Mily Cirus and she's turned out to be quite a "dish". It's like all this child stars CAN'T wait to turn 18 to go totally overboard, too sad!
I agree that Hollywood is out of ideas, so they should change the tune and try things they usually don't want to touch.
Movies - some good ones here and there - loved Argo for example - go BA! I just think Hollywood is out of ideas. We are glorifying the wrong crap; the Kardashians - are you kidding me? If they can make millions, maybe we should all brand ourselves. Is this what we want our kids to aspire to? (Recent movies I have liked: The Call, Temptation, The Company You Keep).
TV - Reality - the dumbing down of America - Honey Boo Boo (that poor kid - in 10 years, you watch; Lilo won't have anything on her; the shows just get dumber and dumber. Hey, here's an idea - how about building up America - how about building up our fellow man/woman?
Sports - when I was a kid, we had tons of sports heroes - it was rare that you read about someone in trouble; those in sports understood what it took and you needed to keep it clean in public.
Video Games - not into them but give me a good pinball machine (LOL).
Music - Wow, I'd say the 60's to the 80's were the best. I'm glad I'm not 17, otherwise, I'd have to be a Belieber (ugh, the thought) - that's what the girls love today, yikes, where is the Springsteen of today?
(I do really like Jake Owen though).
I think as a culture we're trying so hard to be zapped that why not just tone it down a bit and enjoy the people around you, where you live, the nature, the culture, what there is to do, (for me, it's the beach).
Oh well, I just think Hollywood is out of ideas and the music industry is too. (Tons of 4 letter words don't make a great song).
To be fair, when it comes to sports, professional athletes have been this way for a while. But the 24/7 presence of media through camera phones, social networking, and other things wasn't there to highlight it like it is now. One of my favorite players of all time (Michael Jordan) is an example of this. Growing up, I always thought him to be a totally stand-up good guy and felt like Kobe Bryant was trash. But as I get older, I find out that during his run, MJ was just as much a narcissistic, arrogant, adulterer as Kobe is. The difference is, he didn't get highlighted because of the time period. I still prefer MJ to Kobe though, lol.
Mainstream music definitely sucks now.
Video games: They're better and worse at the same time, but I still feel like the gaming industry is very strong and am excited about what technology will do for gaming.
LMAO when I read the "Belieber", so glad to see I'm not the only one who can't stand that kid, and it's not because I'm "old", I love younger people, but he looks so much like a girl and his music didn't tell me anything so I'm dumbfounded as to what today's girls see in him.
I agree that Hollywood is out of ideas, so they should change the tune and try things they usually don't want to touch.
Now, now, we've always had our "pretty boy" singers for the adolescent girl audience. You could be describing Donny Osmond from my day or the Backstreet Boys from my daughter's...
But I do agree that the entertainment/pop culture we have right now is about 90% pure crap. I got so depressed this past Friday night walking around and around the "new release" wall at the video store - so many movies, and NOTHING worth watching. They are either stupid, mindless romantic comedies or movies where everybody is holding a gun. And as far as the gory horror movies, do we not have enough blood and horror everyday in real life? I really don't need another dose of it. All I have to do is turn on the cable news if I want more of that.
Don't even get me started on the TV offerings. I have decided to just unplug it.
There must be something wrong with me. Seems veryone at work is watching "Duck Dynasty" and talking about it. Personally, I don't even want to know what that is.
And I would LOVE to find more current music to enjoy. I cherish my classic rock as much as everyone else my age, but hey I'm TIRED of listening to Journey thirty years later. Those days were great, but they're GONE, time to move on. But it's hard to because there seems so little of quality anymore, and why do I have to SEEK it, why isn't it just there? And when did once-great Black music evolve (or de-volve) from Earth Wind and Fire caliber to the F-bomb being fired at me from the car blasting it out of speakers at the pump next to me at the gas station? Geesh, no wonder we've got problems.
OK, rant over. Turning off this screen and heading out doors to this beautiful spring day and fresh air. I've decided the great outdoors and cherishing time with my family will be my "entertainment" from here on out.
starting with the movie industry, you look everywhere and all of them are basically the same movies we have been watching. the endings are so predictable. It's like they have this formula. actually they do, I know, but seriously people need to revamp the formula then.
I think there have been people saying the same exact thing, at least since the early pioneers of the industry passed the baton to the second generation. What's forgotten is that those pioneers were just copy-cats, lifting aspects from previous stories presented in previous media and representing them in the new media. If anything, as time has gone on, we've seen a rather healthy amount of expansion of innovation (typically condemned as garbage by those who cannot open their minds enough to see the artistry in anything that they wouldn't consider predictable - interesting Catch-22 there eh?)
If you look at mainstream media, sure. However, this is a golden age of independently produced material. Good things are out there, they just aren't being brought to you anymore. You have to search them out yourself.
Seldom go to the movies. There have been some excellent films I found on Netflix (streaming)
usually foreign or from England and Australia but they never make it to the local movie mega
complex. Did enjoy Argo.
TV....ugh. Can't stand any of the reality shows and most of them are staged anyway,
The commercials drive me crazy. 2 minutes of a show then 3-4 minutes of the same
commercials (and I mean the same - over & over, repeating). The commercials can
easily make you a hyporchondriac, insecure about your body, questioning your bowel
movements (love this new thing since Saturday Night Live did a bit about this with
Phil Hartman called "Colon Blow')
I think there have been people saying the same exact thing, at least since the early pioneers of the industry passed the baton to the second generation. What's forgotten is that those pioneers were just copy-cats, lifting aspects from previous stories presented in previous media and representing them in the new media. If anything, as time has gone on, we've seen a rather healthy amount of expansion of innovation (typically condemned as garbage by those who cannot open their minds enough to see the artistry in anything that they wouldn't consider predictable - interesting Catch-22 there eh?)
Finally, someone else with some sense. TV has always had it's "ages". We had the age of the rural sitcom, the age of the renegade cop/private detective, the age of sci fi/action shows and many, many others. Now is the age of the reality show. In another few years, it will be the age of something else.
There are still plenty of good, scripted shows out there. Southland, The Good Wife, The Mentalist, Pysch, White Collar, among others.
This is an issue that plagues my mind almost daily. Probably because i'm a former actor & musician. The music aspect really saddens me and makes me wish I could have been a teenager in the 60's or even 70's. The problem with music is 1) those of us who appreciate good music, are in the minority when it comes to supporting it. The pre-teens and teens of this era are the ones that dish out the cash. So it's those homogenized prefab bands or musicians that get all the support. Corporate song writers writing catchy, cheesy, simple garbage that has very little substance but will grab these kids and make money. 2) Musicians used to spend hours upon hours building their chops. Day in and day out. Living their music. Nowadays, musicians and bands think practicing an hour a day is a lot, or 2 band rehearsals a week is good or maybe even too much. Mediocre has become the standard while software and technology is used to cover up or remove flaws. And the thing is, why bother putting in countless hours of work to hone your craft these days? Technology has made it so that anyone can have a home studio in their bedroom for the cheap. The interent is flooded with garbage. There is so much crap to wade through, that even if you are good, it's very difficult to be seen and heard and stand out. No one has time to sample and listen to all the new music that is out there. And when so much of it is terrible, and you are bombarded with it, it just extrapolates the problem. In the 60's on up to the late 80's, bands could tour and actually survive on the small money they generated playing dive bars across the country. Those days are long gone. If you can find a venue that will pay you to play before you make it big, then the pay is usually the door cover or a small set fee that is the same or less than you could make playing the same type place 25 years ago. DJ's and karaeoke are part of the problem on this front too.
As for movies, I don't think it's that bad. Yes, there are lots of repeative, predictable, etc movies that are churned out. But I do love how things like the new Marvel movies, Star Trek look so much better and more realistic and convincing than their predecessors. Movies due tend to follow a formula, but they always have. Where music is dying a slow death, I think movies are staying afloat. I love a lot of old movies, but make no mistake, there is plenty of garbage from the previous era to choose from. If you revisit tv shows and movies from your childhood or even very early adult life, you may find they aren't as good as you remember. Bad acting, bad writing, bad cinematoraphy, bad special effects, etc.
One thing almost everybody (in the U.S., at least) has access to today that they didn't 20 or even 10 years ago is an almost infinite variety of content.
There may be crap TV shows, but there is always YouTube, Crackle, Hulu, Vimeo, and Netflix. Watching a Korean drama or British documentary was nearly impossible here 15 years ago; it's in the normal grind of things today.
There may be crap music, but we have Spotify, iTunes, eMusic, and YouTube, as well as an almost endless selection of internet radio stations that can be streamed on a normal phone, as well as an almost infinite variety of "indie" and garage bands on sites like MySpace. Back in 1993, would there be access to Angolan kizomba music or Mongolian rock in a normal city?
There may be crap movies, but again, we have Netflix and probably greater access to independent movies, shown at the home or the theater, than any point in history.
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