Muzak pipes out “Beautiful stranger” by Madonna. Yahoo celebs still carries head-shots of Paris Hilton.
And Vanity Fair features Cher-is-back. Holiday best-seller list shows John Grisham and Harry Potter. Across the pond, we are refreshed with royal wedding. I know 20 per cent of celebrities dictate 80 per cent of what we see or hear.
Easy comes, easy goes (Ricky who?).
At least, via I-tunes, you can still buy Beatles music. Long tail.
The British invasion, still.
I thought about taking a picture in front of the book shelves. It will be a documentation of a great transition (from print to online). I am sure future generation will look back and ask, what are those things behind great grandpa?
And I hope in the background, one can zoom in to see a variety of authors and subjects.
Why would anyone want to go through life, watching formula-movies, franchise TV shows, and read plots whose outcome one could already guess? The whole point of this side of life (art), is to surprise you, to uplift you, and to awaken you to new possibilities and twist.
No wonder children can’t stand going through the Edu-mill. They opted for stimuli on-line, whether it’s gaming or texting.
Friedman even op-eds that Education is the latest frontier (of warfare).
Seeing the intellectual poverty on display, kids “got it”. Doesn’t matter what they come up with, the market economy still dictates what and who are to be sold.
Blair-witch Project will go down in history as one of those rare blips on the radar.
And perhaps, with more affordable cam(era), young filmmakers will risk new narratives. Growing up digital, they have “mashed” multi-source in their brain.
What comes out will , at the very least, surprise us all, if not a call for change: kids ain’t dumb. We just don’t listen to them that often. Too busy to “follow” the Armenian sisters, the wedding across the pond and who Paris is seen with last night.
Thang Nguyen 555 