Apparently, he's a race car driver as well.
My taste in films isn’t quite as erudite as some of my peers will tell you. I enjoyed Shia LeBeouf’s scrappy performance in Transformers, Van Wilder will forever make me laugh (or really Ryan Reynolds in anything), and I think Wes Anderson films are a modern triumph of storytelling and visual aesthetic.
Sure I enjoy the “good” films as well, but in general, I like movies. Stuff you can watch that’s enjoyable and helps pass the time so that our higher-evolved consciousness doesn’t pre-occupy itself with meditating on the fact that we as a species evolved past our prime directive to mate and multiply and have actually become a sort of virus on the face of the planet. Boy, let me tell you, Amanda Bynes really cracks me up every time I catch the last half of What a Girl Wants on basic cable.
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This is a different type of metal than this post is about.
When discussing the current state of our music collections the other day, a good friend of mine had the revelation that getting into metal was a slippery slope. The sub-genres are myriad, there are cross overs and purists, and it’s a worldwide talent pool.
“Metal,” he said, “is an international currency.”
And he’s right. But for right now, fuck the world. It’s hard enough keeping track of this stuff stateside. There are two clear categories, too. Purist metal groups that grew up on Sabbath, Metallica, and Iron Maiden who don’t really understand punk (and many times despise it), and then there are cross over bands that acknowledge The Greater Influence, a sort of demi-God that guided Toni Iommi and Greg Ginn’s hands one and the same.
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Yep, there they all are.
Since the dawn of time, pop culture has been consistently shoved into separate genres as a way to define it in the modern social structure. Gray Area is an attempt to chronicle those bands, books, and movies that refuse to be pigeonholed or consciously blend ideas.
If you’ve never noticed, the Golden Globe Awards have a strange way of categorizing their awards. You can basically either win for Drama or Musical/Comedy. In this day and age, it does seem a bit weird to lump musicals and comedies in the same category, but back in the day most musical or comedy shows were one and the same -– the ever present variety show.
These days, we’re treated to something else: Glee. It’s a comedy in the modern prime time soap opera tradition, meaning a single camera, no laugh track and horrible rotating voiceover aside, excellent pacing and composition. But there’s something else to it, too. The show focuses on a competitive show choir, and thusly, has half an episode devoted to show choir versions of current songs. On one hand, Jane Lynch is tearing it up, week after week. On the other hand, you know, show choir sucks and drains the life out of good music. So there’s that.
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