Thought That Came Unbidden

There have been a huge number of words written on the “blogging revolution,” some complimentary and optimistic positing that blogging is the first step toward building a truely unmediated global community, some more cynical pointing out that the majority of blogs are written by people who have little of interest or value to say and that they are saying it to a non-existent audience (despite the coverage of a small number of high profile blogs, most of us just don’t get read that often).

Every time one of these articles comes out, or every time I run across one, I read it to see if there’s anything new being said. There usually isn’t. I guess that’s the difference between blogging and journalism: you’ve got the validation of a multimillion dollar publishing empire behind you as a journalist even if what you’re writing is just as pointless as the least read blog on the internet (which is, by that way, mine I think).

So what am I babbling about? A very good question. One I’ve been asking myself off and on with varying degrees of interest since I started writing here. It’s a more pointed question now given that I don’t have the excuse of hating my job, tons of built in material there, and my life is pretty much OK by most objective standards. I’m not the only one who struggles with this. M. Luminous is asking herself the same question I’ve been poking at for several weeks now in the most desultory way possible.

I guess after several weeks of not sleeping well and a couple of days of rainy, cold weather is probably not the best time to consider my own personal worth and the value of my “creative” endeavors. It’s hard, though, to not wonder what the point is, to try to justify how my life isn’t a giant waste of time. Maybe the scary truth is that “they” have had it right all along: mindless consumption is all that most of us are good for so why not just give in and do whatever happens to be the most pleasing thing at the time?

I don’t have a good answer for that so perhaps shutting up would be a good thing for me to do.

Each generation looks back and confidently proclaims that the pressure their generation felt to conform was greater than that of any successive generation, that the trials they lived through were harder than those faced by any group that came after them, that they never had it as good as kids today. In so very many ways this is humanity’s primary defense mechanism, this inability to accurately remember the past. It blunts our mistakes and burnishes our achievements allowing us to convince ourselves that continuing the species really is a good idea. But what if that pressure to conform came not just with the usual teen angst but also with the additional added prod that if you didn’t your soul would be tortured for eternity? This is the pressure that Mary (Jena Malone) faces at American Eagle Christian School.

Several reviews I’ve read of this film have called it a Breakfast Club for the aughts. In many ways the kids of The Breakfast Club and the kids of Saved! have quite a bit in common:

• Immense pressure to conform
• Oppressive Republican government
• An air of wanton sexuality permeating popular culture

In so many ways, though, the kids of Saved! are a lot more cynical than Brian, Andy, Claire, Bender, and Allyson could have ever have hoped to be.
[Read more…] about Saved!

There’s very little more depressing for a blocked writer than stumbling upon the work of another one of the vast unpublished and finding that other writer’s work better than your own. Not only are you denied the pleasure of reading a good writer’s work as you sit and mentally compare your stories to what you’re reading but you’re also further distanced from your own ability to create by the firm belief that yes, it is true, you’ll never measure up.

Is anyone surprised that Dreamworks turned out a sequel to Shrek? Is anyone surprised at how much money that sequel made, $104.3 million (the second-biggest three-day tally in movie history behind 2002’s “Spider-Man,” which took in $114.8 million), in its first weekend? I’d venture to say that the answer to both of those questions is no. What is surprising is that the sequel very ably lives up to the original in both charm and quality of script (that the animation is fantastic is only to be expected given the amazing leaps in computer software and rendering algorithms).

Shrek 2 picks up almost immediately after the end of the first film: a charming montage shows us the happy ogre couple on their honeymoon during which they check-in to the honeymoon lodge (a gingerbread cottage complete with icing shingles and gumdrop decorations), frolic on the beach (in a sly tribute to From Here to Eternity) and in general do the things that newlyweds do. The conflict comes after Shrek and Fiona have returned to the swamp only to be immediately set upon by a Herald, complete with a full compliment of trumpeters (again: a sly tribute to Herb Alpert), bearing an invitation from Fiona’s parents, the King and Queen of Far Far Away. After a long trip in their carriage, a hollowed out clove of garlic, Shrek’s worst fears are confirmed when Fiona’s parents aren’t exactly thrilled to see either him or their ogre of a daughter.
[Read more…] about Shrek 2

So, I got a new job, which I started back in March. It’s a good job, I think. The people are all very nice, the work is well within my capabilities, and I’m grossly underemployed. Part of the reason for this is that my boss is, essentially, in the same position I was in at my last job: he’s been doing it all alone for so long that he doesn’t have the strength to 1) care, or 2) say no any more. That’s part of the reason I was hired: to figure out how to make some sense of getting stuff on this organization’s web site.

Maybe I’m just used to being over worked but it seems like I have a lot of slack time in my day every day (OK, today is probably an exception it being the Friday before Memorial Day weekend). So far, I’ve been pretty good about looking for things to do.

For example, the organization’s site does have a cascading style sheet file, yes, but it’s being completely overridden on most pages by the fact that we’re using Dreamweaver as a “content management tool” (do not get me started) and people have insisted on inserting font tags that, really, do exactly the same thing that the CSS file is trying to do. I am, however, rapidly running out of pages to clean up and the editorial process I’ve put in place is about to kick in, which is going to mean a lot of regularly scheduled meetings, but there in lies the rub: what do I do until that ball is well moving?
[Read more…] about The slippery slope