Robbed Ford

“… I’m a happily married man, I have more than enough to eat at home.”

There’s a lot of things that Rob Ford could apologize for, sure. But a witty retort shouldn’t be one of them. That was the only thing I can think of over the weeks of media bombardment and suffering that man had to endure. While I’d don’t know the full extent of the man’s tenure as mayor (being on the opposite coast.) There was something about that statement that made me laugh, perhaps want to clap a little.

Sure, it’s crass. But nobody ever said wit was the high road. It’s definitely not shocking or appalling. It’s almost surprising that a man such as him could be capable of thinking on his feet. But from the outside looking in, I feel like I’m being treated to a fat lout of a buffoon. The media seems obsessed with poking and prodding him, treating him terribly. Continue reading →

what is idealoclast if nothing but a series of experiments

This was rolling around my head, over the weekend. I’ve explained the point of the blog before, but It’s never been much in retrospect. I say that because it’s been since Halloween that I’ve last had something written. But here’s the debate:

The length of blogs is always a question because you want it to reflect the content you make. Countless blogs (if not every one)  post simple things 50 times a day, with the philosophy that they want you to keep clicking. They keep it short, and simple/vague. The idea is that the average internet user is a goldfish.

With idealoclast I figure, long form articles about conflicting subjects was a good change of pace from what is considered the standard blog. Focus on writing, focus on giving someone over the internet something to read than glance over. The idea is to start a conversation, but to have a conversation worth talking about, I always feel like there has to be a lot to say.

But the ideal blog length is actually pretty short. This is something I’ve learned. In a class. From a real journalist.

It makes sense… Half of the reason why I don’t write as  much as I should, is because I usually have other things on my plate, or other things that I need to write. The other reason is, when writing I feel like I need to have a lot to say. The Modern blog has conditioned me to think that there’s never enough on one post.  When someone makes a post that is just an image or a tweet, my complex forces me to think I’m over compensating for other people.

So here’s a question for you, the reader, as I cut this short. How long is too long for you? Vice-versa, how short is too short? What are things that annoy you about other blogs? What are somethings that some do better than others? If you’ve read enough of this site, where exactly does a blog like this fit into all of this?

In the meantime, I’ll keep writing. I’ll try to keep a pace. Together this could be a pretty learned place on the internet.

Hallowed out

There’s something about the modern Halloween that has more of a desperation for pop-culture than the indulgence of the super-natural. But who is, and why are we guilty of it?

I’m asking that question to myself as I scroll down this list from the Huffington Post: 24 Halloween costume ideas that just scream 2013. Which is not so much a list of ideas for costumes as it is a year in review, two months premature. I would say it’s a sign of the times, but it’s more of a litmus test on what we seem to think halloween costumes are supposed to be in this day and age. Continue reading →

Late to the going home party

This year, I spent thanksgiving with family. Lately it feels like a rarity for me, because I’m such a private person. My privacy is due to a host of life problems that are constantly stewing around my head. It ruins my mood, and the last thing I want is to feel bitter and old around them.

But I enjoyed myself, and came back with a host of fresh ideas. I’m still in the same place, dealing with the same stuff, but I feel as though my perspective is different. It’s refreshing and important to change an angle in your life, so you have a better idea of where you want your future to take you. Continue reading →

Gender Neutral

There was something about Beyond ( Two Souls) that I feel was a missed opportunity. It was over a conversation I had with some friends. When the night grows darker, and one decides to call it, he always suddenly brings up the most interesting discussions before he leaves. It’s a funny way of  preventing himself from going anywhere. As if there’s a part of him that forgets until last minute, the things he really wants to talk about. Then he’s stuck at the door with a yammering that lasts roughly one or three hours.

The conversation was the typical one about the state of the industry in which we care dearly about. The boobie ladies, the racial undertones, all because it’s interesting. But then Beyond ( One and a half Jodies) was brought up, by whom I can’t remember, but it was about Ayden, Jodie’s spirit animal. The thing about Aidan is that it is a ‘he’. They give identity to a spirit in masculine form since the beginning of Jodie’s childhood, and it makes me wonder why, if only a little. Continue reading →

Adults never need to be cool

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I love this article from the telegraph, as a recent study by researchers have uncovered something quite serious:

Almost four in ten parents think that they are out of touch with the younger generation because they don’t keep up with music and technology, researchers discovered. One in four even admitted they believe that their children see them as “very uncool”.

Their dress sense, owning a “sensible” car and even being a smoker are among the things that make parents feel old-fashioned.

The rest of the research is actually pretty even ended. 3 in 10 keep up with the times and the rest over-all don’t really care and understand it as “just the way it is.”

The study of 2,000 parents who have children aged between 13 and 25, found that having no idea what song is at number one in the charts is most likely to leave them feeling uncool, followed by failing to work an iPhone without asking for help.

Not being able to sing along to chart songs, their dress sense and owning a sensible car completed the top five.

The study itself is pretty entertaining, because the outcome was a top 30 of reasons why they feel uncool. I never got with my parents at all. They were their own people, their own generation, so it’s an absolutely foreign concept to me of parents feeling uncool around their kids. At the very least let’s go over this list of 30 and really break down the wall of uncool-ness. Continue reading →

Not sure if want to listen.

Disclaimer: Given the nature of content in this article, I must take a stance and warn you before your ears start to burn. The topic of this article involves music that is, or has the potential to be offensive. Sexist, Racist music usually covers a wider perspective than you’re probably aware of. Now that I’ve covered my ground in letting you know that this is probably NOT SAFE FOR WORK, let’s have fun and explore the topic.

Robin Thicky’s Blurred Lines is under a lot of skins.  A song that was released over the summer, despite it’s pop like nature, became an involuntary anthem for rape.

Continue reading →

MeMe, I made it!

I touched up on this a little bit before, but I really like the timing of it. This morning, Gawker posted an article detailing how to get rich from Memes. The particular meme that was surrounding the article, was none other than ‘Grumpy Cat’; exploited oblivious kitty with feline dwarfism. The dwarfism is conviently the cause of that signature grump.

This cat has made various tv appearances, won “Best” Meme, at the 2013 Webby’s, has a book out, and potentially a ‘Garfield-like’ feature film on the way. How is one ‘perfectly-content-and-probably-not-at-all-grumpy’ cat capable of all this? It has a manager.

One Wednesday afternoon this summer, Ben Lashes is standing on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood sucking on an electronic cigarette. He’s in tight jeans, a black fedora, dark Ray-Bans, and Air Jordan 1s. His client, Grumpy Cat, waits in a shiny black Escalade for the TMZ Hollywood tour bus.

Continue reading →

Let Us Eat Our Eggs

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This past weekend, I woke up to a text message asking if I saw a review for The King of Fighters XIII published on The Penny Arcade Report. From the start, I knew I was in for click-baiting press coverage; after all, the headline was “King of Fighters XIII PC improves online play, doesn’t improve casual racism, sexism“. I could go on about the review’s thesis, but I believe enough discussion has been had in the review’s comments and various message boards and sites that linked the article.

As I searched my brain for any opinion whatsoever, I concluded that Andrew Groen’s review (and any conversation around it) is yet another cyclical debate about political correctness in an overly sensitive world. Although discourse over sexism, racism and media portrayal thereof is important to have, I believe Groen picked the wrong battle; especially considering SNK’s reasons behind their characters’ designs and other content’s more overt sexual and racial themes. Continue reading →

Commentary

It’s fair to say that we don’t need to talk all the time.

I have groundlings on my mind today, for some reason. The poor folks that stood on the ground, by the stage in the Globe Theatre in the 17th century. They could barely afford to watch a play conceived by Shakespeare, but when they could, they were happy enough to. Never quite had the luxury of sitting down comfortably, but they were at least lucky enough to have a front row spot occupying ‘the pit’.

Lucky is subjective. The popularity of Shakespeare’s plays would pack the house. Every square inch of the pit would be full of 500-or-so people, though these groundlings were entertained by a play, they would have to give up the freedom of space. The inhabitants of the pit were normally peasants, and tradesmen that would spend a days wage ( a single english penny, if I’m not mistaken). Being that close to the action with little room to move around, they were often rowdy. These folks would turn to heckling or throwing vegetables at the characters they wouldn’t like. Continue reading →