RE: Family Values and Screen-Borne Darkness, from The Cosby Show to The Last of Us
Does that mean we have to take all the joyful accomplishments of his fictional family and chuck them out the window?
What joyful accomplishments? I'll have to side with Bill Maher here: I never found Bill Cosby funny. I watched him, cos back then there was nothing else on TV during that slot. But I rarely laughed. Maybe once every episode, if that.
About the zombie game, I don't know if photo-realism is an achievement in that case, since they just seem to be shooting real actors, and then 'fake it down' with an 'overlay'. It's like taking a real picture, then overlaying a filter in photoshop that makes it look like it's been drawn, painted, made of glass, etc. I don't understand this kind of 'realism'. Wouldn't it be more realistic to just use the original footage? It's almost like a form of nostalgia, like "we want to create a look that reminds us of old games we used to play and enjoy, but we'll use technology that will allow us to do it the easy way". It's not even motion capture like the Planet of the Apes and Golum etc. I just don't see where the art or creativity is in this.
Don't know how much of the story is true, but I never enjoyed the idea of smart people who voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool, thereby letting the world be run by Fat- and Old-Fucks!
Tastes in comedy sure can differ. I wasn't sure if I was just remember Cosby with rose-colored nostalgic glasses, so I watched a couple of clips and still found them worth a chuckle. Mostly it felt like a family I'd like to be a part of.
I've noticed Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" is another dividing-line for people. Some love the homey, feel-good, gather-round-and-gossip community feeling of it, and others think it's just a bunch of sentimentalist garbage. If I were a church-going man, I'd probably be a Lutheran because of Garrison Keillor.
I know what you mean about the motion-capture scenes in Last of Us. Maybe they would be better as straightforward film. But as for the game-play, I don't know how that could be made the same way, and then it would be jarring to have characters live-filmed for the cut-scenes. It is a very linear game. The characters have to go from scene to scene in a specified order and it's not like their decisions impact the outcome. That's probably why that series of YouTube videos is just as satisfying as sitting down and playing the damn thing.
As far as the gene pool - you got me there. Old Fuck has 24 kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. None of them from my mother, fortunately. But instead of dealing with his own litter (in another state) he hangs around here and makes our lives miserable! Fat Fuck never did reproduce.
Thanks for reading - I know this was a long one. I've had it in the drawer for a while and decided it was time to get it off my chest. (All true, by the way.)
Oh Jesus!
Well thanks for pouring out your heart like that Winston! It takes courage. I don't think I could do it! I enjoy real stories, there's a kind of indirect learning that goes on when I read them, vicarious learning, without the pain!
I only remembered from one of your introductory posts (maybe the introductory post?) that you were gonna blend fact with fiction, or present dreams as reality, and not tell us which is which, and this whole thing seemed over the top at places, so I was like, okay, this is one of the fake ones! Or maybe I misremember something. I've yet to read all your posts. I'm eager to read the one on narcolepsy!
Oh yeah, I did say this about Narcolepsy:
Mostly I meant, if you say, "Let me tell you about the dream I had last night..." people suddenly start remembering they have other appointments and heading for the door. That's because dreams tend to be formless and un-plotted. Gotta knock 'em into shape first. (More about narcolepsy tomorrow. I've got a light-hearted post I'm having a blast with at the moment.)
Going back to your earlier point about the gene-pool: do you have any kids? Plans for them?
I would like to reply, but I just remembered I have an appointment. :P
(No, no kids unfortunately. I'd like to, though. Very much.)