frustration Friday

Frustration Friday: Here There Be Dragons

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As  you've noticed I do check political and economic news a lot – a lot of the economic news makes it into this blog, and politics does at times as well.  As I noted previously, it's a bit frustrating since intelligent, sane discussion on politics and economics is rare, and thus I avoid things to keep sanity.

Well, it may be frustration Friday, which gets a little irrational, but there is one thing I want to note – when it comes to jobs, the economy, and so on a lot of people don't know what the hell they're talking about.

We're in unknown territory economically these days.  I kind of wish economists, politicians, and, well, more people would acknowledge it.  Instead, we get a lot of flip answers like:

  • Obvious historical comparisons, such as "oh this is like the Great Depression" or whatever, that, when made, seem to give people the excuse to stop thinking.  For every Richard Florida who can actually make these comparisons, there's a lot of others making them lazily.
  • Moralistic brushing-off.  I'm seeing this a lot lately where politicians and pundits still keep bashing the unemployed.  A massive global socioeconomic and cultural shift is brushed off as people being lazy or needing to take lower-paying jobs (that aren't there).
  • General apocalyptic panic that seems to sounds like the same apocalyptic panic we've heard .  . . well for a long time.

Notice anything in common?  Yep, all of these reactions to the Great Recession are cases of people taking very familiar positions that have nothing to do with realities.

Guess what people, it's not working.  The flip explanations don't work and probably never worked.  We're off the map.  Here there be dragons.

I think if people could just acknowledge the sheer unknownness of everything going on in the Great Recession we'd be better off.  Pretending we know what's going on may comfort us, or others, or sell books, but it's deceptive and keeps us from facing what's going on.

The world is changing.  Stop acting like nothing has changed and everything fits nicely onto the map.

See the dragons before they eat you – and others.

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Guilty Pleasures, The Perfect Burger, and Loving Crap

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There's liking crap and then there's liking crappy things.  OK you movie makers, writers, game makers and the like, figure out the difference.

We can all enjoy crappy thing.  Silly B-movies, overblown games made of explosions and paper-thin plots, cheesy novels, and stupid TV.  We can enjoy these things and do enjoy these things for the same reason we can enjoy a greasy burger – it's lousy but has some right stuff that makes it taste great.  Heck, the guilt is half the fun.

What we don't like is things that are crap.  Sure we may like a silly B-movie but we have certain standards.  Our trashy vampire romance better have a certain level of readability and characterization.  That silly video game better have good controls and graphics.  We may want something that is not good but we want it done good enough.

This is something I don't think a lot of people get.

Cheesy is fine.  Silly is fine.  Stupid is fine (in some cases it makes great comedy).  But these things that are not "good" have to be done "right."  You want that greasy burger, but it better be decent enough meat, decent enough cheese, and bread that doesn't fall apart and drop the whole fattening mess in your lap.

We want our crap done right.  We want it like a good, big greasy burger with lots of cheese and condiments.  They may not be good for us but they do the job of what we want – they taste good (probably too good) in their own bad-for us way.

I don't think this is understood by many professionals in the area of media.  We'd be better off it if it was understood.

Make the burger right – in the wrong way.  That's the right way.

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: Not Everything Has To Be Everything

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Frustration Friday: Not everything has to be everything

If its a book, it must be a movie.

if it's a movie, it could be a TV series.

if it's a comic, it could be a game.

Look, seriously World Media, I love adaptions.  I love media synergy.  I'm all for it – I mean come on, aren't I the one always pushing for more cross-media work?  Aren't I the guy always speculating on what new technology and media means, and how we should look to Japan for ideas of what to do?

But you know, I think we've got to ask ourselves if some of these media translations and crossovers and the like are a good idea.  I of course speak of things like The Last Airbender film, which is dismal.  And the A-Team film which really has no where else to go.  And The Last Airbender Film.  OK, you get my drift here.

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