Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Pretend
Just something to chew on.
I’ve been trying to find a connection between the people who made “American Beauty” (1999) and the people who produced the ABC television show “Desperate Housewives” (2004). It’s a little strange that I can’t find one, and I’ll tell you why. A recurring theme in both of them — I would say a central theme in both of them — is that people who live in nice houses in everyday-suburbia, are pretending to be something they’re not. That these “everyday” people actually have secrets.
In the case of Beauty, if you take this theme out, you really don’t have much of anything left. Frankly, I found the whole thing to be a bit of a yawner. With Housewives, the product emerges from the assembly line as something much better-crafted, certainly more addictive, even for a dude. It impresses me as a well-built thing, something created by people who had real fun in the process of creating it. But all of the humor that is so enjoyable, is linked to a central hub-theme that people are pretending to be something other than what they are, that they are living a lie. And while perhaps they aren’t to be condemned for this, they certainly are not to be held up to praise.
Who is playing this game of pretend, and being held up to derision for doing so? People who own houses, have jobs, pay mortgages. Basically, “orthodox” people. Non-Hollywood people.
Who is holding those people up to derision and ridicule? Hollywood.
What does Hollywood do? It plays a game of pretend for a living.
So this is a cultural thing we’re seeing over and over again, a resentment being felt in more areas than just one…where people who play a game of pretend for a living, vent their spleens at other people, who are supposed to be real in everything they do, for the infraction of not being completely real in everything they do.
Kind of like the lifetime-felon picking on the Chief of Police for not returning a book to the library on time. Something terribly perverted about this.
I’ve become somewhat hooked on Housewives, but I do wish they would give it a break. People in houses have secrets. Yeah, I get it. You know it’s kind of strange; the people who make these shows, are paid big money for being in step with what the audience wants. Here they’ve got a hit, and it seems to be a lucky guess. After all, you go to the forums of real hardcore fans, and I don’t see anyone gushing about what a wonderful job the show is doing of finally spilling the beans about those people in suburbia living phony lives. I’ve never seen a comment like that anywhere, not even once. But that’s the business that the people who write the show, appear to think they’re in.
Ugh, please drop it. People in suburbia have secrets because people have secrets. Especially people in Hollywood.
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