culture

Celebrity Presence And The Failed Die-Out

by

Awhile ago a variety of celebrities declared themselves dead, not Tweeting and such until enough donations to fight AIDS came in.  Despite this being for a good cause, it was a failure at the time as noted.  The site now appears to have donations up to par, but it sort of looks like  . . . well judge for yourself (http://buylife.org/).

So why didn't this death-on-social-media have an immediate influx of donations?  I think part of it was the odd, kind of self-centered method of raising funds and the tastelessness of it.  The other part was that the celebrities stopped being celebrities.

Read more

Cross-Cultural Efforts and ‘Not Getting It’

by

Few discussions of business start with the words "So, I was watching Godzilla: Final Wars" but this is going to be one of them.

So, I was watching "Godzilla: Final Wars", which was a giant festival of Kaiju-on-film (plus a lot else) done before the Godzilla movies took a hiatus.  In it, among many, many other famous monsters, was a parody of the American Godzilla.  Let us say this "Zilla" was not well treated in the movie, and it made me think about how the American Godzilla film frankly didn't get what Godzilla is about – and what that means for adaption of foreign material and ideas.

The American Godzilla treated the monster as having no personality – it was essentially a natural disaster.  The Godzilla films (and most Kaiju films, really) have creatures with personality.  Yes they're highly destructive, but they're highly destructive characters. The American film didn't get that.

Adapting foreign films, shows, and ideas to American media – or indeed adapting media from one culture to another – has one large risk well-illustrated by this film.

The risk of Not Getting It.

Read more

Fandom, Culture, Economy, and The Future

by

I'm an old school fan.  Yes, I still have early Star Wars figures.  I saw Tron in theaters.  I was planning an IT career before some friends of mine were out of elementary school.  I've forgotten more about coding than some people I know learned in class.

(OK I'm also apparently cranky, but I digress).

I'm also currently living through the worst economic downturn I've seen, and I've seen a few.  So as I turn my cranky, fannish eyes upon the world, I'm actually wondering what the meltdown has done to geek culture and to progeek culture.

So bear with me as I analyze.  Also, you may if you wish, get off my lawn and stop listening to that gosh darn bad music.  Or you can listen to the cranky guy.

Read more