The Drip Heard Round the World

Sometimes I like to watch "reality" shows. This is mostly because they give me good ideas for posts. Also, they make me angry.

Some are worthless, like the "Jersey Shore" type shows (which really are not even worth writing about). Some have created the perception that "paying one's dues" is no longer necessary for success -- just a favorable decision on a game show is necessary -- like "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance." Last night, we were watching the latter.

If you never saw it, the show is basically "American Idol" for dancers. As "reality" shows go, it is one of the better ones. There's a decent amount of sincerity and the demands on the contestants, from an artistic standpoint, are pretty intense. They have to prove their worth in every style of dance from popular styles to the more traditional styles.

Still, it is annoying, as all reality shows are. Last night was auditions. The dancers were on stage and I found myself saying "shut up" a lot, to the audience. Every time the dancer would pull off a demanding or an interesting bit of choreography, the audience would erupt with a resounding "Woooooo!!!!"

I'm used to the applause coming after the performance. It makes me wonder if that kind of applause is more about the performer or the audience itself. (Oh, let's face it. If I am writing about it, it means I am no longer wondering. I just use phrases like "I wonder if" so that I don't sound as pompous and judgemental as I really am.)

"Dance the Dance" by Picasso

What happened to watching art and processing it; feeling it; internalizing it? Why do we feel the need to provide immediate and boisterous feedback? Why can't we just sit and listen and watch for awhile?

Part of the answer to this is obvious: We live in a world of immediate feedback, don't we? We live in the Googleverse.

As for the other side of this, I wonder if it isn't all about selfishness -- a desire to literally "get in on the act." After all, TV commercials and teachers and parents have been telling us from cradle to graduation cap that we are "stars." If we are "stars," why should the person on the stage -- the one demonstrating talent and years of training -- get all of the attention?

I have used the terms "broadcast action" and "natural action" before. My own little terms. Broadcast action is any action that we perform in order to communicate something about ourselves ("coolness," for instance). Natural action is just that: when we act the way we act, with no regard for the message we might be sending. A good way to illustrate is by with the idea of sunglasses, which can cross to either side. A guy walks into a store without removing his sunglasses. He is either playing the movie star role (broadcast action) or he has simply forgotten to take them off (natural action).

So, is all of this applause, during the act, for the performers or for the audience -- a way for them to broadcast themselves into the thick of things; a way to broadcast their presence and their enthusiasm; a way for them to not simply be supportive but to show the world how supportive they are?

I think  the social media world has given people an inflated idea of their own importance. Am I George Orwell or even Dr. Phil because I have a blog? It would be easy to lose perspective; to start feeling famous because a few hundred people a day (from all over the world!) read my stuff. But I know the reality: I'm a drop in an ocean. Am I a famous musician because I get good popularity scores on Internet radio? Nope. Drip, drip.

Somehow, though, people have started thinking that they are the drip that can be heard around the world.

I say, let the dancer have the stage and wait your turn. Then you can stand under the lights and scream your talent to the whole world. Not that they will actually sit and watch...

Abercrombie and Fitch: Fighting Fire with Fire?

By now, everyone has heard that the Ambercrombie and Fitch owner has made statements about how he doesn't want to make clothes for fat people -- about how he admittedly has an exclusionary policy about making clothes for those who are not thin and beautiful (with much media attention to the fact that he, himself, if sort of...unaesthetic).

Okay. He's a jerk. Of course, it is his company.

But, now, some chap has made a video that people are batting around on social media amidst much praise. The guy is gathering up A&F clothes and handing them out to homeless people in an attempt to "re-brand" the line. This, in some way, is supposed to be a way of sticking it to A&F. Anyway, here's the video. I'll comment after.

Like, Einstein Cool

A local radio station has been running a contest for area schools: "The Coolest Teacher." Each morning, they randomly select an area high school and the kids are asked to text the station with their vote for the "coolest teacher" in the school.

What would have been your guess, say, twenty years ago, for the most-often selected type of teacher? What departments do you  think would have yielded the most "cool teachers"? My bets would have been on English, history, art, music -- the classes in which kids could be inspired to think and create.

I know the first thing people might say in objection to my conjecture is that I am an arts person, so, naturally I would see it that way. But, in the past, don't you agree that no one would have made a movie about an inspiring calculus teacher? The inspiring teacher was always someone in the humanities. Think: Dead Poets Society.

Well, who do you  think the overwhelming number of "coolest teachers" are in this contest? You guessed it: math and science.

To Hug an Electron (My Week of Insignificance)

I had a pretty weird experience over the course of this past week. My wife went away on a much deserved vacation to Aruba. Circumstances meant that I could not go, but she went with a few of her friends.

Owing to the ridiculousness of charges for cell phone communication across the waves, we knew our interaction had to be limited. We texted once or twice, but that was about it. For the rest, I had to rely on seeing her Facebook posts.

I can only find two words to describe this experience: surreal and enlightening.

The surreal part: Watching a visual and a verbal record of the most important person in your life having a good time without you and being turned into just one of the multitude of people with whom she is sharing her experience. Very strange, when you are used to being her go-to guy.

Did I expect or want her to have a horrible time without me? Of course not. But, until this point in recent human history, time apart from one's lover and best friend amounted to phone calls that ended in: "I miss you. I love you. See you soon." The rest was up to the imagination -- I wonder what she is doing now...

In the Facebook era, "I can't wait to tell you all about it" has become "Just look at the pictures with everyone else."

By the Book (The Most Staggering Comment Ever Made?)

Wherever you stand on the issues of religion and abortion, the quotation below has to be one of the most staggeringly portentous things ever said. Can you hear the brakes squealing? Can you feel the paradigms shifting and grinding like tectonic plates? Staggering.

Catholic Cardinal Shane Brady apparently threatened excommunication for those who support an Irish bill to allow abortions in cases of a threat to the mother's life. This quotation, from The Huffington Post, is Prime Minister Kenny's response: