Tasty

I think it's high time for an honest conversation on the topic of taste. Just as the reception of artistic expression is thoroughly subjective, all such expression is thoroughly manipulative. Consequently, the fact that someone finds something that's hugely popular to be hugely terrible as well does not necessarily mean that this person has better artistic judgment. It merely means that they're not susceptible to that particular form of manipulation. We confuse our personal tastes with quantifiable quality at our own risk, especially when we seek to make those tastes fundamental parts of our identity. With that said, should I listen to David Bowie's album Never Let Me Down or watch The Phantom Menace again?

A Drama More Tortuous Than Reality

My wife watches the TV show Parenthood, which means I generally get to watch it too. This is great, because Parenthood is the worst drama on TV (even worse than Downton Abbey). Other shows may be more formulaic (e.g. CSI: Pension Plan, NCIS: GPS, and pretty much the whole CBS prime time schedule), but those shows are superior because they don't raise expectations by pretending to be more than the glossy B-movies that they are. Parenthood unfortunately seems to believe that it has something to say. This in itself isn't a bad thing, but the devil's in the details - one particular detail, as it happens. Because Parenthood has something to say, every single character seems to have something to say, and they do so with a complete lack of subtext. Everyone says exactly what's on their mind all the time. Putting aside that this isn't how real life works, it isn't how drama works either. Drama - at least good drama - lives in the space between the characters' words and their intentions. When done well, the exploration of that tension yields a marvelous imitation of life and its constant parade of ambiguity. The only ambiguity the writers of Parenthood offer is the question of whether they even know how the word is spelled.

Tragedy Shouldn't Come Cheap

A typical year end post for me would be devoted to my favorite things from the past year*, but the news item about the Idaho mother getting shot with her own gun by her two year old  has been a bit diverting. I don't want to come across as more heartless than usual, but I'm irritated by hearing these events described as a tragedy. 

By all accounts, this woman was an experienced - and, presumably, properly trained - gun owner. As such, she must have been aware that something like this was a possibility if she chose to carry a loaded gun in a purse that her young child was likely to rummage around in, but she did it anyway. A lot of Second Amendment enthusiasts tend to be very focused on their rights but struggle a bit with the responsibilities side of the ledger. Sometimes it bites them on the ass in a very permanent way.

Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the child who will have to live with his unintentional actions - not to mention his mother's intentional actions - permanently. However, if we're going to live in a society where individual expressions of rights are privileged over any broader social responsibility, then events like this are our new normal - patently undeserving of the label of "tragedy".

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*In the interest of not being too curmudgeonly, I really enjoyed the latest album by The Pearlfishers (Open Up Your Colouring Book) and thought Peter Capaldi's first season on Doctor Who was, despite an incoherent finale, the most consistent - and consistently entertaining - season since David Tennant's first. In other news, the revamp/revival of the musical Side Show at the Kennedy Center was terrific (too bad it couldn't sustain a longer Broadway run), the movie Cold In July was a very compelling thriller and A Place To Call Home is a period drama that makes Downton Abbey look like a bunch of children playing dress-up.