Saturday, May 21, 2016

Thoughts Overheard

From bits of an interview with Stephen Jenkinson and Justine Toms 5/21/16

"…hopefully your heart has all kinds of fingerprints on it…"

…and it has been broken and is still broken (as proof of your being alive)…

"Lets' be alone together" Leonard Cohen

This interview was about aspects of dying, losing a loved one, grief...

Friday, May 13, 2016

Lost in the crowd

I couldn't help thinking about the enormous amount of (new) films available for public consumption seemingly each and every week. Sure, we can categorize and discount many-either because of personal preference or simply eliminating those made to be candy for the eye or brain. But each week there are a huge wave of new ones for consideration.
"Art" films now seem to also be a dime-a-dozen. Increasingly, audiences want more to the point where none of the films (to this add music, visual art, theatre, ad nauseam) seem to stand out, to be able to be heard among the "madding crowd".
This seems to me to be leading to a "numbing (note the "n") down" of our senses. I do not propose to know a "cure"-perhaps it's in reality a very good thing. But it seems to me that there are so many fish in the cinematic ocean out there that many good efforts are simply lost in the crowd. Unfortunately, i find this true with the other arts as well.
Are these the effects of population explosion? Advanced technology that allows greater access to tools?  Social media laughing at the very idea of privacy and/or exclusivity? Finally, is this a good or a bad thing?
As a member of the old school and approaching what I suppose to be the geriatric, i mourn the loss of what has gone missing in the crowd…but i'm not sure that that matters anymore.