Jeff Berryman : Pop Culture

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:01:36 GMT

Celebrity Gossip

A Seattle Times article this morning ("Celebrity worship serves a social and political function [~] for real") argues that America's obsession with the private lives of celebrities plays an important social role, namely that of giving us something to talk about like we used to talk about our neighbors. The cite statistics that says this particular "addiction" isn't going away.

"Gossip weeklies like "Us," "In Touch" and "Star" all report substantial increases in circulation since 2003, collectively selling about 50 percent more subscriptions and single copies in the past 2 [product] years. E! Entertainment Television (the go-to network for the latest earful on who's sleeping with whom) reports a 17 percent increase in the average number of viewers since 2001. And that is to say nothing of the gossip blogs like Gawker and Perezhilton that continue to cultivate a cult readership."

The article goes to state that even the hardcore news outlets like the New York Times are paying attention to Britney and K-Fed. I asked this very question of my students a couple of weeks ago: why all the fuss over celebrity private lives? They gave a variety of answers: that we live vicariously through their adventure and fame, that they have want we want--money, that to read and watch news reports about famous people is "fun" and "interesting," that they "distract us from the harshness of reality," that we like to watch powerful people fail and make mistakes, and of course, there's the idea that we all need heroes, and celebrities, due to the sheer power of their media presence, fit the bill. The Times article cites the fact that it makes for easy conversation at parties and around the proverbial water cooler, connecting us, giving us a shared sense of community and identity. And it quotes P. David Marshall, "professor of media and communication studies at Northeastern" as saying that when we follow the lives of "40 or 50" Hollywood types, we are echoing the small town gossip of yesteryear that we no longer have access to because of our move to big urban centers. Marshall goes on to say that celebrities lives become opportunities for us to discuss and determine values and skills, such as parenting, dating, and family relationships. Does anybody really think we end up learning about relationship by deconstructing Angie's and Jen's ongoing tussle over Brad? Do we learn about how to have better relationships by checking up on Trump's latest attack on Rosie? The key word here is "gossip." (Who knew I was climbing onto a soapbox?) I'm not sure I know why we enjoy watching people (famous or next door) screw up their lives, and why we enjoy being in the know about the details. It's essentially dramatic, true, and it probably serves all sorts of psychological functions, but I cannot get over the essentially squalid nature of the whole exercise. I have my guilty pleasures, and I'm sure I talk about people far more than I should, but as a culture, I can't believe all this fixation on the constructed "reality" served up in tabloids and reality TV is, in the end, good for us. If you've ever known anyone famous, you know they're just like us, trying to live their life as best they can. The constant cameras may be a blessing, and they are a horrific curse. I don't mean to be obnoxious, but I sort of like the way Eugene Peterson translates Proverbs 18:8

Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you really want junk like that in your belly?

...just thinking out loud...

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:43:29 GMT

This I Believe

If you've listened to NPR, you've heard this series: This I Believe. Reading the essays at NPR's This I Believe website is pretty instructive and inspirational. I'll be reading these for awhile. Look at "Failure is a Good Thing" and "The Tense Middle..."

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:53:09 GMT

Middle School Kids and The TV

TV Hurts Kids' School Performance: Study
Study backs parents who say "No TV on a school-night"

Here's another study suggesting that the average middle school student watches 4 hours of TV a day, and that it adversely affects their performance in school as well as their health. And according to this study, middle school kids watching R-rated movies do even worse. If you know me, you know I'm not a knee-jerk don't-ever-watch-an-R-rated-moved kind of guy. But it seems to me two things are needed:

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 02:28:38 GMT

News is Entertainment, Entertainment is News

Here's an interesting study from the University of Indiana claiming that in terms of sheer news substance, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart may be on a par with regular network news. It's no joke: IU study finds The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to be as substantive as network news. I've always said new is primarily entertainment. Turns out while Jon Stewart stuffs his substance between bits of humor, the networks stuff theirs between bits of hype. And now, this...

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:03:52 GMT

American Idol and Self-Deception One of my "guilty pleasures" in the world of TV is American Idol, which last night got off to a funny, if not slightly weird, beginning. The usual cast of players was there--Simon, Paula, Randy, and Ryan--and of course, there were the hopefuls. Set in Chicago, this ongoing comic drama had a cast of thousands...literally. The show offered a few peeks at the cream of the talent, eventually telling us that 34 of the Windy City auditioners were picked to go to the next round. But the main attraction, so often the case, was that crazy, busted dream of the rejected. Self-deception runs rampant on American Idol, and as I watched, I couldn't help but think that the American love affair with believing in dreams sometimes takes its toll. No question that achievement begins in imagination, that somehow a future yet unmade must captivate our minds and hearts. But I've also been known to say that life is much about learning to deal with setbacks and failures, and in the end, coming to terms with who we are, as opposed to who we wish we were. This, of course, is a hard truth in the cult of celebrity, where (as Hugh Laurie mentioned after winning his Golden Globe award) people who play doctors are lauded in the national press, and most doctors just go about their work unnoticed. But watching the raging foul mouths of those deceived and tossed aside folk from American Idol, I couldn"t help but wonder if we're watching a pretty good metaphor for so much of life these days. As we watch the singers, quality is pretty stark and evident, which makes the choice of passing the last crazy guy (Mr. Jumpy) all the more egregious--it's not unlike giving the student the "A" on the paper when it's really "C" work, but they have to get the "A" to pass the class. It messes with us because we can plainly see that the poor guy is being sent to Hollywood whimsically, as a piece of amusement and drama. Stayed tuned not for musical quality and the honest human drama of people trying to make it in the business, but for the odd and the weird, sent to us fortuitously by the gods of comedy. So the notion of artistic "good" is up for grabs again. Here's a question I can't help but ponder on this morning when physician assisted suicide is getting support from the Supreme Court and airplay in the national press: if our personal and/or national notions of moral and/or spiritual good up were displayed before a panel of judges chaired by, say, God, would the results be as stark and obvious? Would "good" or "quality" be as easy to see as it is on American Idol? As Dr. House might say, "Everybody lies...to themselves..."

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:27:26 GMT

Urban Outfitters I felt a bit like Dorothy in Oz last night as I stood for what I think is the first time in Seattle's downtown Urban Outfitters. The postmodern is a whirlwind all right, and it's plopping people down in places that are a long way from Kansas. I'm trying very hard to be hip in my analysis of the place, though obviously analysis is the very thing the space doesn't want you to do. But I'm sure my advertising/marketing friends will tell me how brilliantly its designed. It's meant to look like a teenager's messy room, right down to the trash on the floor that nobody seemed the least interested to pick up. 20-somethings picking at piles of clothes, browsing piles of book titles mostly about sex and its illustrated encouragement, various Mamet-esque takes on the "f' word, and multiple forms of rowdy satire. I even bought a book. This Book Will Change Your Life. Now there's a title that is as truth-telling as any I've seen. I'll have to come back to it, because just now it's time for more Christmas merriment with Mom and the mall, but let me just say this: I bought the book to take to my Aesthetics class at ACU, as a beautiful example of both the wonder and challenge of postmodern style and thought forms. From a moral point of view, it's a riot of thought-life chaos. How in the world do we make sense of postmodern life? This book tells you. Like I said, more on This Book Will Change Your Life later, but for now, to investigate the madness (I'm not being pejorative, just descriptive, in a "double irony" sort of way) at their web site, titled (what else?) www.thiswebsitewillchangeyourlife.com. Warning: Mature content. More irony...

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 07:12:15 GMT

Wise Shopping Christmas consumerism causes me all kinds of "cognitive dissonance." From the greedy impulse that leaps toward the object of desire (keep me out of all Mac stores), to the strange, lucid revelation that I will never be able to get the right amount of right Christmas gifts (I can neither afford nor find them), to the sudden insight that, of course, these presents are meant to somehow symbolize the love we have for the recepient (what if they can't read the symbol system I subscribe to?), the experience of Christmas shopping (or any other gifting, for that matter) swings me from moments of hopeful ecstasy to depressed resignation. I like stuff as much as the next guy - growing up, my sister and I yearly made contests of counting presents. But somehow this year, as I walk the aisles of department stores and boutique specialty shops, periodically grabbing lattes to calm the nerves, I can't help but wonder at the strangeness of it all. The choice of gifts is overwhelming: miles of dresses, skirts, shirts, sweaters, shoes, socks, electronics, exotic foods, houseware glass and appliances, games, entertainments of all kinds, books, books, books.... What's the cultural comment here? I don't know, just questions: I wonder what Christmas mornings are really like in the homes across America? The kids tear into the packages, the adults open their smaller ones, brothers and sisters try on new clothes. Toys squeak and doink, new computers boot up, the lucky get the keys the big-bowed Lexus out front. Some will have to settle for a hug and a roof over their heads, and some, not even that. Do we get the symbols? Do we receive the love offered? Maybe it's offered well, maybe not. Maybe it's the thought that counts, and maybe we haven't thought too much about it. But whatever's given, whatever broken offering's being unwrapped just now, do we take the giving into the privacy of our hearts, pausing at some point to just look across the room at the loved one taking pleasure in it, the gift given, hoping somehow (Dear God) they get the message we're tossing out there? And do we ever ask (Dear God) Providence to help our little exchange of love along? Or pray, "Thanks?" Do you ever wish for a wise man experience? I do. It seems simpler somehow, deeper, though longer and harder, too. To travel all those miles, all those days and nights, hunting for just one recipient, carrying a gift that somehow represents all the love you have, all the hope inside you? Seeking, seeking, meditating on the one to receive the gift, the one that sits under a star, in the buried heart of the world? But then, to have that kind of Christmas, I guess we'd have to be wise...

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 01:58:37 GMT

Going Jesus [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".] Man, lots of roaming on the net today: painting, Kenye West Videos (more on Jesus Walks later, and now I come 'round to find a parish administrator doing some fun stuff with pop culture kitsch. Just now she has a running series on nativity scenes that probably ought not to exist. Check out Going Jesus. Inflatable Nativity?

Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:29:37 GMT

Slow Art In an age when Christians are talking about engaging the arts, especially the postmoderrn pop cultural forms, this word from Robert Hughes (art critic author of The Shock of the New, Culture of Complaint, and others) is worth chewing on as counterpoint. I found it in the November-December issue of The Dramatist, quoting Hughes from The Guardian.
"We have had a gutful of fast art and fast food. What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a vase holds water; art that grows out of modes of perception and whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn't merely sensational, that doesn't get its message across in 10 seconds, that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures. In a word, art that is the very opposite of mass media." -- Robert Hughes

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:35:33 GMT

VoodooPad [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".] Very cool Mac Software alert...VoodooPad is a WikiWebSite on your desktop. Now before yesterday, I would not have known what a WikiWebSite was, but now that I know, I'm hooked. Wiki is essentially a protocol (that word - protocol - makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about) that allows you to create and navigate a hypertext/hypercard environment built around whatever topic/category you desire, creating page after page of links with the mere click of a mouse. Here's the catch: if you can figure out how to run CGI scripts, Wiki protocol allows you to create online forums in hypertext environments that anyone can edit - instantly. Way cool if you're trying to collaborate or just have a deep conversation with people. For the "Wiki" uninitiated, go here to see what I mean. Check it out...

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 05:14:47 GMT

What's the Good? [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".]
from Yellowcard's Only One In the new Yellowcard video Only One, the scene is reminiscent of the WTO riots here in Seattle back in 1999, young hipsters facing off against the big bad police force. Ryan Key, lead singer for Yellowcard, declares his desire for peace (it's a love song, though) by putting a flower into the barrel of a gun. Not terribly subtle, but...okay. Here's my question after spending a couple of days rolling around in popular music: with a couple of exceptions, U2 being the most notable, the messages (and the music) seem to be about energy, freedom to do whatever you want (especially as it relates to sex and whatever else can give you intense visceral experience), and romantic love. Lots of angst and loneliness, anger and identity issues. Much of which is important - don't think I don't like what I'm hearing, I really do - and worthy of serious attention. But in the end, what is "the good" that the pop music culture is suggesting? "The good" I take to mean the broad philosophical category people have been wrestling over since way before the Greeks. What is "the good" for people, for cultures, for nations, for the world? What is "the good" for families, for each gender, for children - name your category of human being and ask: what is "the good?" My friend Nikki sent me the lyrics to U2's new song called Yahweh from the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb this afternoon. Go read them. Now here's a group of guys who have a suggestion. "God, break our hearts and help us serve." That's pretty clear. And in my view, perceptive and wise. So, now...Yellowcard, Eminem, Britney, Destiny's Child, Nickelback, Snoop Dog, and the rest...what's "the good" you want us to follow?

Tue, 23 Nov 2004 05:07:41 GMT

Reading the Times Someone help me here. An article in the Sunday Seattle Times took me behind the lines, giving me an up close look at one of the marine battalions going house to house in Fallujah. I've talked about the beheadings before, the way they unnerve me. (Not unexpected - I suspect that's what they're for.) Various civil wars continue around the globe, and the brawl in Detroit is personal war gone local. We've got the Janet Jackson incident, the Terrell Owens incident, Desperate Housewives (which I'll admit I've not seen yet), and the sundry diversions of Reality TV. I've spent much of the day listening to pop music - Avril Lavigne, The Evies, Green Day, Eminem, Britney, Xzibit, Prince, Good Charlotte, and I think I'd better listen to Usher if I'm going to really get it. (I did...he's got a voice.) U2 iPods, the Gap, the Merchants of Cool, hooking up, the battle over marriage and abortion, the mainstreaming of porn, Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model, Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto, the emergent church, the postmodern church, Bobblehead Jesus, Shelley Jackson and the Ineradicable Stain, branding...on and on and on.... Christian engagement with popular culture is a hot topic these days, especially among 20-somethings - as well it should be. A large portion of the culture is obviously in disagreement with social critics such as Neal Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death, Technopoly), Allan Bloom (The Closing of the American Mind), Morris Berman (The Twilight of American Culture), James Twitchell (Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America), Lynne Cheney (Telling the Truth: Why Our Culture and Our Country Have Stopped Making Sense and What We Can Do About It ), Robert Bork (Slouching Towards Gomorrah), and others. I mention these books because they stare at me from my bookshelf, receding a bit, though they have influenced my thinking substantially in the past. They're on the right for sure, cogent books espousing a shared grief over the passing of something, something that is far more profound than some reductionist caricature of a 1950's that never really were. It is hard to imagine that anyone can miss the fact that much of...well, something...has been lost in the past 40 years. Yes, some losses were good. Segregation, the more blatant sexism that women have at least gained substantial ground on (though there's work still to be done) - these are glad losses. But the loss of the nuclear family, the near-wholesale jettisoning of linear reasoning, the loss of trust in language, the loss of public civility, the loss of reasonable, civil public debate - all these are losses that, in my estimation, have lessened who we are as a people. However...having said that... Now comes the hard part: Dallas Willard says that ruling ideas are the hardest things to change in a person, and when changes come, it is a kind of religious conversion, nigh unto emotional and spiritual breakdown. I'm not there yet, haven't gotten that far, but sometimes I wonder... The coming age of postmodern, post-Christian culture is swamping me internally - not altogether a bad thing. The conversations about America's role in the global community and the distinct difficulty many Christians have in separating Jesus and Ceasar troubles me. Brian McLaren's call for us to be citizens of the world in the name of Christ strikes me as having the ring of truth. Jesus alignment with the poor continues to stand in deep tension with the materialism of the age, and its a telling thought that if people took Jesus seriously in most of his words about money, the world economy would collapse. Racism, sexism, ageism - these remain serious blind spots. And at church, we keep being told to leave the building and go be the church out there, which always seems uncomfortable - and right on. And then, of course, there's the war.
§
I started by asking for help. Just after the first of the year, I'm going to be lecturing (oh, how modern of me - lecturing - got to get that out of my head) some very savvy college students on "The Arts and Culture: A Christian Aesthetic." We're going to talk about God, Glory, Creation, The Nature of Gracious Dominion, Cosmos, The Cultural Mandate, Incarnation...in short, the biblical and theological foundations of making art. We'll talk imagination, metaphor and symbol, the falseness of Gnostic dualism, the primacy of sensory experience, the sacred and profane, and the major strains of aesthetic thought over the past couple of millennia. And finally, we'll turn to their world, the world of pop culture, talking about MTV, Hollywood, The Internet, and everything from comic books to collectibles, exploring points of convergence and divergence between scripture and American Popular Culture. The arts and culture are media through which we can read the times. But are we, as a people, continuing to nurture the means by which the arts can be read? I wonder. In listening to all those pop artists today, I found their voices compelling, urgent, and full of things worth hearing, mostly about personal loss, identity crisis, sexual fulfillment as a means to experience living when little else touches them, and of course, outrage. What I saw little of was poetry. Metaphor, symbol? Lots of irony, though. We derided President Bush for lack of nuance - funny that the popular songsters don't have a lot either. (I may be wrong, but that was today's listening.) So what help do I need? Here I'm going to be fully postmodern and say I don't know what help I need, except I'm finding the times hard to read these days. The old words about faith and art that have been coming out of mouth for years appear to be morphing. My mouth's in motion, but no words yet, and I'm not yet sure what they will be, or what they need to be. Stay tuned. Much of this blog is going to be trying to figure it out. If you get any revelations, let me know...

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 20:20:01 GMT

In Passing... I suppose it might be more interesting if I was blogging about various cultural oddities (I missed the Monday Night Football fiasco), political events (can Fallujah get any worse?), or even personal emotional ups and downs ("gloom, despair, and agony on me..."). What is it that is so fascinating about a web blog like In Passing? Here's the deal...this guy hears snatches of conversations as he trundles through life, and writes them down. Funny stuff...writers of dialogue, take note. Is blogging about books something of a cybernetic oxymoron?

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:50:25 GMT

small letters, no caps why is it that 2 b really pomo (postmodern) u have to do away with capital letters? i have seen so many blogs and emergent church websites where language and punctuation, spelling, whatever, is irrelevant. u have 2 connect with the culture, i suppose. what do u think? should i lose the caps? i'd seem so much younger. yo, yo...

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 14:31:31 GMT
Immunity to Advertising?
An article speaking to the ubiquity of advertising, and its role in the ensuing fragmentation of American (not to mention world) society...from Wired listed on Arts Journal. Stop Trying to Persuade Us
by Jason Silverman "Advertising is everywhere; it's hard to escape. "Advertisers will spend hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reach consumers this year. The result? Advertising clutter. Researchers guesstimate the average American is exposed to hundreds, or even thousands, of ads each day. But marketers may be losing ground. We've been sprayed so much that we've begun developing immunities." Wired 11/09/04

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 02:18:39 GMT
Pop Matters [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".] This is my problem...I'm looking for copy of Calvin Seerveld's out of print book Rainbows for a Fallen World, and next thing I know, there's an interview, there's a blog, there's a web site, and look at that, a pretty hip site tracking all things pop culture.

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 08:45:10 GMT
PopCult Magazine [Macro error: Can't find a sub-table named "radioResponder".] Cool web site put together by a guy who can't find a journalistic magazine examining pop culture just how he'd like, so he did it himself online. PopCult Magazine is intelligent, cool, and just plain fun. Great lists of stuff on the bottom end of quality--calls it "The Bottom Five." Just the titles of the sections are cool: odd glimpses, obsessions, passing fancies, critical mass, and material whirl, and the FAQ section simply called, "huh?" Definitely a site I'll be referencing in the pop culture section of my faith and arts class this January. Worth checking out...