Monday, March 07, 2005

Weapons of Mass Deconstruction: The Revolutionary Potential of Art

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 03/07 | Add a Comment

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  1. Mickey....this is an important topic. Thank you for bringing it up. Most of the “art” coming out of Hollywood is an insult to anyone with an IQ in double digits. I know that there are exceptions, but off hand I can’t think of any. The art of story-telling has been lost. It seems to me that the box office tries to appeal to 10 year old boys and 12 year old girls.  The artistic and positive cultural influence that could come from Hollywood has been lost and replaced with a crass, anti-human, violent display that is having an adverse effect on not only the young, but all of us.  Whether we like it or not, we all are immersed in this culture. Violence, blood and guts, and sex sells. The mind-numbing displays on the video and film screens prepares the young for war and tears down any taboos against killing. Why are so few shocked about the slaughter of the 100,000+ civilians in Iraq?

    Posted by rosemarie jackowski from  on  03/08  at  09:35 AM

  2. Inspiring article Mickey.  Kudos.

    Thanks too for your perceptive comments RM.  Would that I could be so pithy and eloquent.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from Chicago  on  03/08  at  11:53 AM

  3. I’m not as pessimistic about the state of music today.  I can’t say much about movies, because I hardly ever watch any, but there is plenty of great politically-themed music being made today, especially in hip hop.  In fact, I’ll bet you there is more of a political bent in popular music today than there was during the time of Billie Holiday.

    Even Green Day put out a good album this past year.  I mean, a lot of the politically themed music gets by because corporations use the rebelliousness of it as a marketing gimmick, but still.

    Posted by Justin Felux from San Antonio, TX  on  03/09  at  04:57 PM

  4. Aesthetics praxis, in and of itself, is revolutionary.  It doesn’t have to be directly political, but often in times of political repression/crime, art, as a cultural entity, responds without even the artist realizing it. 

    John Wayne - right wing icon...reframe it and you simply get a hammy actor...John Wayne won his only oscar for a film (The excellent True Grit) written by a communist former blacklisted screenwriter.  One of the reasons that American film went downhi lafter the early fifties was the blacklist, which literally destroyed the entire talent apparatus, with some exceptions such as Billy Wilder.

    Posted by j cummings from Canada  on  03/10  at  01:19 PM

  5. An example of the revolutionary (and racist, sexist, objectifying) art of Mickey Z.:

    After tying and retying my shoelace
    at least six times, I opt
    for the risky frontal view
    by walking past this vision
    of Latin splendor to see
    if her blouse is having
    as hard a time as her shorts
    in the flesh-covering business.

    <http://www.cleansheets.com/poetry/mickeyz_11.13.02.shtml>

    Posted by Ludwig von Gergen from  on  03/14  at  09:40 AM
    6. Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. {/if}

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