Tag Archives: media

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

Thursday Afternoon Ramblings

January 13, 2011 D.A. Adams 2 Comments

It’s always staggering to me when people push things to an extreme but then act stunned when they have to face the consequences. In this particular instance, I’m referring to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. For nearly two years, the far right has gathered in hate-filled rallies with signs that read, “We Came Unarmed…This Time” and “Signs Today…Guns Tomorrow” and “Party Like It’s 1773” and Sarah Palin has inflamed tempers at these rallies with phrases like, “Don’t retreat. Reload.” And then, of course, are her now infamous ads with Democrats lined up in cross-hairs.

Then, someone takes all of this hate to heart, goes on a shooting rampage that kills six and leaves a couple dozen injured, and suddenly Palin and the Tea Party seem outraged that anyone could possibly point the finger at them for their hate-speech.

This was the work of a deranged individual working alone, they say.

Bullshit, I say. Words have meaning and power, and when you use hate and fear to stir people into action, you are just as culpable for the actions of those “deranged individuals” who carry out your message as they are. I’ve written on this blog before that the reason why the right scares me is because people like Timothy McVeigh, Jim Adkisson, and now Jared Loughner all took the venomous, hate-filled diatribes of the far right’s elocutionists and followed through with horrendously violent actions. Against hate and intolerance, there is no reasoning, there is no discourse, there is no civility. Hate will always spawn murder, and those who spew hate for self-gain and political expediency have the same blood on their hands and the person who parked the van or pulled the trigger.

The far left is no less guilty of using hate and sensationalism as the right. It’s simply a miracle that we haven’t had similar shooting rampages by a “deranged individual” from that end of the spectrum. What we need is more of what we saw at the end of last year–cooperation and compromise between the two sides and less extremism. In short, we need moderation. Until both extremes of both parties realize that we’re all in this together and we all need to find a way to coexist, there will continue to be more “deranged individuals” who take the inflammatory venom of people like Sarah Palin and commit atrocious acts at their indirect behest.

General Posts

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

December 11, 2010 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

I’ve been working on updating my website last night and today. While the basic appearance will remain the same, I’m actually redesigning it from the ground up. The old template is at least five years old, and even though it functions, the html is a little archaic. My analytics system can’t read the clicks on the different pages, so I want to update it so the program can keep track of everything properly. The only problem is that I’m neither a web page designer nor a graphic artist, so I end up flying blind most of the time. Give me prose any day of the week.

I truly admire the people who can do this stuff effortlessly. I know just enough about web design to know how complex certain things are, so when I see a webpage that really crackles, I’m always impressed. Rob brown, who did the poster for Brotherhood, does incredible work. He designed the top and left banners for the current page, and I’ll keep his graphics for the new layout. They’re really sharp and flow together beautifully.

The new page won’t be launched before New Year’s to give me plenty of time of polish and tweak. I’m sure there will be many moments of cursing and pulling hair between now and then, but once it’s ready, I’ll announce it on here so everyone can come take a look.

In unrelated news, the storm is almost here, so all of you who are gonna be in its path, please be careful this weekend. This weather has the potential to get very nasty, so don’t take any unnecessary risks. Hope everyone stays warm and dry over the next few days.