Whelp, guys, it's been fun.

[Great Rumbler]

We really had a good run, didn't we? I mean, sure, we had our ups and downs, but things mostly went pretty good for the most part. We had our laughs and our cries, good friends came and went. But this is the end and it's time to say all our goodbyes.

December 21, 2012

365 days to go.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Good riddance. I'm eager to see what God will concoct next. I don't think this world has been so good, I bet he can do a way better job than this. It really hasn't lived up to all his previous works if you ask me. His ideas seem kind of trite at this point too, to be honest.

If only OB1 were here to snort and say "everyone thinks they can paint a picture better than the artist!"

[Dark Jaguar]

Heck just because I can't paint doesn't mean I can't criticize.

[A Black Falcon]

I'm looking forward to 2013, so this whole "2012 apocalypse" thing will finally go away..

Heck just because I can't paint doesn't mean I can't criticize.

I definitely agree on this point as well, yeah. You don't have to be able to do something to be a critic of it. It may help, but isn't required.

[Weltall]

An artist can offer informed criticism about technique. Anybody can offer informed criticism about aesthetics.

Is art about the technique or the aesthetics?

[Great Rumbler]

There's a difference between "not being able to paint" and "not knowing anything about art but still demanding an opinion".

[Dark Jaguar]

Someone can know nothing at all about the world of art and still have an opinion. What does it mean to "demand" one anyway?

It's every right of a college frat boy to say Zelda sucks because it's just elves and isn't Madden.

[Great Rumbler]

Someone can know nothing at all about the world of art and still have an opinion.

But that doesn't mean anyone should [or wants to] listen to them.

[Dark Jaguar]

I dunno, art should be understandable to the masses, otherwise you might as well be speaking in tongues.

For example, while I "get" symbolism most of the time, Eraser Head just left me tilting my head like a kitten hearing a person's voice come out of the answering machine. I know a lot of people consider it a deeply personal journey, but to me that's the problem. Whatever meaning it had to Kubrik was completely lost on me. I couldn't relate. I did relate a lot better to the Kids in the Hall parody of it though. Saaausages.

[Weltall]

Eraserhead was David Lynch, not Kubrick.

I know bad writing when I read it. The fact that I write does not confer on my opinion some special gravitas. At least, it should not. Any person who enjoys reading should be able to criticize shitty writing.

I don't know how to paint, and I am not interested in learning. But, I know bad painting when I see it, just as I know a good one when I see it. I am qualified to say so on the basis that appreciation for anything is a completely subjective thing, so if a work of art is good to me, who are you to tell me I don't know what's good?

[Dark Jaguar]

My mistake. Either way, I have no idea what any of that stuff was supposed to mean. I might as well assume it was just weird for weird's sake.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Eraserhead is excellent. The Kubrick connection actually still applies, because Stanley apparently wrote a letter to Lynch telling him how much he loved it.

That said, I love Eraserhead. It's less about a straightforward, conventional plot, and more about provoking feelings of fear and anxiety in its viewer, like a bad dream. It manages to make me more unsettled and nervous than just about every horror movie I've ever seen. It's not so much a deep and life-changing journey, it's about a man's life, already steeped in an a hellish industrial wasteland, and how it goes even further down the drain when his deformed child is born.

There's some good imagery and cinematography in the film, but I perfectly understand that it's hardly accessible, and that it's perfectly legitimate for a viewer to walk away thinking that it's tripe. I actually don't care much for Lynch's other work -- see Muholland Drive, Lost Highway. Inland Empire put me to sleep, but holy shit, I woke up to some terrifying clips.

Anyway, different strokes and all that. I can't stand it when an enthusiast of a piece of art shoots back, "Well, you just don't get it, maaaan!!" Maybe I don't, but get off your fucking high horse.