These are the words of Barry Sonnenfeld (the man who brought you Wild Wild West and Space Chimps). Uttered last night during his acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards, these words stood out amidst the political discourse that other winners chose to litter their acceptance speeches. What did Sonnenfeld mean when he said these 6 words? Here were my knee jerk reactions:
Barry Sonnenfeld is against free speech
Perhaps, as a respected member of mainstream Hollywood, Sonnenfeld could be fundamentally against the tennets of the First Amendment. Anyone who would caution “fear the Internet,” must be in some way against freedom of speech; afterall, the Internet (Web technically) is simply a soundboard for anyone’s opinions, stories, trivia, or creativity.
Barry Sonnenfeld wants a controlled market
Where there is no Internet, TV would retain its former stranglehold on entertainment. Seriously, before the rise of the Web, who remembers what we used to do every night from 8-11pm? Personally, I would be watching TV for hours. Mindlessly sitting in front of a glowing box, digesting what advertisements and agenda was thrown in front of me. Today, I spend most of my day interacting with others (humans, bots, corporations) on the Web. Choosing which advertisements I want to see, versus which I’d be willing to pay not to see.
Barry Sonnenfeld hates creativity
Name all the decent TV shows that started in the last 5 years. You’ll probably come up with quite a few (if you need help According to Jim started in 2001, so you can’t count that…oh and it’s fucking horrible). Now, compare that with your bookmarks for the last 5 years. Clark and Michael, Homestar Runner, The Legend of Neil – on a quantity scale, the Web wins for me. The creatitvity inherent in a system with fewer rules and regulations, lower cost of development and production, and less reliance on advertising is astounding. While TV might have better quality from time to time, shows like Arrested Development had a hard time surviving on TV.
In the end, what I realized about Barry Sonnenfeld is this – he doesn’t get it. He’s not probably (hopefully) for or against any of these things; however, he doesn’t get how you could harness the Internet for good. Instead, he rails it from a fear standpoint. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t look smart, it looks ignorant.
I’d set out to post this. That’s the thing about comedy (and although these posts are remarkably darker than my norm, I’m still think comedy first), people say that timing is important; however, too often they forget about the setup. One of my favorite bits is my impersonation of Bea Arthur, the thing is, it’s all in the setup. The bit can be done in 5 seconds, but it’s more humorous over 2 minutes. With this in mind…
Many of you weren’t probably raised Catholic. I was. Couple that with parents that were overly protective and a conscious that was overly active (and paranoid and negative and cynical and…) and you have me…or more accurately, my mind. That being said, guilt and regret seem to play a larger role in my life than they do in others. One of my friends shares this problem with me and he put it best one night when we were being far too honest with each other.
You know what I realized? I’m a horrible person! And the problem with that, is that I only remember the horrible things I do.
So true.
Everyday of my life is filled with joy; unfortunately, I have no recollection of these feelings. Instead, my days consist of flashbacks to the days of yore where I’m insulting a group of parents in elementary school, pissing on the front-side of a building on St. Patrick’s day, kicking my girlfriend out of my apartment so that I could drink alone, gorging myself on Little Debbie snack cakes, telling one of my best friends that he is a leech and that no one likes him, killing hobos, writing that post the other day that convinced people I was quitting, alienating friends and family to no gain, and countless other times where what I regret is what I didn’t do.
This is me from day to day, and it always has been. The person that you trust, but never understand why he wouldn’t trust himself; the person that you give a chance to, only to end up humiliated by proxy. Hi, let’s be friends!
The advantage of this situation (here comes the after school special part…), is held within (see). Sure, we all learn from mistakes, but I’ve always thought that the mistakes we learn best from are the ones we see ourselves repeat. I’m not going to learn right off the bat not to put salt in my eyes, but after a couple times trying it, maybe I do.
Eh, maybe I don’t.
Point being, I’ve learned that I remember my own regret, far more so than the good things that happen to me. Thus, I’ve learned to do things right; not through trial and error, but through error and error and then eventual trial and success. It takes longer, but it works for me. I suppose it’s similar to the driving force for so many people to “never give up.” Although, I don’t think that works for people like me. My problem was never one of willpower – sadly, I have too much of willpower for someone so afflicted by their own shortcomings. It’s more of a “get it right” stance that I take, like when Vanessa had to do a science project for her new advanced science class. That shit was ugly!!! So she fixed it (I don’t think the writers were “on” that day).
Moral of the story: What? I forgot what we were doing here. Well, shit, you know more about Syzlak now…so there’s that.
The other day, I authored an oh-so cheerful post about change. Apparently, it was taken as a shot across the bow at my own willingness to write this blog. This was very interesting to me, as I never intended it to be – I was just kinda pissy that day.
Really, I hadn’t even intended to write that post…
At the risk of sounding pithy, emotional and self-interested, (didn’t you want “Wonderful Tonight” to be playing when you read this?) I feel it’s about time to do a personal piece. I know no one really likes to read them, but we all accept them as forms of catharsis for the writer. While recently I have tended to do fewer and fewer SEM related posts, it’s not for lack of interest; but rather, a lack of new information. Sure, I could spout off what a dozen other writers are spouting off right now. I could tell you a bit of information that many writers have said months if not years before me. It’d be old news. Somebody might get something out of it; certainly SEOHack would give me praise…the rest of you would ignore it.
So why bother?
Why bother to write all this useless shit? I have a couple tips I’d like to share; but when I start thinking about posting them, I start dreading the act of posting. The hour or more to properly craft the piece. The 10 minutes to get a good pic. The endless waiting for a response from 1 of my readers – not for fame, but to make sure it made sense. The massive boost of 4 visitors to the site…
What’s the fucking point anymore?
If you don’t read this blog religiously (by the way, religiously for me is a perfect description of my interaction with this blog. I was raised Catholic and never made a habit of going to Church since I lived in Illinois. Once in awhile, as I believe is the case with a lot of Catholics who have strayed from the Church (which isn’t entirely accurate, but I digress) I will go to Mass. I don’t know why, I just do. So, it’s kind of like posting here – I do it when I feel guilty) then you might have landed here after hitting the Stumble button. If so, click an ad before you leave, I know you’re not paying attention to what’s being said anyway.
Do I sound defeated?
If so, it’s your own damn fault. Everyday hundreds of “SEO” bloggers post useless lists in order to have new content on their sites. They repeat what someone else took the time to write. Sometimes they disagree with something someone wrote, and they expect us all to care. It’s like the song by The Hold Steady “Most People are DJs.” Cloak and Dagger Media has a great quote from Craig Finn about his song
I think that DJing, like rock criticism, tends to be a way for people to participate in the “scene” without taking the risks to the ego that go along with producing music or any other art.
Sounds like blogging. “Hey everyone! Come read my list about stuff I didn’t think up!” Congrats. Awhile back, I’d read that the current crop of 15-25 year olds are being labeled the “Look at Me” Generation. That’s not entirely fair, as the age bracket should be bigger. Let’s say 10-40. While we’re out, let’s rename it. I think anyone that writes a popular blog should be known as a member of the “Look What I Found” Generation.
What’s my point?
Fuck, I don’t even know anymore. At the risk of depressing everyoneHack my reader, be prepared to read a lot of depressing posts over the next few days. I’ve lost the energy to care about this blog. Well, at least this incarnation of the blog. I’m tired of trying to find something to say about something I don’t care that much about.
