Thursday, January 7, 2010

Here's a question

About the Peoples' Choice Awards:
What is this proud, pointless popularity contest that seeks to reward popular things by informing them, thru Waterford crystal™ blobs, that they are popular? Don't popular things already know they are popular by virtue of other, more accurate measures, like ratings and ticket sales? Who would made such a thing? Holy shit Johnny Depp actually showed up for this?
Because, as Don Draper tells us, what we look for in advertising (and that is basically what award shows are) is something that tells us that what we're already enjoying is good for us.

At this point, though, our culture is so fractious that talking about "the people's choice" just seems pathetically aspirational. I mean, the most wildly popular shows on television don't get much more than 10% of TV viewers. But calling it "some peoples' choice awards" just doesn't have the same ring to it, I guess.
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The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.