Tho’ not supporting the marxism per se, perhaps there are a few blogger-pariahs who admire Adorno’s perorations on the Culture Industry, regardless of its lack of confirmability. Ho-wood is as much political instrument as Washington (or Sac-town) politicos are; but measuring its effects in any sort of precise manner presents all sorts of problems. So one may be left with Adorno-like meditations, vague freudian or postmod generalizations, or perhaps eschewing the theory, sort of dittos of WS Burroughs’ thoughts (tho perhaps not his character): there isn’t one dream of America that Hollywood hasn’t destroyed (or pimped, mocked, etc. or words to that effect). Not only ‘burb values are appealed to; the lives of outlaws are eventually cleaned up, marketed, spun: as in the recent John Cash flick.

Must protest in the strongest possible terms however that AC/DC are not ridiculous, or at any rate not notably more ridiculous than LZ.

I’d love to hear the “sociobiological explanation for The Carpenters” sometime.

Who cares if they’re honest, or pure, or whatever. They’re great art. Perhaps it’s having grown up in the center of artifice that is the US west coast, but ‘authenticity’ alone does nothing for me. I much prefer myth.

Just last week I was thinking about 8th grade, and I put on “When the Levee Breaks,” and it was a completely empty experience. I wondered what had happened to the magic. I’m glad to know this is a full-blown phenomenon.