It's true, but there are a lot of reasons.
For one, this is an Americana blog. I'd love to have enough comics and gaming news and errata to blog about nothing but, but there just isn't that much of that stuff to go around every week. Not to mention that there are already a thousand other websites and blogs that handle this type of stuff and many of them are much closer to the action than I am, so I'd constantly be getting "scooped." Hell, I get a fair share of inside information as it is and I usually forget to post it before I get scooped!
And I don't mind dishing on the celebs when something fun is the talk o' the day - Paris and Lindsay are particularly fun to riff on - but that only goes so far. The simple fact of the matter is that discussing porn and celebrities at least occasionally is a necessary evil, since they are both so mainstream Americana now.
And that gets under my skin. Often.
I don't like to sound preachy and I'm far from the best person to preach to anyone, anyway! I smoke, I drink, I watch porn, I listen to death metal too loud until the cops get called on me. But the excuses and reasoning so many people come up with to justify the state of what passes for entertainment nowadays, the extent to which they go to to deny that any of it has a negative impact on young people and society in general, the underlying mantra that so long as they are making money from whatever they are doing, it has some redeeming artistic merit or social value - it's just offensive on so many levels! Can there really be anyone left on this planet that believes they would quit making porn tomorrow if we just quit buying it? Or that the glamorization of gun violence across the boards doesn't contribute to the youth culture of gang violence?
I mean, even 10 years ago, Spider-Man was Americana, pop-culture. Superman, Batman, Star Wars anything, Coca-Cola - this stuff is pop-culture and Americana, for eff's sake! Nowadays, it's thugs on crime sprees, celebrities on crime sprees, school shootings, crank and hardcore pornography, celebrities doing crank and hardcore pornography... And no one can argue that these aren't the pop-culture staples of the day!
Do I think these things are bad? Well, yes and no to various degrees, but that's really not the point: the point is that these things shouldn't be the focus of youth, Americana, and pop-culture - and yet, they very much are! I mean, let's be honest: drugs are not good, but a little partying never killed anyone - well, except Jim Morrison. Lynn Baez. Well, and Jimi Hendrix... Janis Joplin, Chris Farley, River Phoenix, Glenn Quinn - okay, wait...
Guns! Guns are not good, but they... okay, let's see.
OH! I got it! Okay, unprotected sex with multiple partners in front of an audience for money...
Yeah.
I'm... I'm gonna go crawl under my Star Wars bedsheets and read some comics.
For one, this is an Americana blog. I'd love to have enough comics and gaming news and errata to blog about nothing but, but there just isn't that much of that stuff to go around every week. Not to mention that there are already a thousand other websites and blogs that handle this type of stuff and many of them are much closer to the action than I am, so I'd constantly be getting "scooped." Hell, I get a fair share of inside information as it is and I usually forget to post it before I get scooped!
And I don't mind dishing on the celebs when something fun is the talk o' the day - Paris and Lindsay are particularly fun to riff on - but that only goes so far. The simple fact of the matter is that discussing porn and celebrities at least occasionally is a necessary evil, since they are both so mainstream Americana now.
And that gets under my skin. Often.
I don't like to sound preachy and I'm far from the best person to preach to anyone, anyway! I smoke, I drink, I watch porn, I listen to death metal too loud until the cops get called on me. But the excuses and reasoning so many people come up with to justify the state of what passes for entertainment nowadays, the extent to which they go to to deny that any of it has a negative impact on young people and society in general, the underlying mantra that so long as they are making money from whatever they are doing, it has some redeeming artistic merit or social value - it's just offensive on so many levels! Can there really be anyone left on this planet that believes they would quit making porn tomorrow if we just quit buying it? Or that the glamorization of gun violence across the boards doesn't contribute to the youth culture of gang violence?
I mean, even 10 years ago, Spider-Man was Americana, pop-culture. Superman, Batman, Star Wars anything, Coca-Cola - this stuff is pop-culture and Americana, for eff's sake! Nowadays, it's thugs on crime sprees, celebrities on crime sprees, school shootings, crank and hardcore pornography, celebrities doing crank and hardcore pornography... And no one can argue that these aren't the pop-culture staples of the day!
Do I think these things are bad? Well, yes and no to various degrees, but that's really not the point: the point is that these things shouldn't be the focus of youth, Americana, and pop-culture - and yet, they very much are! I mean, let's be honest: drugs are not good, but a little partying never killed anyone - well, except Jim Morrison. Lynn Baez. Well, and Jimi Hendrix... Janis Joplin, Chris Farley, River Phoenix, Glenn Quinn - okay, wait...
Guns! Guns are not good, but they... okay, let's see.
OH! I got it! Okay, unprotected sex with multiple partners in front of an audience for money...
Yeah.
I'm... I'm gonna go crawl under my Star Wars bedsheets and read some comics.
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