I also missed it on account of my now intermittent-at-best Videogum readership (sorry Gabe! You still my main shit! [Oh my god what??]), but it definitely ranks as one of my favorite comments of all time, not to mention favorite Wert comment of all time...and not just because it doesn't have a gif in it! (I'm sorry Werttrew, I swear I didn't say that to be rude or flippant. Sincerely, you are one of my favorite people both on Vgum and Twitter and I'm sure IRL if I ever were to know you in that capacity. And if I had read your comment when you posted it I would have said that it was unbelievably [well, believably in your case I guess] well-written and it made me feel simultaneously impressed and sympathetic and sorry and glad that I know you. Not sure why all this is in parentheses. I guess I'm prone to making needlessly parenthetical statements. Anyway. You're wonderful and your comment is wonderful and I'm glad I know you. Have fun in Europe! Still so jealous! Will you eat a French macaron for me please, preferably pistachio or salted caramel?)
I have to have at least one ridiculous, tangentially-related diatribe per week I guess.
Seriously, Gabe should block me forever for being so ignorant about how the internet/this website works. Here's a picture of my dog Angel (I think the name is dumb too, my little sister chose it):
http://www.twitpic.com/1kr4h9
Oh Steve, it is so good to read this. WAY back when, I was one of several monsters whose only wish was to have Gabe tear that movie to shreds. It finally happened and we all sighed in relief. I haven't seen Amelia, I'm sure it's as terrible as everyone is saying it is, but I also kind of suspect it's just a run-of-the-mill misguided biopic that maybe is legitimately offensive only to diehard Amelia Earhart fans (of which I'm sure there are literally tens and who all apparently read Videogum). I thought The Last Kiss was so offensive because it tried to represent a demographic, a zeitgeist or collective pathology or something, and it absolutely didn't, if anything it did a huge disservice to what that movie considered a "generation." All it did was cast assholes to play assholes who supposedly represent exactly an 18-32 demographic that doesn't really act the way those characters acted, like at all. I thought, how dare you, Zach Braff? How DARE you, Paul Haggis?
So anyway, your comment just gave me warm feelings, and made me remember when I felt like I had something to really get behind in this world. Now all I have is corporate profiteering in Haiti and neo-Jim Crow legislation in Arizona. Might go read that post again.
Yeah, well, when Jack asked the smoke monster why he used Locke's body, he should have said "Because he looks the most like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, and you know, allegory."
The Lost promos after each episode are becoming increasingly baffling. The last one was about Willy Wonka. That was just creepy and mostly uncalled for. Then this week it's all "He went insane from being in the jungle too long!" and flashing "THEHORRORTHEHORROR" and it's like "Oh, okay, so Heart of Darkness now?" Seriously NONE of these ham-handed literary/filmic references are doing Lost any favors. I was okay with the blatant use of paperback book covers, because whatever, I like books. This is just getting out of hand.
By the way (I am 1000% sure I'm not going to do this right...):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AkHeUaEva5k/RfNC02UDafI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/AdeuuQxa4kQ/s400/brando%2Bsweat.jpg
http://piercework.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f11b8be883401157083e1d6970b-800wi
Yeah, why did it take $100,000 for Hurley to just SEE HER but really she can just leave whenever she feels like it? I feel like the writers don't know anything about mental hospitals. (Uhh NOT THAT I DO) Especially because Libby's doctor described her pathology as "issues with reality," which of course is the first real-life medical phrase you learn about in Crazy People School 4 Total Pros.
Yeah for real. Sorry but the ISLAND did not make her an idiot with a bad accent (<-relevant) who just tosses around extremely volatile dynamite like a satchel full of so many bocce balls (what?). I don't miss her.
JEFF I DOWNVOTED THAT PICTURE BUT I MEANT TO UPVOTE IT I'M SO SORRY! Can someone upvote it please in order to counterbalance this. Also WHAT is with the disappearing reply buttons.
Anyway what I like about that photobomb is how it looks like his photobomb-senses were tingling and pulled it off at the last second all nonchalant like a total pro. Do you think he dates me?
There was a period of time when I was so convinced Patrick M. was my IRL best friend (same name, similar sense of humor) and it sort of drove me insane because I couldn't bring it up to my friend without revealing my Super Secret Videogum Identity (which is no longer a secret, THANKS JAWBONE). After a while I sort of figured out they weren't the same person. But it's nice to have unequivocal proof, FINALLY. I am sure you are very nice and funny though in real life, Mr. M!
I kind of agree that the show will ultimately fall to a bottom-line, "Who would buy this?"-type level of evaluation. Which is extremely limiting, because some of the best art can't be hung in a foyer, like installations or site-specific works, etc. But I also think that burdening this show with the mantle of Representing Art is silly, because it doesn't really exist to literally represent anything except a way to accrue ratings and money. That said, this show must adhere to some form of high criticism...because if the only qualification for a work being "good" was that it could sell for a lot of money, then all the art produced on the show would just be Kinkade-esque. Even though I think there's not much that TV producers and people who go on their stupid shows won't do for ratings, I have to believe that even this money-grabbing show will be a little more self-serious than THAT. But I suppose that essentially describes the paradigm of good and bad art that you set up...I personally believe art like Kinkade's is the visual opiate of the masses, and also just objectively bad. While I don't think Top Art will be encouraging competitors to take photographs of a crucifix submerged in their own urine, I can't see the judges lauding paintings of riverside cottages.
(Next time, I'll talk about the fact that art and personality are often indistinguishable. [Warhol etc.])
Most of Warhol's silk screens were printed by other people in less than a day. You don't have to be tortured to be a great artist. This is the 21st century dude...
Rant (caution: heavy use of scare quotes):
As an art enthusiast and lifelong Cynical Sally, I'm not sure how to feel about this show. On one hand similar shows like Project Runway have been very successful in highlighting genuinely talented designers, like Chris March (who designed Meryl Streep's Oscar gown btw) and Christian Siriano, and MANY/SEVERAL OTHERS I am sure (I am not very sure). Then again, I know much more about art than about fashion so maybe they're not that great and I am just naive. On the other hand, the very concept of Top Artist presents an uncomfortable allegory for how things we like to think are "sacred" or "private" or which should be separate from mass spectacle (like family, addictions, poverty, friendship, weight struggle, ad infinitum) are constantly exploited and made somehow "worse." The tension of Top Artist exists between the romantic/possibly elitist idea that art is part of a "high," selective institution and reality television is part of a "low" or popular realm of consumption and that the two are necessarily at odds.
But I don't see what is fundamentally objectionable about this show, other than the fact that it removes artistic agency in a way by limiting their mediums and creative scope (i.e. "challenges"). It is the conflation of work with commercial products? Is it the fact that art outsiders are ostensibly going to be assessing the "quality"/"value" of the art produced? I guess the only true judgment can come about once the artists start producing work on it...if it's all shitty then possibly we can blame that on the structure of the show.
Who said that, Michael did? Are you sure? Because I think if Michael said it, it would have gone something like "People are gonna die, and it's gonna be your FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAULT!"
I agree, watching that was like watching piranhas attack some unsuspecting gazelle (gazelles live in the Amazon you guys [and they cross piranha-filled rivers like all the time (even though they always get eaten by piranhas? leave me alone)]). It just seems sick and ruthless and a reflection of one of the worst parts of our celeb-obsessed society. But the part of me that is always internally following up every complaint with "#Haiti" can't feel too indignant over this. I realize this cruel media scrutiny is not in any way alleviating what I am sure is very real and legitimate heartbreak for Sandra Bullock, but you know, this sort of thing happens all the time to normal people who aren't celebrities and have one million other impossibly difficult things to think about too like going to work every day so you can make enough to pay rent and put food on their family or whatever adults have to do besides polishing Oscar awards and maintaining a relationship with an asshole. (Btw Pizza, this comment sort of turned into not really a response at all to you, sorry buddy)
Whenever I look at Jamie Foxx all I see is one big gross garbage penis. I think what I am trying to say is that his mere image feels like sexual harassment to me.
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