A Rant About The Decay of Our Culture

People never get sick of talking about the things they love. To me nothing is more interesting than to hear the passion someone has for a piece of art of hobby. To hear someone explain to me in detail why a certain movie or book or whatever is their favorite is music to my ears. That's one of the things that pains me about the death of independent record/movie/book stores. It would seem as though corporate America pulled a fast one on us. It wasn't Best Buy or Wal-Mart that destroyed these stores, it was Bestbuy.com and walmart.com. Why would we leave the house to get the new cd by The National when we can just order it online? We're even willing to sacrifice some album art, downloading the albums from iTunes where all we get is a small picture of the cover.

Soon the day will come when we can't even go into a record store and ask the person at the front what he or she recommends. Try asking your local Best Buy employee. I'm sure he or she will point you in the direction of the Billboard Hits. Or if he or she is ballsy they might send you to the "up and coming artists" section where you'll find Modest Mouses 7th album. Up and coming--get your head out of your ass.

Sure we have social networks that allow us to connect to entertainment gurus in one way or another but they still don't do the trick. Besides, it's not like people listen to critics anymore anyways. Transformers 2 was almost universally bashed by anyone with a brain cell, yet it went on to gross over $400 Million. Normally I wouldn't care, I'd say "oh well the people who I want to see make movies will make movies anyways because the production companies know that quality work is rewarded in one way or another." Then I read that a studio passed on the new Paul Thomas Anderson picture because it's budget (which was only $35 Million) was too high.

You're telling me that Micheal Bay can get $200 Million to make Transformers 2, and Paul Thomas Anderson can't get $35 Million to make what is sure to be a fantastic film?

I know this post seemed a bit scatter brained--but honestly I'm so fed up with my generation and their bullshit.

And don't get me started on Owl City...