nothing is real anymore
well… this one is bound to piss someone off. and good. seeing as how there’s really very little left of punk anymore, a little off-pissing is probably sorely needed.
The idea has been bumping around in my head for a while now, the ‘LDN TXTNG’ bit… I finished it and was toying with trying to figure out how to realistically fit an iPhone in there when the ‘rock band’/’guitar hero’ thing struck me. The whole concept is a result of me being (probably too) critical about trendy crap and getting old & cranky on top of it. (I’m reminded of when I was 13 and that old guy telling me that Chuck Berry could play circles around Eddie Van Halen. What a kook!)
I know I’m playing into the whole ‘nothing is real’ bit by blaspheming like this, but the point is more important to me. I’m so tired of the amount of UNreality that we’re fed every day. Just like anyone can be a photographer, anyone can be a ‘rock star’. Though the games don’t seem to include the clap or heroin overdoses. Maybe the 2.0 versions will.
BAH! I’m just ramblin now…
and remember kids… don’t forget to LOL! (lol!)
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Juilee Pryor
this is great… london texting …it just doesn’t have the same charisma as london calling at all… and your ramble makes sense to me… these days everyone is an artist/rockstar/masterchef/photographer and it’s all really easy and you don’t even have to try hard or stick with it or have any skill and most importantly it doesn’t even have to mean anything any more…..oh well….
KreddibleTrout replied
THX JLE!
I probably fall into the category you describe in many people’s minds. photographers for example would not call me a photographer because i don’t really make my entire living with it. as with acting. and writing. and whatever else I do… the real difference these days is that art is most often overlooked in favor of money and ‘financial stability’. Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten art. THAT’S the problem. just like any twit can buy a DSLR and make pretty pictures, any twit can spend 30 grand, set up a studio & ‘make a living’ (anyone got 30 grand they can spare?). Artists do 2 things differently. 1) to create is a need. an addiction. something that without they’d shrivel up and die. it’s their blood and 2) they have something to say, they need to evoke change. they show truth.
we’ve been sideswiped by marketers. they commoditized revolution bought it out and turned art into vocation and culture is the victim
wow… I need a nap.
ys-eye
Haha…. that’s pretty awesome! I think I may be the only one left that doesn’t pretend to be a musician… I don’t even play air guitar! Oh, but I can’t resist adding the obligatory LOL ;)
KreddibleTrout replied
thanks ys-eye. I’m another who doesn’t pretend it.
Matt Adamik
RALMAO! Fortunately I just watched a documentary about the 80’s punk & the majority of the bands they spoke to seemed to agree that punk was dead by ‘83 even though the movie itself claimed it was alive until ‘86… so my pissed is still on after seeing this lovely design. I’m not sure when it actually died, but I know it died for me when I walked into an Urban Outfitters & saw an entire rack of Ramones T’s hanging there amongst the other faked old 70’s concert T’s of Areosmith AC/DC & Motorhead… I cried inside a bit & turned around & left never to return again… until a year ago when I got suckered into going back in & saw an entire display of Lomo cameras sitting there & I cried again on the inside.
Hmmm… maybe I’m old & cranky too… nah that just can’t be, I LMFAO daily while photographing life with my old & unimproved Lomo LCA.
KreddibleTrout replied
the first nail in the coffin was the sex pistols. the final nail was (...shudder…) green day. However, the sex pistols were crucial, green day should be destroyed along with bon jovi. it’s neither alive nor dead, it’s a zombie. there is very little around anymore that has any integrity. Jello & the other occasional exceptions are a rarity. About 10 years ago I went into a t-shirt printing store (remember the old kind with all the binders and steam?) & had a toss up between a stooges tee (cover of raw power) or an MC5 tee. the trendy looking kid behind the counter told me that he’d totally go for the stooges one. I got the MC5. Now I’m just lost when I see billboards plastered with ‘punk rawk’ stars selling me cameras.
Old… yeah. I knew I was getting old when I heard ‘crazy train’ in a car commercial in the mid 90s & I knew the marketers had won when I heard a buzzcocks song in a minivan commercial ten years later.
I’m digging a hole & not coming out.
Thanks for the comments Matt.
Tama Blough
Love this! a) one of my all-time favorite records, and b) so sick of the English language devolving into phonetics because of txtng and twittering and bad education.
Is it wrong of me that I’m almost starting to be proud of not having a cell phone rather than feeling like a pariah?
KreddibleTrout replied
I’d call you a ‘curiosity’ rather than a pariah. we won’t cast you out, just look at you as though you had three heads.
Stay proud & avoid acronyms (SPAA!!!)
Col Finnie
The concept of the this is a ripper for mine. But for mine, it’s not technology that’s the problem. It’s will or motivation that’s lacking. Or probably more accurately, as you talk about, it’s the lack of passion for collective action that’s all fucked up.
KreddibleTrout replied
i agree. the tools aren’t the problem, it’s what we choose to do with them.
If I had a hammer…hmm… weapon? dildo? or something to build with? These days I think all it is is a weapon/dildo. we’re giving up & selling out.
thanks for the comment, Col.
o0OdemocrazyO0o
hahah very clever… especially the degrading of the guitar with rock band crud :D
KreddibleTrout replied
yeah, the ‘guitar’ addition was the final insult. it really hurt to do it and I’ve really never even been a huge Clash fan. it’s just so disgraceful.