In Praise of Creamed Spinach

Remember that famous sci-fi novel from back in the day called Fahrenheit 451? It was about a time in the not so distant future when the State would burn books in an effort to control thought. There was a time when such an idea seemed plausible, but certainly not now. There's no need to burn something that has no value. Comedian Chris Rock once said that if you want to hide something from the average person, hide it in a book. Unfortunately, he's probably right. 

I own a business in Vegas called MovieBrat Poster Shop. I primarily sell posters, but I also sell DVDs and books too. Or rather I "stock" books. Selling them is another matter altogether. I'm lucky to sell one book a week. I sell a wide variety of non-fiction books and with a name like MovieBrat, I naturally carry tons of movie related titles. Books on directing, producing, editing, writing, acting, etc. Anyone truly into film is going to love my stuff. Once, a librarian from the American Film Institute visited my store and he raved about the variety and reasonable prices. And yet, when young, "aspiring" filmmakers come to my store, they almost never show any interest whatsoever in reading about the craft they claim to love. I actively try and introduce these filmmakers of tomorrow to the books that might enlighten them, but my efforts are almost always in vain. They'd rather look at the extra features on the DVD. They only want to look at movies.

How did society get to such a point where a book is akin to creamed spinach... something gross but good for you... something to be avoided at all cost? In an earlier blog, I mercilessly blasted the educational system for turning students into robots. Let me get out my trusty shotgun once more. The educational system has absolutely turned students away from books. That's because students are routinely forced to read books that don't interest or engage them. As a result, they end up viewing all books in the same negative light. 

But in all fairness, the educational system is hardly the only villain in this sad tale. Reading requires active involvement unlike television and films which require virtually no involvement at all. These days, it's difficult for Charles Dickens to compete with Survivor or American Idol. Who wants creamed spinach when you can have burgers and fries?

Regardless of what a person is into... art, sports, voodoo, whatever, there's a book out there that will provide a deeper understanding of that subject. The right book is a door. If you open it, you can enter an entirely new world filled with knowledge and valuable insights. Books can literally transform thought and lives. People that don't read are... for all intents and purposes... basically illiterate. And an illiterate person is more easily controlled, particularly with regard to information. Rather than actively gaining perspectives that come from a wide variety of books, illiterate people are forced to passively accept the information coming from far fewer sources. 

So, boys and girls, if you want to grow up to be big and strong, eat your spinach.

Laurie Lipton Update!

I just had the most amazing experience. 

I'm obsessed with "culturestuff", particularly art. And I'm particularly fond of art done with pencil and charcoal. This probably stems from my love of black and white films and photography. I've found that most people have little or no appreciation for black and white images. Such people view black and white as the absence of something... namely color. They don't understand that black and white isn't the absence of anything... it's just something else altogether. Black and white images take me out of the real world of color and transport me elsewhere. I'm not particularly interested in the real world anyway... certainly not these days. Back in the day when I watched television ... ( I no longer do )... I used to take the color out of the set and watch everything in black and white.  I discovered that doing so could improve even total crap. 

About a year ago while surfing the web, I accidentally discovered the art of Laurie Lipton. Only H.R. Giger's work had affected me so strongly. Laurie's attention to detail was astonishing. The strange black and white images connected and resonated with me on a very deep level. The images were startling and disturbing yet filled with humor and cynicism. The more I stared at them, the more absorbed I became. Whenever artists would visit my business, if they seemed like they had the necessary mentality, I'd introduce them to Laurie's work. I remember telling a filmmaker friend that I wanted my films to look like Laurie's art. Let's just say I'm a big fan. 

So for Black Chateau's first artist profile, I chose Laurie Lipton. It was a no brainer. 

Now here's where it gets amazing. The very next day after posting my blog on Laurie, I received a comment... FROM LAURIE! It was like hearing from one of my few idols... Thelonious Monk, Clive Barker or H.R. Giger. It turned out to be a hilariously bittersweet experience because she wrote me to thank me AND to correct something I'd said about her. In my blog, I'd referred to her as a surrealist. WRONG! She wrote:

"Surrealism is an art movement that used the juxtaposition of dream symbols to create a picture. It's a kind of "stream of consciousness". My work is intentional... more like the religious paintings of the middle ages. They chose certain images to tell a story. My work is a narrative without words, like those Medieval Masters. Sorry to pull you up on this point, but I feel it's important!"

Needless to say I was immediately both elated AND dismayed. I'd been contacted by one of my favorite artists, but I'd mistakenly called her an apple when she was really an orange! Oops!

However, when she explained her art to me, I understood one reason why she's become such an inspiration for my filmmaking. Along with creating startling and disturbing images, I strive to make my films "narrative without words". 

Thanks for the correction Laurie!

And the inspiration. 

Fame Is The Name of The Game

A few years ago I was teaching a filmmaking class at a summer camp for kids. One day, I asked the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. And most of them gave the same answer. They wanted to be famous. Actually, only about 75% wanted to be famous. The rest wanted to be thugs.

There was a time... and not that long ago... when people aspired to be skillful at some particular endeavor; sports, the arts, car repair, whatever. But mastering a skill takes time... and usually a lot of it... time better spent on other pursuits. Like indulging weapons of mass distraction. One of the students in my class told me that her favorite pastime was signing her autograph. She had no identifiable skills that I was aware of, but her penmanship was truly remarkable. 

In a media driven, celebrity focused, narcissistic culture like ours, it's hardly a surprise that fame is the modern equivalent of the holy grail. It makes total sense. The important thing to understand is that, if fame is one's goal, there's never been a better time for achieving it than now. Now anyone can possess the holy grail... and with virtually no effort too. 

Various inexpensive technologies have made it possible for the average person to create films, music, books and other art forms that would have been impossible just a few short years ago. The internet, particularly YouTube and MySpace, has made it possible to promote and distribute those art forms, literally all over the world. For free! And perhaps most importantly, people like Paris Hilton, Flava Flav, the Kardashians and a host of others serve as shining examples that in the fame game, talent is an option, not a requirement. Now, perhaps for the first time in all of human history, "anybody" can be a "somebody". 

Andy Warhol envisioned a time when anybody could be famous for at least fifteen minutes. At one time, such a sentiment seemed laughably ludicrous. It's not so funny anymore. 

Profile: Laurie Lipton

Because we live in the age of television and films, people have forgotten the power of a static image. I like moving images too, but I don't find them any more compelling than the so-called "non moving" image. I say so-called because to me, a static image can have tremendous movement. It depends on the skill of the artist that produced the image. 

Hanging out in an art museum is every bit as satisfying as watching a film. I've always loved surreal art because in addition to having tremendous movement, it moves me emotionally. One of my favorite surrealist is Laurie Lipton. I love "darkstuff" and Laurie is about as dark as it gets. And yet her art is extremely humorous too. Using pencil and charcoal, she creates some of the most intricately detailed images I've ever seen. I could stare at her stuff for hours and never get bored. When I look at her images, I'm deeply disturbed. And I mean that as a compliment. If you find her work as disturbingly enjoyable as I do, please visit her website. 

www.laurielipton.com

The Tool of The Gods

I'll never forget the day I dropped out of graduate school. I'd already completed the course work for my Master's degree and was ready to write my thesis. But one day, I had an epiphany... a word I learned in college by the way. I don't think I've used it since either. Anyway, I experienced a profound realization. I realized that school was a complete waste of time and that I wanted to pursue filmmaking instead. My family freaked out of course. Quitting so close to the finish line seemed crazy. But to me, the only thing that was crazy was having gone to school in the first place. So I became a dropout and a filmmaker and I've never been sorry. 

I've never really liked school. From kindergarten right on up to university level. School always made me uncomfortable. There was a strange, artificiality that left me more confused than enlightened. I never belonged there and I knew it even as a child. So I've always been deeply suspicious of the educational system. I knew what it claimed to be and what it claimed to do, but I never bought it. Those claims always sounded like false advertising. 

My last blog dealt with the fashion industry. I called it a machine designed to shape society. Well, the educational system is designed to function in much the same way., Granted, one purpose of so-called education is to teach the fundamental knowledge we need in order to function in life; reading, writing and arithmetic. The "basics". But these basics are actually a very small part of what education is all about. There's a whole other curriculum being taught. 

We're born into this world with a precious, powerful gift. It's called imagination. Like a magical wand, imagination can be used to open doors to endless possibilities. We may be born with legs, but it's imagination that gives us wings. Imagination is the one tool that enables man to be a god. The problem is that we don't live on Mount Olympus. 

The purpose of the educational system... from kindergarten up to the university level... is the continued production of the worker class. Visualize a long stream of smiling graduates with diplomas in hand... all seated on an endless conveyor belt. The widgets of tomorrow. And the single most important first step in building a good widget/worker is the removal of the imagination. Imagination is for gods, not beasts or drones. Good workers don't need imagination. So schools function as behavioral training laboratories where students learn the skills they'll truly need in society. There are three fundamental things that the educational system is designed to teach. These are the real basics:

1. Performance of meaningless tasks

2. Memorization of useless information

3. Blind obedience to authority figures

Is it any wonder why big business and major corporations have traditionally been the biggest donors to education? If you're having trouble understanding what I'm saying here, consider yourself "educated". 

In all fairness, it should be pointed out that most people are not meant for godhood anyway. So removing their imagination is like removing their appendix. I will have no real effect. In fact, most people are probably better off without imagination anyway. Such people are perfectly content to answer the questions. 

However, the rest of us will continue to question the answers. 

Fashion Is A Verb

Ask the average person to define the word fashion and they'll immediately start talking about clothes, shoes and airhead supermodels. That's because people have forgotten that the word "fashion" is also a verb. Fashion means to mold, change or configure. The fashion industry is one of the most important elements in culture because it functions as a kind of machine that shapes society. So next time you hear the phrase,  "clothes make the man", think about it. That phrase is more revealing than you think. 

It's amazing that more people haven't figured out the scam. The relentlessly fickle nature of the fashion industry should be a big red flag. Last season, they gave us a detailed laundry list of wardrobe dos and don'ts... a list we were expected to memorize and conform to; that is if we expected to fit in with the rest of normal society. But that was last season already; way last year ago. This season there's a whole new list. And even though it's drastically different from the previous list in every way, we had better memorize it and most importantly... conform to it.

Along with shaping and re-shaping society, I sometimes think the fashion industry is in the business of mocking society. Case in point... "sagging". Sagging refers to the wearing of pants as low as possible... as if they're about to drop down to the knees. It's an integral part of hiphop culture, perhaps the most visual part. Sagging is to hiphop what the cowboy hat is to country/western culture. It virtually defines the culture. Most male hiphoppers pride themselves as being the epitome of macho masculinity. Yet there's nothing particularly macho or masculine about sagging. Because sagging is a fashion statement alright... one that comes straight out of the prison system. And what a statement it is. Because in the joint, sagging is a form of advertising. It advertises that one's ass is available for action. There's something ludicrously ironic about bad asses adopting homo-erotic fashion statements. But that's exactly what's happened. 

Like most major industries, the fashion industry is controlled by men. The face of the industry may be female, but that's just a mask that hides reality. Men truly run the fashion industry. Is it any wonder that women are so systematically singled out for victimization? The fashion industry forces women to conform to ever changing, unnatural, virtually unattainable standards. The sad result is that many women end up confused, neurotic and self loathing. Not to mention broke. The fashion industry keeps everybody broke. It is an industry after all. There's something fiendishly brilliant about making people pay... and pay dearly... for the privilege of being duped. Never underestimate the power... and the cruelty of the fashion industry. Particularly when assisted by mass media. Because mass media reinforces our beliefs in all of society's illusions. 

The phrase "slave to fashion" conjures up an image of someone impeccably dressed... yet draped in chains. Perhaps the chains are the real garments and the clothing is the illusion. 

Live From Las Vegas

A few years ago when I was in Paris, I spent a lot of time hanging out in bookstores, vinyl/dvd stores, poster shops, galleries, etc. And I noticed something that really surprised me. The only American city I ever saw represented in any way was Las Vegas. Not Hollywood, not New York, not Washington. Anything America oriented was always about Vegas. And whenever I'd mention to someone that I was from Vegas, they usually treated me like a cross between a rock star and an extra-terrestrial. People excitedly wanted to know every little detail about "Planet Vegas". Paris is very much the cultural hub of Europe. It's absolutely THE place to get a feel for what Europeans as a whole are into. The moral to this story is simple. To people around the world, Las Vegas is seen as the real capital of America. America is legendary for being the land of opportunity. Well, in Las Vegas, anything is possible. 

I've lived in Vegas for ten years. Before I moved here, I'd always thought of Vegas as corny and square. Once I finally arrived and settled in, my initial opinion was totally confirmed. Vegas is corny and square... but only on the surface. Once I took the time to look behind and beyond the neon, I soon realized that there's far more to Las Vegas than meets the eye. In an ironic twist, I ended up becoming obsessed with the very city I'd scorned. I collected books, articles and documentaries which I studied like the Dead Sea Scrolls. I conducted informal interviews with old timers and old schoolers; the people I often refer to as "elder Vegas". I spent many hours... years actually... processing the information I'd gathered. And finally, I developed several theories of my own about Vegas. 

I had more than enough material for a book, but I didn't want to wait a year or two to make the information available. So I created a twenty-two minute documentary called Occult Las Vegas Revealed. It can be seen right now on Youtube. Though I'm quick to tell people that it doesn't sparkle and shine like something on Discovery Channel, I'm still very proud of it. That's because I present some of the most startling and original theories about Vegas that I've ever heard. I'm now in the process of finishing the book and it should be available in 2009.

I'm very much obsessed with "culture stuff"... art, music, books, films, etc. Suffice it to say that I'm equally obsessed with Las Vegas, a city that reflects so much about American culture. So I'll be devoting a fair amount of blog time to Sin City. But I can assure you, my ideas about Vegas will be radically different from anything you've ever heard before. If ever a place complemented my dark, somewhat morbid world view, that place is Las Vegas. Don't let the neon fool you. Las Vegas is a dark place... where anything is possible. 

Welcome To Black Chateau

Greetings! 

Thanks for coming. This is an important first for me. It's my very first blog. 

So I'll take the opportunity to explain exactly what this joint is all about. 

What is Black Chateau?

Black Chateau is a dark,  mysterious castle perched high on some jagged mountaintop with the sea raging below and lightning streaking the sky high above. It's also a place located under a crawlspace deep within the recesses of my mind. I've always loved "darkstuff". Old school horror movies (NOT torture porn), surreal art, cemetaries, skulls, spooky music, black clothes, etc. I'm sure that my love of the dark gives me a perspective on culture that radically differs from the mainstream. Nothing against the mainstream, it just doesn't appeal to me. I don't watch television, I don't follow sports, I don't vote and I don't trust religion. I'm an alien life form. I never went out of my way to be different, it just naturally happened that way. 

So Black Chateau... the place in my mind... is an oasis. An oasis in the middle of the mainstream desert. When you enter my oasis, I hope to serve you a wide variety of cultural commentary. I'll write about my passions; art, music, books, film, photography, politics and spirituality. With a dark flavor of course. 

Ideally, culture nourishes the soul and opens doors to deeper understandings and realizations. 

I hope my blog does the same thing... for both myself and my welcomed guests.