I may no know much about Art

D A Y S    L I K E    T H E S E

Some have the ability to reason and use it to unravel the mysteries of the universe around us, whether the macro or the micro. Others, lacking creative ability or a three-digit IQ, have merely the ability to articulate profanity. As my sainted grandmother frequently said, "I wouldn't hold in my hand what you just held in your mouth." The quality of life is a result of the respect with which we treat it. Obviously some people would be quite at home in the world depicted by Hieronymous Bosch in his Garden of Earthly Delights. (Click here to see what it's like: Mark Harden's Artchive - "Hieronymous Bosch") Not a lovely place to visit, much less to live.

I realize I aim high when I quote the Bard, "You keep all your smart modern writers, give me William Shakespeare, you keep all your smart modern painters, I'll take Rembrandt, Titian, DaVinci and Gainesborough". (20th Century Man, words & music Ray Davies) Next time you're feeling smug, try singing that to a rock'n'roll beat! The Bard in question here, of course, is Ray Davies, leader and songwriter for the Kinks, a seminal British Invasion band who also delighted us with "A Well-Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", both jabs at modern British life. His other observations along this line include "Sunny Afternoon" (my girlfriend's run off with my car, gone back to her ma and pa, tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty), "Apeman" (I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilized, cuz I'm a strict vegetarian, and with the over-population and inflation and starvation, and the crazy politicians, I don't feel safe in this world no more, I don't wanna die in a nuclear war, I wanna sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man), "Waterloo Sunset" (but I don't need no friends, as long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset, I am in paradise, every day I look at the world from my window), and the incomparable "Celluloid Heroes" (everybody's a dreamer, and everybody's a star, and everybody's in movies, doesn't matter who you are....you can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, some that you recognize and some that you've hardly even heard of, people who worked and struggled for fame, some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain). I could go on quoting the works of rock 'n' roll's most erudite songwriter, but I think I've made the point. To say Ray Davies delights in poking fun at the rest of us, as we take ourselves seriously along life's various paths, is to put it mildly. Someone has to, because we don't seem to be able to do it very well for ourselves.

Today's "artists" confuse anger and profanity with creativity and miss the point entirely. This lack of vision is painfully evident in "performance" artists who demonstrate bodily functions or worse, as if theirs were somehow different from our own. Indeed, the very same problem affects TV and movies, as the same old stories are recycled with new "stars", many of whom won't be remembered when they hit middle age, much less long after they have gone. The rare breath of fresh thinking is copied madly/badly, as NBC did with "Revelations", a blatant cop to the popularity of "The Passion of the Christ". The trend for decades in Hollywood is screenwriting by committee, as additional writers are brought in to "sweeten" the plot, to better adhere to the director's "vision", or to calm jittery studio executives about a particularly shaky film by "newcomers" (outsiders, not used to the "studio" system). Is it any wonder so many movies go straight to video with only a short detour through the local multi-plex?

What happened to cause this? Have all the original ideas been used? I know sometimes I struggle to find an original point of view, a new take on a storyline, some new perspective to make a point more interesting. When George Carlin started his routine about "7 words you don't say on TV", he was breaking new ground, charting new territory, pushing the envelope. Comedians today use vulgar language as punctuation; there is nothing interesting or shocking about it, as it serves only to cover up having nothing amusing or interesting to say. Chris Rock stumbled through the Academy Awards show, obviously hampered by having to watch his language, a far cry from the telecasts hosted by Billy Crystal, a comedian who has never relied on vulgarity to tell a funny story. Are "four-letter" words (and worse) really funny? Does ghetto language give one the cachet of "street credentials"?

Back to Ray, for a few closing words on the subject, who sings in "Better Things" (here's hoping all the days ahead, won't be as bitter as the ones behind you, and be an optimist instead, and somehow happiness will find you, forget what happened yesterday, I know that better things are on their way), a saccharine-sweet sentiment, to be sure, but no less valid, and in "Lola" (well, I'm not the world's most physical guy, but when she squeezed me tight, she nearly broke my spine, well, I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man) a pithy comment on the so-called "equality" between the sexes. It's a "mixed-up, mumbled-up, shook-up world", for sure, a brave new world that fears originality as much as it fears competition. A friend of mine is wont to say, "Sure, I can do you a favor, so long as it doesn't cost me money, time or personal inconvenience". What more can one ask for? Somewhere, all the "creative" types seemed to have adopted this philosophy, paraphrasing it as, "Yes, I can create, so long as I do not have to think, work or otherwise exert any effort"...what a sad commentary on the arts today. (All lyrics quoted: words & music Ray Davies/The Kinks, protected by appropriate copyright)