Not that some aren't probably good stuff. But I doubt the value of an awards ceremony, any awards ceremony. Yeah, yeah, sour grapes and everything, but seriously... most awards ceremonies work one of two ways: get a panel, get them to decide on their favorite... or get everyone and let them vote. Neither group is probably all that great for deciding things.
The small select group is going to be made up of people involved in the business that the ceremony is for, and/or people not involved but otherwise famous, people involved in their own businesses so deeply they got awarded. If they're the "involved in the group", they're probably so deeply involved that they're looking at things much differently than everyone else. If they're just a famous/important person, they have no clue as to what's good or bad -- if they're good, they're probably involved in their own crap. You'll most likely, from this group, get a combination of out-there, experimental stuff and very popular stuff. The first group picks the first, the second, the second.
If it's the masses, well... I didn't go see Titanic, probably because the masses liked it so much. It's just one of those things, the masses usually have tastes I don't like. I'm not a standard kind of guy. That's me. But I think most people are like that -- the world's got too many varieties of people for any one group to make up a majority. So, who wins? The one with the most active group, not necessarily the best: fanatic loyal groupies will never make Episode I and Episode II great. Sorry.
But then again, maybe it does have a purpose: we humans have a need to triumph or lose. It could be a neat sublimation trick to allow us to compete and at the same time not do it physically.
Ponder away if you're interested.
What is it about George W. Bush that makes him think that he can just do what he wants and get away with it? Why is it that we're letting him?
Several incidents happened over the weekend that just make me boil: First, there was the Ohio State students who were threatened with expulsion and arrest if they protested his speech. Several of the demonstrators were ushered out when they quietly turned their back on Bush -- hardly something disturbing the peace, respectful of Bush's right to free speech as well, and definitely not heckling.
They also mention his speech is on the "culture of (community) service",which is always a bit dubious coming from someone who had a baseball field given to him by a city and an oil company given to him by his dad.
Next, Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice. I talked with my mom about this, a former auditor for another Big 4 auditing firm. Her point, well put, was that Arthur Andersen does deserve the verdict -- but not at the expense of finding Enron guilty. Remember Enron? The ones that got away with millions, and it looks like they'll get away with it scott free?
Finally, George W. Bush declared that he ordered the CIA to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein... and the Democrats are now backing him. Folks -- this is illegal. Plain and simple, there's been laws for years -- since the overthrow of Chile in 1974, which had unproven but suspicious ties to the CIA -- stating that the CIA is not to participate in the overthrowing of governments, period.
It's appaling what we're doing in order to preserve "freedom". Not our laws, not our security, but our "freedom". Why am I putting it in quotes? Go back to the first one -- someone forgot that freedom includes the right to disagree. And how can we be certian we're secure, if no one is able to "watch the watchmen", as it were. Break a law, remove a freedom, insist on unquestioning obedience... and we become what we fight against.
Just perused over to Amazon to check out something that was mentioned over on Camworld, Amazon's Gold Box. Took a look at the "Movers and Shakers", and for some reason sales of Bill Cosby's Wonderfulness album was up 29,000%. I have to say, it's one of my favorites. I love Bill Cosby records, listened to them fanatically as a kid. I used to go to sleep to them every night, and I still can recite many of the routines by heart. It's odd that it went up that much in so short a time, as did To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With and Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow. Right!, both of which were up, respectively 13,000% and 8000%.
Interesting note: I went to camp one year and made friends with another camper who also loved Bill Cosby. We left camp, and never wrote. We lived in different cities, he in Chicago, I in Detroit. But several years later, we both ended up going to Washington University in St. Louis, where we met each other on the first day we were there. It's interesting how you live your life, and the same people show up. Some call it fate or karma -- I say it's because people who like similar things tend to go similar directions and do similar things. Call it the gravity of personalities.
Or just say Bill Cosby is a funny fellow.
Here's an interesting article on the public domain, one of a number of areas that's come under question lately as copyright and intellectual property come under fire. Larry Lessig, always an interesting read, has an excellent point: intellectual property rights' groups need to counter the image that they're Marxist/anarchist/un-American in nature.
A similar view was expressed by Paul Chadwick, creator of Concrete, on the issue of environmentalism. His point was that it is, in fact, quite American and very patriotic to be an environmentalist -- and that the more environmentalists persist to disuade this view, the farther from their goals they will get.
Reading CNN today, I glanced across the headlines. "Police to kidnap suspect: 'We're going to get you'". My jaw dropped... and then I read the article and figured out what the problem is.