Two random things that I continue to think about. The first has probably been listed by everyone who writes in these sort of online formats, but the Michael Moore "controversy" continues to shock me. Jon Stewart summed it up pretty well, as he often does, but what in the name of fuck was going on. Did people imagine that Michael Moore was going to stand up there and thank his producers, God, and his family and then sit down. Fuck, the dude would use his mother's funeral as a political platform.
Dont get me wrong, I see eye to eye with Michael Moore for the most part, if I were to have big causes they would be the same as his. But how the fuck did people not see this coming? Michael Moore won an Oscar for a movie that was, in his own fucking words, an exploration of the AMERICAN CULTURE OF VIOLENCE!! What in the sweet name of fuck. Maybe some people will say they were booing his callback to November of 2000, and I wouold imagine they were, but again, big fucking surprise. I dont think he has referred to Bush a single time without prefacing it with something like "the fictitious president." In many ways he has the whole "Criminal Little Bush" titling deal that Tarik Aziz, Saddam, etc. have worked out for referring to the President. I like them all, to be honest, much better than just "Mr. President" in this case.
On a related note, I read a number of articles about Michael Moore today, some were sort of introductions to him in general, I would assume directed towards a readership which didnt give a damn one way or the other about "radical left-wing pop-politics" until he got booed off the stage after winning a prestigious award. Of course they explained the premise of Bowling for Columbine and reactions to it by people all over the political spectrum. The one thing that has sort of pissed me off which seems to be his modifying the message of the film, likely for Oscar gain, is his argument that the film is not inherently for gun control. That certainly was not the way I interpreted the movie, it seemed pretty obviously to argue that gun control wouldnt completely solve the problem, but definately indicated that one problem with the American culture of violence is the easy availability of guns (especially the bank/shotgun incident). It doesnt surprise me however that he comprimised this by saying that he was a member of the NRA and was committed to the safe use of firearms under the 2nd ammendment. My guess is that that is PR bullshit, but Moore knew that he was going to shoot for an Oscar with this one, and it means alot more for his movement, his personal fortune and popularity, etc., just to get the chance to win.
I dont think this is really "selling out" partially because I dont really believe in the concept of selling out. If I was in a position to sell-out I would do it in a heart beat, I'm amazed that Michael Moore went this long. The thing I do think sucks is that the powerful notion of this film, the way it meant what it said is actually compromised when Michael Moore tries to convince people that they can be in the NRA, that they can support firearm rights, and still get rid of what he is talking about, which fundamentally is just not fucking true.
I have a couple of random thoughts on selling out which I would like to share at this point. The first relates to a special I saw a long fucking time ago on Comedy Central about Trey Parker and Matt Stone when South Park was just hitting it big. They responded to the question of whether they had just come to Hollywood and decided to sell-out. They responded that they had intended to sell-out the whole time. They had Cartman dolls and Kenny t-shirts planned from day 1. Admittedly, this may have been something that they just said as a joke, but maybe it was true. Its not like South Park began as some uber-artsy cartoon or something. Yes, South Park episodes often make an argument about political or social issues, yes the South Park movie was very well-done in its self-referentiallity while retaining its hilarity, but its different from Roger and Me or Bowling for Columbine or TV Nation. Fundamentally, however, Michael Moore is a politician who uses irony and for the most part South Park is comedy which is occassionally political. I think both of these formats are fantastic and I enjoy them, but if Matt and Trey argued that their movie was not against censorship, that one could censor material or artists and still agree with them, it wouldnt bother me in the way that Michael Moore belonging to the NRA does.
The second example that comes to my mind whenever I think about selling-out is Tool's "Hooker With a Penis," a fantastically titled song which is #7, I believe, on the Aenima album. You can easily find the lyrics, but the point of the song is pretty much making fun of people who hate on bands who blow the fuck up, who sign on different labels, who "mainstream" after they get popular. The imagery in the song (sips of coke, Vans, 501s) are really explicit attempts to demonstrate that its not like Tool has uniquely sold out, anticonformist culture, with its readily generateable list of cliched products is just as much alligned with the capitalist enterprise as Tool. I guess the point here is that selling out CANT HAPPEN IN FORM, ONLY IN CONTENT. Bob Dylan's lyrics would be just as revolutionary if he had signed with Virgin Records in the 60s and was promoted like Justin is now. Dont fuss on and on about the fact that a film came from Fox and not an independent studio (which is probably owned by Sony Classic anyway) or an indie label rather than Virgin, pay some fucking attention to the song itself. If TV Nation could have done the things it did and succeeded on Must-See Thursdays I would have had no beef with it. Sad fact is, it can't.
The second thing I was going to mention seems sort of irrelevant at this point, I am not even sure I remember what it was. I think it was about how much I like Dr. Pepper. That remains true, I really do like DP. It is especially notable how well the good Doctor matches up with Twix bars (original caramel that is, no disrespect to your peanut-butter variety Katie). Its a solid combo. I think I will make it the Buffalo Dinner, paying homage to Kentucky Breakfast Numbers 1 and 2 (cheetos and white cheddar cheez-its, respectively, both paired with Mountain Dew). Ahh, the Kentucky Breakfast, Maroney tribuce.
Peace,
MB-K
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