13 November 2006

Out With Bling...In With CHA-CHING!

Todays' Fort Wayne Journal gazette had a VERY disturbing story in it:

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/16000346.htm

Seems we have yet another bunch of Michael Moore "wannabes" in our midst....and this time the "documentaries" are all about....Da Gangsta Life! (rolls eyes)...

These direct to DVD assaults of decency and NORMAL human values are the latest attempt to make a quick buck....by glorifying the entire hip-hop/gangsta rap crap.

The article goes on to say how these DVDs grant "intimate access" to the gritty and violent underworld of America’s street gangs.

Yeah right.

Like I, or any OTHER decent person NEEDS "intimacy" such as this...I think not.

Now I must admit that I am a tad bothered by all the "Girls Gone Wild" crap I see....young girls (maybe YOUR daughters) at some after hours beach party, or mardi gras soire' bearing it all for the camera (and the "filmakers" bank account.). And I NEVER think of these as a "documentary on Spring break". But now we have "Bum Fights", "Street Fights" and their associated ilk, produced under that staid moniker of "free speech" (wrongfully, I will concede) and being peddled to whatever video-voyeur the need dictates.

These are NOT documentaires...Ken Burns makes documentaries. Werner Herzog makes documentaries. Ross McElwee makes documentaries. Errol Morris makes documentaries. Cripes, even Michael Moore makes documentaries.

I would bet the farm that *if* Spike Lee had his name attached to this stuff somewhere...it would at least have the "street cred" to be called a "documentary"....I suppose...maybe...perhaps, but that's a huge stretch.

The history channel ran a REAL documentary about the history of street gangs...and that's disturbing in it's own right. But now we have the "purveyors of puke" masquerading as FILMMAKERS (since when does several drunk dudes who flunked out of their college's media class with camcorders constitute filmmakers?...gimme a damn break), dishing up another order of garbage for that all too diminuitive portion of our population...and getting away with it....for now anyway. Hey, maybe they DID graduate...but they are SO FAR from being a REAL filmmaker it's not even funny (Preminger , Welles, and Hitchcock are rolling in his graves, I'll wager).

The journalist who wrote the original AP article ( Andrew Glazer) is one brave fellow, IMHO. Bringing this to the forefront, letting people KNOW this crap exists out there, and showing us that the FEDS are getting involved makes just another valid point about anything taken to extremes. It's simply NOT beneficial to the majority of the populace....period.

Says Kevin Epps, a Frisco (where else BUT California could crap like this occur?) "filmmaker"... ((“This is something the news can’t get and Hollywood can’t get,” said the San Francisco-based filmaker. “I would like to believe that (the films) are benefiting mankind, I would like to believe by telling the truth about the conditions, all the poverty and the fights, it makes us take a look at ourselves and see all is not good.”))

Yo Kevin...people ALREADY frigging KNOW life SUCKS in "those" parts of ANY city....and THEY have to deal with it or move away every damn day, you idiot. Stop overstating the OBVIOUS....(putz)... And the people that DON'T live in those parts of town KNOW about it JUST AS WELL....they see the NEWS...they read the PAPERS...and they have Federal, State, and City agencies out the wazoo that are trying to HELP the situation...they don't need YOU to make a DVD showing it (to fleece your pocket, I might add). Benefitting mankind my ARSE! You want to benefit mankind? Support the agencies trying to take down the drug dealers that pump poison into kids....volunteer at a halfway house to help those that NEED help (oh wait, that might not involve making any $$$ wouldn't it?)...just do something CON-structive...you might even like it.

People have been taking looks at themselves as long as GLASS and WATER have been around....and with all that ( sometimes narcisisstic) self-viewing going on, you'd THINK more would be changing for the better....well, we're still waiting, aren't we?

The UCLA professor quoted in the story makes the best point of all...she wonders what will come next...rape?....pedophilia? I can see the DVDs now...."Child-Stalkers Gone Wild"...or how about "Rapers Delight" (with apologies to the Sugar Hill Gang)?

If we do allow this, we're merely opening the floodgates of much more perverse activities...just so a small part of our society can get their "kicks"...while the MAJORITY of the people have to endure this and wait for the next debauchery to come along. We have to establish a precedent NOW. We have to draw the line. Rome found out the HARD way what can happen with all of that...

Let's hope we never become that depraved as a society...for future's sake.

2 comments:

Andrew Kaduk said...

Hey, I like bum fights.

Bob G. said...

Andy:
As long as we get to pick n choose who the bums are...I'm with 'ya!

(got some in mind as we speak...lol)