Tag Archives: art

Monday Morning Ramblings

February 7, 2011 D.A. Adams 8 Comments

First, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers. They simply beat us and deserve to be champs. It was a good game, and we had our chances to win it but just didn’t make the necessary plays. Losing sucks, and I’m not going to pretend like it doesn’t sting, but life goes on. I’m just as big of a Steelers fan today as I was yesterday. We’ll be back in the big game soon, and we will bring home number seven.

That’s enough about the game. What I really want to write about today is that god-awful excuse for a halftime show. Five Finger Freddy, or whatever the hell his name is, said that the Black Eyed Peas were going to take it to the next level. Well, if that’s the best you got, you are a terrible excuse for an entertainer. That show was pathetic. Sure, there were lots of flashing lights and cool effects, but the “music” was beyond lame. I would’ve rather watched Milli Vanilli lip-sync their way through twenty minutes of their crap than watch those four no-talent jerk-offs stand around like statues and mumble their songs out of tune, out of tempo, and out of harmony.

That show confirmed so much of what I believe about what hippity-hoppity has done to the music industry. I prefer my music sung by people who understand harmonics and key changes and well, singing. Hippity-hoppity has become a terrible parody of itself, much like Air Supply and Journey were a terrible parody of real rock. Real musicians hold up live, regardless of the venue. That steaming pile of horse dung that Sam I Am, or whatever the hell his name is, and the others left in the middle of Cowboys Stadium shows just how thin and weak the music industry has become. Real musicians, who can play real instruments and create beautiful songs, can’t break into the industry, while talentless hacks get to play the Super Bowl. I mean, they were so bad they made Slash, one of the greatest guitar legends of all-time, sound lifeless and bland.

Part of me looks at the music industry as a perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation. Sixty years ago, our nation created some of the most powerful and amazing music in the world, and that music inspired the world to follow it. Musicians like Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Elvis Presley had real talent and honed skill. At that same time, our nation was revolutionizing technology and industry and leading the world into the future. Today, our country produces mediocre garbage that couldn’t inspire a pig to root in crap. Our masses still lap it up, however, because we’ve become so accustomed to mediocrity that most of us can’t appreciate real music and real talent. At the same time, we have lost our innovative edge and have fallen hopelessly far behind in education. We stand around bragging about how great we are, while the rest of world blazes by us.

Please, America, please, wake up and realize that when you settle for mediocre crap, you become mediocre crap.

General Posts

Saturday Evening Ramblings

January 15, 2011 D.A. Adams 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking about our culture and some of the obstacles we face for the future, and one thing that strikes me is our rabid need for the next big thing. It permeates every facet of every part of our society. Movie studios are striving for the next Star Wars. The music industry is still trying to replicate the successes of Elvis and The Beatles. Video games are always about the next hot game. Sports are always over-hyping young athletes well before they’ve earned the accolades and then lambasting them when they don’t live up to expectations. When the focus is always on the next thing and then the next and then the next, what becomes lost is the past and the lessons it can teach. Obviously the purpose of this is to sell things–tickets, products, magazines, advertising, but am I alone in feeling like this system is simply unsustainable?

Hollywood has been bankrupt of ideas for years and is left recycling scripts and franchises. The music industry sucks and has for quite a while. Mainstream music is more about style and image than music. Video games haven’t hit the wall yet, but give it time. Both MLB and the NBA have been in decline for a couple of decades because the leagues focus more on their major markets than on overall competition. And there is a serious disconnect between the upcoming generation and anything related to the past. My nieces had no idea who Willie Nelson is, and one of them likes country music. My girlfriend’s son had never heard of Ronnie Lott, yet he aspires to play defensive back. I could cite many more examples of this disconnect, but you get the point.

I’m not saying we should live in the past solely. That would be just as foolish and would resemble the Classic Rock stations that have been playing the same fifty songs for thirty years. What I do believe is that if we as a nation are ever to get back to anything resembling quality, we need to stop seeking the next big thing and find some balance between attachment to the past and movement to the future. We achieve this by celebrating the greatness that has come before as much as we hype the new. Whatever we do, we have to find a way to connect this generation to reality more so than they are now. Otherwise, we aren’t going to have a culture to worry about.

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General Posts, Ramblings of Thanks

Tuesday Morning Ramblings – Thankful #23

November 23, 2010 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

I’m thankful for my imagination. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a creative drive, an insatiable need to express the thoughts and ideas that bubble up in the mad scientist’s cauldron that is my mind. Awareness of this creativity began around eight or nine, when I first began playing with Star Wars toys, and instead of replaying the movie over and over, I would create my own storyline and remake the characters into what I wanted them to be. Then, my cousin Sam introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons, and my imagination found an outlet that to this date is unrivaled. Despite the stigma attached back then (I don’t know if it’s still the same today), role playing games were the most positive and productive form of entertainment I ever encountered. Developing characters and then later sketching out adventures as Dungeon Master brought me out of my introverted shell and helped me learn how to interact socially. And being encouraged and praised for my creativity gave me an inkling of self-confidence at an age when I had none.

I’m a writer because of my imagination. Writing is my form of expression for those bubbles in the cauldron. I’ve attempted a couple of times to walk away from writing and not look back because the life is difficult and often lonely, but each time, the need to release my pent-up imaginings would gnaw and gnaw and gnaw at me until I had no choice but to pick up a pen or sit down at the computer. I write this blog for much the same reason. Right now, with my current career in education, I simply don’t have the time or energy or concentration to work on a novel day in and day out the way I need to, so the blog allows me to release my creative desires and maintain my writing skills without having to focus as much as I would for a full book.

The only downside to my imagination an creativity is that I have difficulty remembering details precisely as they occurred. For instance, I can rarely quote a movie line verbatim because I’m usually rewording the line how I would have written it. So my friends often have to correct me when I attempt to quote something. To me, that’s a small price to pay for this amazing gift. I love being imaginative and creative, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I’m eternally thankful and grateful for my imagination, for my creativity, for my ability to make something where before there was nothing. It’s a special gift, one that I cherish and revere.