Culture

Hollywood Is Brokener. Or something

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Lynda Obst has an excerpt from her new book on how Hollywood is broken, which follows what we’ve been discussing here.  The excerpt alone is informative and paints a workable theory about risk-adverse Hollywood since you can’t plan easily in an age where balance sheet reliables have suddenly shifted.

As the resident Career Guru here (I also think of myself as the resident sex symbol, but that’s my own delusion), I’d also note something else – Hollywood exerts an irrational pull on other careers.  How many gamers base ideas on blockbusters made for balance sheets, how many writers operate under the delusion they want to write some big film, how many people want to be in the industry peripherally?  If it’s melting down, the impact will be far wider than we expect – and if it’s melting down, some people should ask where they’re getting their ideas from . . .

– Steven

80’s, Metal, Hair, Glam

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I remember the 80’s music fondly, and often call it a Cambrian Explosion of music.  Oh, there are things we regret, or mock, or that didn’t age well, but there was just a lot of creative ferment.  There was also a lot of fun stuff, and last night I just went on an 80’s jam and remembered.

I was speculating on Hair Metal after going through some music, that kind of pop-metal prettyboy music that was at times mocked, and I think unfairly.  I loved Def Leppard, for instance, and they’re still making great fun jams all these years laters.  C’mon, how many of us will hear the beat and go “Gunter glieben glauchen globen” automatically?

More technically called Glam Metal, as I understand, and frankly, I think that’s a far more accurate name for it.

When I tried to describe what the typical “Hair Metal” band looks like, I ended up saying “Sex Pirates” because theres’s a mix of pretty, leather, and a bit of danger.  Really, just take a look at Ratt for instance, it’s like a critical explosion of Johnny Depp (I frankly think of Krokus as having glam elements as well).

I think really when you look at “Glam Metal” It’s a very appropriate term because you can see a lot of glam influence, and frankly a bit of boyband in it – tight pants and guys with great hair is not just there to appeal to the closeted males in the audience.  It’s also just a hell of a lot of fun.

I’m glad to hear lately there’s a revival of the style.  I like a good hard metal sound, but also like good riffs and some fun spectacle.  I still fondly remember some of the crazy videos, and like the idea of bands not taking themselves too damn seriously.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Maker Culture And Cities

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Maker Culture isn’t just the spectacular gadgets we see from Maker Faire, there’s a lot of “quiet” things like crowdfunding city changes and urban engineering.

Citzens, Cities, and Makers.

I’ve been mildly funding things like Maker-scientists and citizen involvement in things like Little Free Library.  Curious to see how far this can go (and in many ways, this is kind of old school).

– Steve