Hot Topic Killed the Subculture Star

I hate ‘the mainstream’.
Not necessarily for the products it produces, but for what it represents. It represents mediocrity in arts, one of the areas it is most desirable to have creativity & difference. (well I hate most of the products as well.) the problem is ‘the mainstream’ is backed by big bucks, big bucks that realize that ‘youth movement’ & ‘underground cultures’ can grow quickly. So, if they want to make the $ then they have to have the goods for these up & coming creative movements.

Look at all the money lost by letting hippies make their own tie-dye for so long. So along comes ‘hot topic’ or other chain store that feeds upon these sub-cultures. But by making the nick-nacks & doo-dads of an up & coming subculture available, coast to coast, from day one, they rob the creativity from the movement.

By this I mean that a sub-culture gains its identity not by where the people shop, but by the energy people put into creating ‘the looks & the lifestyle’. By making the looks & lifestyle pre packaged off the shelf in cookie cutter molds, it reduces the drive for people to create their own unique styles within that culture.

Now one could say that ‘no, it gives people more time to focus that creativity elsewhere!’
And one would be wrong.

creativity, like anything else needs to be practiced. A simple thing like making a tie-dye shirt starts the creative process. Then you start hanging out with people who have made similar items of adornment. In doing this you start to talk about what you all have created. Ideas start to be shared back & forth and the next time you make something it is greater than the first.

Through this growing & changing the various subcultures are formed & can become something large. As the creativity grows & feeds upon itself artists & musicians start to come together. All striving to be creative above & beyond an already creative subculture.
They want to impress people, people who they are creatively impressed by.

Ta-da quality entertainment, great looks, amazing art, it all becomes the norm. because someone made a t-shirt. Or spiked collar. Or whatever accoutrement fits that particular sub genre.

Now the problem enters when a corporation comes in and realizes that one of these groups are forming. And they mass market things that appeal to these groups, before the groups have time to mature on their own. This stunts the creative growth of the community, so the music, styles & art never have a chance to mature, they remain at a sophomoric stage. Which is fine, when you are a sophomore.

Now I realize that the corporations are not going to get the hell out of anything that makes money. So how does creativity get cultivated on a mass scale in today’s world?

anyone? anyone?

ah well..

-De

Who is this God Guy Anyway?

So it’s the 25th anniversary of Mt. St. Helens blowing its top. And here’s what was said at a commemorative ceremony:

"We commemorate the 25th anniversary of an act of God, and we remember those who died," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told visitors.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t we know for quite some time that volcanoes are not god jizzing on us? I mean at least have the decency to say it was due to ‘intelligent design.’
It certainly didn’t happen due to anything like, oh, I don’t know, plate tectonics.
That smacks of science, and, as we all know science is bad.

I really don’t like the whole ‘act of god’ being used to describe natural phenomena. Hell, insurance won’t cover certain ‘acts of god.’
As far as I’m concerned they may as well be saying ‘acts of boogiemen’ are not covered.

And another thing, if Mt. St. Helens blowing its top really was an ‘act of god,’ then wouldn’t it be blasphemy to hold a commemoration of the people he struck down with fiery vengeance? Wouldn’t we all by risking his wrath by being ‘saddened’ by the loss of these obvious heretics?

So either it wasn’t an ‘act of god’, some stupid people died because they refused get out from under an erupting volcano.
Or it was an ‘act of god’ and they were evil, so god gave them a redeye straight to hell.

Either way I’m glad they’re out of the gene pool. Which has nothing to do with where I started.

Fuck it.

-De

Uninspired

Inspiration is an odd thing. Sometimes, like today, I’m thoroughly uninspired. Nothing at all today has caught my fancy, irritated me, or even mildly amused me. And for some reason my mind doesn’t feel like having any real thoughts. The only reason I’m even commenting upon this is I want to stay in the habit of writing in this nether void. It leads me to wonder at what the hell inspiration is. What causes the desire in some to create something? I know, one of the oldest questions mankind has. So I sure as hell am not going to come up with an answer, especially when I’m this thoroughly apathetic to my entire surrounds.

Ah well.
Fuck it.

-De

Then I Remember, I Do Hate the World

Ok, so I found yet another human stupidity that bugs the living fuck out of me. But, some brief background first.

I was looking around amazon for some new reading material, nothing heavy, just some light fluffy, but enjoyable sci-fi/fantasy. I usually will go through the ‘others bought’ and read the synopsis & a couple good reviews & a couple bad reviews, just to see if it seems to be up my alley. So I stumble across this one review, the book received a rather low score for a popular author in the genre, so I was kinda curious as to why & was perusing away.

Anywho, I get to this one review, where the guy writes this tripe:

“How dare u people call ur selves XXXXX fans then bag out his latest book?!? Sure, it is not his greatest, but it is by XXXXX, and that counts for something. For goodness sake, it's a book one and setting up the storey for the next book. And enjoyable read for XXXXX fans, (if u dare call ur self that) and enjoyable read for those how are starting XXXXX, but this would not be the best book to start on. Sure, he repeats himself a little with storey line and all, but the characters are likeable and for goodness sake........IT'S BY XXXXX WHICH MAKES IT A DAMN FINE BOOK!!!”

now aside from the obvious conflict, having piss-poor grammar in a literary review, his only real argument for the book being good is that he is a fan of the author. Like there is some unwritten rule that in order to be a fan of something you give up the right to ever look at their work critically.
Hell, from that perspective, if you were a true fan of baskin-robins, then you would have to like every flavor ever made, or yet to come.
"HEY KIDS! New poop flavored ice cream, you’ve gotta like it cause you’re a fan of ice cream!!!"

Anyway the whole thing just bothered me so, I thought that I would share my ire.

And speaking of ire, this one is from a corporate stupidity; I went to my local grocery store for lunch today, and saw a big fucking sign on all their doors:

“You are now entering a gimmick-free zone.”

Now this one really pissed me off, especially being one that hates gimmicks. They are one of the lowest forms of advertising, glitz & flash used to sell inferior products to the bovine masses.
(the bovine masses piss me off for not demanding that more eloquent forms of advertising evolve. I still wouldn’t like advertising but at least it might be more entertaining.)

anyway, this “gimmick-free zone” pissed me off for a couple of potential reasons.

First the advertisers thought it would be a good idea to say “gimmick-free zone”, fully realizing that in saying thus it was, in fact, turning the entire store into a gimmick. Which would just bug the ever-living fuck out of me.
I want to shop at a place with food, not a slogan.

Or, what is more likely, their ad execs were too stupid to realize the cluster fuck they made in such a promotion.

Or a possible third option, also somewhat likely, the ad execs thought the buying public was too stupid to catch the logic flaw in a “gimmick-free zone”.

Either way I want to find the fucker responsibly for this travesty of a slogan and drown him in horse piss.

Ah well

-De

Shrinkage

So the trek to boston went well, for a fairly accurate rendition of what happened you can hop over to psichron’s spot. He summed it up pretty well.

this has been my third or fourth attempt to write beyond the intro, I’ve got some things I feel like spilling into the void, but the proper phrasing is escaping me. So I’m just gone forge on ahead, and if it’s non-sense so be it.

this weekend I met Frame, a decent bloke, down in boston. And somehow blogging came up. Now what was odd was that he had read this little corner of the web. It really brought home the fact that the world really is getting smaller. I had always been aware that, theoretically, through friends of friends & what not, that someday I might meet someone who had peered into this. Voyeurs into my world the same way I have voyeured into others. But it was strange, and strange in ways I have no idea how to verbalize (or what ever the writing equivalent is), but of course, i'll attempt.
It was simultaneously exciting & disappointing. Exciting because it proved to me that my words are being perused by people beyond my experience, making the world smaller & more accessible. and disappointing for the exact same reason, by bringing my words to people beyond my experience, the world becomes smaller and more accessible.

And I think that sums up my entire feeling on the entire state of the world today. The most exciting disappointing time to exist in. A world filled with endless possibilities, but they are all there for the taking.
All the exploration is either done through technology, hubble or deep sea robotics.
Or into areas that, though kind of nifty, don’t seem to have a excitement yield proportional to the work involved to get it, deep cave spelunkers for example.

Gone are the days when you could hop on a ship or horse, pick a direction and have a good chance to discover something not known to the collective knowledge. America was pretty much founded by people who had a spirit for exploration.
so as Darwin says, 'like father like son.', so I figure many americans have inherited the desire to explore, but there are no new frontiers, only distractions & entertainments. The world has shrunk to the size of a pinhead, & we’re all dancing upon it.

ah well
I still had a great time this weekend.

-De

Live Music

music has to be one of my favorite form of artistic expression to partake of, the only problem is i generally enjoy music that is not widely accepted by the mainstream so not many live shows that i want to see come to my area. however this next month is different, I’m going to see three shows, and I actually really want to see all of them. How strange, usually I’m lucky if I get to 1 show in 6months that I really want to see.

Tomorrow: Dresden dolls & NIN
June 4th: Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI)
June 12th: VNV Nation

I’ve actually seen all of these bands before, except for MSI and I know they all put on a good show, each in their own fashion. So this should be a fun bit of music enjoyment.


-De

National Security Drill

So at the mall near where I work they did a ‘National Security Drill’. And I can see how protecting our nations malls is vital to national security. As we all know, above and beyond all others, the mall is the symbol of what it means to be american: low wages, little or no health insurance, food devoid of nutrition, price gouging, low quality goods, conformity to mediocrity, rent-a-cops & video games.
I for one feel more secure knowing that should WWIII commence my government will be protecting what I hold dear, the ability to shop for name brand goods. At last our government has taken heed of the lessons to be garnered from ‘the dawn of the dead’ movies. That malls are the only hope for american life to continue as we know it, a last bastion of our culture when it all goes to hell. I’m glad that they skipped past such things as schools, business centers, downtown areas, areas that no terrorist would pay attention to, since an assault on our malls is an assault on our way of life.
/sarcasm

seriously though, I could not be less concerned with terrorism.
But I think it’s funny that the first drill they do is to protect a mall. and who really thinks doing a drill in a mall is going to prepare them for something actually happening?
In an actual event some people who are trained can’t handle it, yet other ‘civilians’ jump into the frey to help out however they can.
For the drill they were pretending that a bomb threat was called in; when was the last time a bomb threat was called in, and a bomb actually there?
Come on people, a bomb scare is a big ass BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
Followed by screaming, dust & blood.

This whole thing was staged more for the benefit for an ignorant public that thinks ‘hey they’re doing drills, they’re prepared to keep me safe!’

fuck that noise, as soon as you can explain how sears relates to national security I’ll buy it.

Grrr, I hate stupidity.

-De

Evil 616, Fear it.

So as many of you may already know 666 is not the number of the beast, just a neighbor, maybe 666 is on the same block, maybe the next block up from 616 the true number of the beast (who most likely went by the name Nero). This just makes me laugh, anyone else remember televangelists rambling about the # of the beast? Well, they were all spooked by satan’s neighbor. All the proofs that bush, or prince charles’ were the anti-christ because of the tie to 666, proven bullshit. Thousands of metal-heads saluting stan devin, up the street from el Diablo. Of course, I sincerely doubt that any religious head will admit that they’ve been duped from poor translations of their holy books. That would mean they might have to critically look at the whole thing to see what else was mis-translated. And that could bring into question the entire christian faith’s doctrine. If the christian doctrines do incorporate the new number they will most probably ignore the idea that if they were wrong on this interpretation then they are probably wrong on MUCH more. Ah well, at least the official church of satan id taking it well

"satanists responded coolly to the new 'Revelation'. Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: 'By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that.'"

out
-De

The Dark Side is Sexier

Just a Quick in & out today, this blog is a riot: the darth side

Disjointed Ramblings

It is incredibly hard to willingly descend into madness. To allow, or to force, consciously a sane mind (well, relatively sane) to break into a thousand shards, pieces that cannot be reassembled. I can’t go crazy. Not through mere will alone. And I think that many people try and drive themselves mad, often through artificial artifices. Things like excessive drug, or alcohol use, self destructive habits that batter & abuse their bodies, all in search of the pristine moment of illumination as you sit, for that brief moment straddling sanity & insanity. A moment that all becomes clear, before fracturing into incomprehension.
Madness was thought, by many cultures, to be the result of having seen the face of god or a god, but maybe it is the ultimate face of man. The prophets are often referred to as mad, having seen the face of god, they then spoke that we were in his image. When really all they saw was the ultimate face of man.
Descending into madness is not an easy thing to do. though many would likely already call me mad, I have never entered into a world shadowed by illusion. Tipping over the edge of reality, it just sounds oodles of fun. All reason & responsibility lost.

I look at the world around me and, for the overwhelming portion, I want nothing to do with the species that I share a genetic heritage with. I don’t like people. I don’t like what they do to the world around them, I don’t like what they do to each other, I don’t like that I am just as much a part of the degrading system.
What is the nature of man? I don’t understand the TV nation. I don’t understand the entertainment juggernaut. I don’t understand the political Hyde. I don’t understand the religious hypocrisy. Not what they are, but how they became. Having nostalgia for an age that never was, in a country that never existed.

People can do great things if they put their minds to it, but from my perception of the world they seem more inclined to commit atrocities, and try to convince the world that it was an altruistically motivated event.
It’s not a war in iraq, it’s protecting the poor Iraqis right to a democracy. It’s not discrimination against gays, it’s protecting marriage. They’re not removing our personal freedoms, they are protecting us from mad terrorists. They’re not destroying the environment, they’re protecting jobs. They’re not reducing freedom of speech, they’re protecting the children.

You know what, fuck off with your protecting these things.

If Iraqis wanted democracy they would have revolted. Marriage is a word, a definition, not a person who can’t defend themselves. Our freedom is what you say the terrorists wanted to take away, so you are not protecting us from them, you are becoming them. People can get other jobs & other industries will rise up. Parents are supposed to protect children, don’t punish me because they don’t.

ah, well...
-De

Fuck Born-again Fucks

Evolution is a fact. I really wish the dumb as fuck born again christians would get the fuck over themselves and stop trying to turn this country into a theocratic dictatorship. One where everyone is free, free to worship christ or go to jail. And I hate the way microsoft word automatically capitalizes christ.

Fucking christians make me embarrassed to be an american, along with a long list of other things.

So I ask anyone reading this, who is not anon, what embarrasses you most about being an american?
-De