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Tired. This always happens after daylight savings time begins. I'm groggy and discombobulated the second day.
I need a new icon - not Buffy related. Anyone have a photo of a woman struggling that has zip to do with the Buffy fandom? I could go back to Aeryn Sun I suppose.
Currently watching Canterbury's Law - which is more an "ear-show" than an "eye-show"
in that I don't need to play close attention to it to figure out what is going on. There's a lot of "ear-shows" on - I get restless watching them and keeping having to find something else to do at the same time.
Today or rather this weekend I read/saw a lot of opinions on a lot of pop culture items (ie. tv shows, fashion, comics, films and music) and have come to the conclusion that I am very pleased not to be working in an industry or relying on my livilihood being derived from something that is based solely on "subjective" taste. My job is about as objective as you can get, my performance is similarily based on objective criteria. If I showed up, the volumn of work, cost savings, and if I followed the process. There's something comforting about this. Particularly in a world whose subjective tastes I find I'm often in disagreement with, sometimes violently so.
This evening on the train ride home, I read two reviews of "10,000 BC" - one loved the film and gave it four stars - stating it was a lot of fun, you just had to get past some of the misogyny (I think they are misusing the word here - something that I've noticed a lot lately, making me wonder if people know what the word means) and racism. It's a movie, the reviewer states, that you should not analyze, just enjoy the ride. The other reviewer gave it one star and said it was boring and filled with cliches. It was as if the two people had seen completely different films and in a way they had, since they are completely different people.
Same deal with Project Runway. I watched the finale then spoke to Wales about it. She hates Rami's dresses and colors, I actually loved them and would have voted for Rami. Christian's clothes I thought were sort of ugly and ostentious. Or over the top. Wales preferred Jillian's - whose clothes tended to bore me.
Then there's humor. Wales loves the film "The Big Lebowski" - it is her favorite comedy of all time. She thinks it is hilarious. I have yet to make it through the film and find it unwatchable. I'm odd about humor. I can't abide humor that derives from "humilation" or is based on "laughing AT" as opposed to "with" the person. About 80% of American humor is "laughing at". Most of the British humor that I've seen appears to be with. Or at least that's my interpretation. I'm sure others may see it differently. Benny Hill always seemed to be making fun of how we handled sex, not sex itself, or people, or women, or anyone in particular. Much like Borat seemed to making fun of racism and the stupidity of it, as opposed to individuals.
I remember in my social psychology course - they did this test in which they had us read a one paragraph story, then took it away from us. Everyone in the class was asked to write what happened in the story. Without exception, everyone added something to the tale that was not explicitly stated, and was completely different from the last person. I remember people arguing with one another about what really happened, much the same way people have been arguing with my interpretations of tv shows. Insisting their interpretation of the story was the correct one. This is what happened. The professor smiled and then read the rest of the story. We realized to our shock and dismay, we were all wrong, it was not anywhere close to how we saw it.
When I argue with people on pop culture - it reminds me a bit of that experiement. It's like arguing over which paint to use on a wall. One person might want yellow - it reminds them of a beach or sunshine and they want to recapture that feeling. Another may hate yellow - it makes them think of urine and/or that horrid wallpaper they had in their room as a small child.
I think the reason I've tried to discuss pop culture online from time to time, is not to argue about it. Despite what some people may think - I don't like to argue. I much prefer discussing things with someone who sees it in a similar way - it makes me feel less lonely. Arguing with someone - makes me feel lonely and tired and frustrated and angry. I've spent too much of my life arguing - to find it enjoyable. I went to law school. It is one of the reasons, I'm not a lawyer. ( I hate conflict, but am confrontational in that I'd rather get everything out in the open then let it just sit and fester - which is why you get these out-spoken posts. Not a fan of passive aggression.) At any rate, I've found that arguing about pop culture is pointless and leads to animosity and name-calling and judgmental generalizations about the person whose pov is the opposite or contrary to your own. You can't win. It's too subjective. And you are basically arguing over whose interpretation or preference is the most valid or the closest to the truth - when both are equally so. How in the fucking hell can you know for sure why someone sees something the way they do? And how can you know that their perception is wrong and yours is right? You can't know. You don't know. Which is why arguing pop culture, while fun at times, often tends to end with a stalemate or one of the two parties retreating in a wounded huff.
But when you agree with someone's pov or they agree with yours - when they put into words how you felt about something, how you saw it, why you despised it or loved it - particularly when up to that point in time, at least speaking for myself, you wondered if you were the only person on the planet who saw that way - that's a wonderful gift. Even if it is merely a nod. It makes me feel less lonely, less strange, less awkward. Less alien. It's like someone has stretched out in the darkness and warmly clasped your hand or done a quick high five.
I need a new icon - not Buffy related. Anyone have a photo of a woman struggling that has zip to do with the Buffy fandom? I could go back to Aeryn Sun I suppose.
Currently watching Canterbury's Law - which is more an "ear-show" than an "eye-show"
in that I don't need to play close attention to it to figure out what is going on. There's a lot of "ear-shows" on - I get restless watching them and keeping having to find something else to do at the same time.
Today or rather this weekend I read/saw a lot of opinions on a lot of pop culture items (ie. tv shows, fashion, comics, films and music) and have come to the conclusion that I am very pleased not to be working in an industry or relying on my livilihood being derived from something that is based solely on "subjective" taste. My job is about as objective as you can get, my performance is similarily based on objective criteria. If I showed up, the volumn of work, cost savings, and if I followed the process. There's something comforting about this. Particularly in a world whose subjective tastes I find I'm often in disagreement with, sometimes violently so.
This evening on the train ride home, I read two reviews of "10,000 BC" - one loved the film and gave it four stars - stating it was a lot of fun, you just had to get past some of the misogyny (I think they are misusing the word here - something that I've noticed a lot lately, making me wonder if people know what the word means) and racism. It's a movie, the reviewer states, that you should not analyze, just enjoy the ride. The other reviewer gave it one star and said it was boring and filled with cliches. It was as if the two people had seen completely different films and in a way they had, since they are completely different people.
Same deal with Project Runway. I watched the finale then spoke to Wales about it. She hates Rami's dresses and colors, I actually loved them and would have voted for Rami. Christian's clothes I thought were sort of ugly and ostentious. Or over the top. Wales preferred Jillian's - whose clothes tended to bore me.
Then there's humor. Wales loves the film "The Big Lebowski" - it is her favorite comedy of all time. She thinks it is hilarious. I have yet to make it through the film and find it unwatchable. I'm odd about humor. I can't abide humor that derives from "humilation" or is based on "laughing AT" as opposed to "with" the person. About 80% of American humor is "laughing at". Most of the British humor that I've seen appears to be with. Or at least that's my interpretation. I'm sure others may see it differently. Benny Hill always seemed to be making fun of how we handled sex, not sex itself, or people, or women, or anyone in particular. Much like Borat seemed to making fun of racism and the stupidity of it, as opposed to individuals.
I remember in my social psychology course - they did this test in which they had us read a one paragraph story, then took it away from us. Everyone in the class was asked to write what happened in the story. Without exception, everyone added something to the tale that was not explicitly stated, and was completely different from the last person. I remember people arguing with one another about what really happened, much the same way people have been arguing with my interpretations of tv shows. Insisting their interpretation of the story was the correct one. This is what happened. The professor smiled and then read the rest of the story. We realized to our shock and dismay, we were all wrong, it was not anywhere close to how we saw it.
When I argue with people on pop culture - it reminds me a bit of that experiement. It's like arguing over which paint to use on a wall. One person might want yellow - it reminds them of a beach or sunshine and they want to recapture that feeling. Another may hate yellow - it makes them think of urine and/or that horrid wallpaper they had in their room as a small child.
I think the reason I've tried to discuss pop culture online from time to time, is not to argue about it. Despite what some people may think - I don't like to argue. I much prefer discussing things with someone who sees it in a similar way - it makes me feel less lonely. Arguing with someone - makes me feel lonely and tired and frustrated and angry. I've spent too much of my life arguing - to find it enjoyable. I went to law school. It is one of the reasons, I'm not a lawyer. ( I hate conflict, but am confrontational in that I'd rather get everything out in the open then let it just sit and fester - which is why you get these out-spoken posts. Not a fan of passive aggression.) At any rate, I've found that arguing about pop culture is pointless and leads to animosity and name-calling and judgmental generalizations about the person whose pov is the opposite or contrary to your own. You can't win. It's too subjective. And you are basically arguing over whose interpretation or preference is the most valid or the closest to the truth - when both are equally so. How in the fucking hell can you know for sure why someone sees something the way they do? And how can you know that their perception is wrong and yours is right? You can't know. You don't know. Which is why arguing pop culture, while fun at times, often tends to end with a stalemate or one of the two parties retreating in a wounded huff.
But when you agree with someone's pov or they agree with yours - when they put into words how you felt about something, how you saw it, why you despised it or loved it - particularly when up to that point in time, at least speaking for myself, you wondered if you were the only person on the planet who saw that way - that's a wonderful gift. Even if it is merely a nod. It makes me feel less lonely, less strange, less awkward. Less alien. It's like someone has stretched out in the darkness and warmly clasped your hand or done a quick high five.
