Wednesday, December 03, 2008

United States of Unconsciousness

Disposable Heroes of the Hiphoprisy.
I saw this video at Greenbelt in '92 on a night when I'd been carrying Walker Percy's Message in a Bottle around in the hope that someone might ask me what I was reading. First spotted a favorite Marshall Mcluhan quote in the window of a Dublin bookstore not long afterward: "Anyone who thinks there's a difference between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either." If, against convention, I could be allowed THREE bookends, I believe I could fit an awful lot of my adult-life squawking in-bethreen them.
Enjoy

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Blame it all on the television!
I think there is only one thing wrong with the world and that is sin!
("Same as it ever was...")

benjamin said...

It's coincidental that you posted this, for me, because I've been thinking a lot about television and entertainment the past 24 hours after reading this article yesterday.

Ironically enough, in several of my college classes, lessons centered around an assumed knowledge of a certain television show or website. When I told one of my teachers that my house didn't have any television channels, she exclaimed, "What do you do?!"

And I wondered to myself, is television really THAT important? I like a few shows like everybody, but it kinda scares me (like most technology). I think a healthy, fearful respect is in good order when it comes to these new invasive technologies.

PS. I am reading The Moviegoer right now.

PSS. In-bethreen is my new faorite word.

jdaviddark said...

Thank you for your time and attention, Anonymous. To help avoid (or in some way stem) downward spirals of misunderstanding, I feel compelled to observe that I give an awful lot of time to (and feel enriched/admonished/educated by) myriad variations of televised content. And yet, the Disposable Heroes' witness...It stands. I hear it. Ring on.
Benjamin, pop culture literacy might be what your teacher has in mind. I don't think it's something anyone should ever seek out exactly, but there's probably something good about finding other people's passions (country music, hockey, Star Trek, Slipknot, Limbaugh) interesting enough to ask somw why, how, and what. these things are, in some sense, what there is to talk about. Available material. Hip hop, I find, (the phenomenon, i should say, rather than the brand) often gathers it all together to explain and describe and bring people together. It CAN anyway.
The INSERT SOUL HERE appeal is an all-day long thing.

Josh Connor said...

Thought you might enjoy this. I just found this soon after looking at your post.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnI28bdZylM

benjamin said...

Yes, pop culture literacy is understandable, but fluency is another altogether. I would feel uncomfortable at the amount of wasted time it would take to become fluent.

I guess I should have mentioned that I see television and internet positively bringing people together all the time. Even if it's to disagree (in taste or belief), at least there is (sometimes) an enriching dialogue.

I love to know what contributes to others' "rosy-minded fuzz."

Heck, I just pulled out The Boxer and I'm spinning it now because of enriching communication via a blog comment section. Thanks, Josh Connor.

I mean, is Binx Bolling onto something?

Melinda Speece said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
winds of magic said...

hey mr. dark - wasn't sure how to get in touch with you. i am a HUGE FAN (as they say) of Everyday Apocalypse and thought you might be interested in this thing i just wrote about jim carrey for the Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/jim-carrey

i never check my gmail account so email me at james.parker73@verizon.net if you like.

a full salute

jp

marc said...

"Did anybody have a favorite line?" you used to (and probably still do) say.
Mine was, "CNN, ESPN, ABC, BCB, TNT, but mostly BS."
my almost-too-wise sister-in-law makes a habit of call TV 'the idol.' it's true. look where all the furniture points. Laptops have recently become 'mini idols.'

The Diarist said...

i remember being at derryvolgie for what steve had affectionately called "darklight" in what must have been he summer of '94...

i didn't know who you were just yet but there was a mixtape playing when everyone came in (which i always assumed you'd put together for the occasion)... i think i arrived when something from achtung baby was playing but i recall it being followed by "music and politics" by hiphoprisy...

(i guess this is my way of saying "you had me at hello")...

...ewan:)