Artists too frightened to tackle radical Islam

Times Online ^ | November 19, 2007

[Borges]

Fargo is great. And The Big Lebowki is more than a movie. It’s a way of life.

[durasell]

See, I like neither of those movies. Not that they were “bad movies,” just not to my taste.

Note: I don’t make value judgements on most movies not to my taste. I just didn’t care for them.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Rock music always had sleazy, corrupt, bad boy quality to it but there is more to it than just that. I don’t know if you ever read Alan Bloom’s critique of rock music in The Closing of the American Mind — but he makes the same case for the degeneracy of rock music. The expression “Wine women and song,” which has been around for a while, is actually the same as “sex drugs and rock&roll.” Rock music is no different from any other form of music in that it addresses many themes and “love” is, perhaps, the biggest one. It’s not all about sex — people write love songs — and the beat is more than just the hips — it’s about the heart. Opera addresses the same themes as rock music — mostly about love — and one can ask if it too is degenerate? It incites the passions, the irrationality of love, telling us the same stories that rock music does. And who doesn’t admire love and lovers... even if love leads to a violent death like Romeo and Juliet, the quintessential lovers. Love can lead to comedy or tragedy, death or marriage for Shakespearean audiences. And we are no different in many respects and that is why we like rock music. (Oh yeah, it’s not always highbrow, for refined or overly refined sensibilities but then I’m sure there where some stinker Operas written too.)

Good point about art. In music the last movement was Grunge that I was aware of — maybe Brit Pop after it. But there has been no overriding sensibility in pop music for some time. Maybe we need new instruments. With the synthesizer came new wave music of the 80s. Now it’s all recycled somewhat with screamo and punk and retro making a whirlwind of styles. Nothing distinctive, no city like Seattle, Nashville or LA to attract talent, be the beacon for the budding music scene. And there are few king makers (Nirvana was made) but for the Internet.