Review: Dirty Picture

Pop music is often pornographic. Pop music videos are almost ALWAYS pornographic. But it is rare for a pop song/video to be as unapologetic and unabashedly pornographic as the latest single from Taio Cruz, "Dirty Picture". This Paul Oakenfold-inspired trance/techno hybrid sound is a feast for the ears and the theme itself is one that, in the age of camera phones and webcams, is familiar to many of us and makes for a not-so-surprisingly catchy hook for a dance floor grind-fest. And that's why I love pop music - it's not afraid to express itself in ways that arguably lower the standards of decency in an already indecent medium.

And hey, anything that features Ke$ha is audio-visual gold to me.

The LeBron of baseball?

I know sports doesn't necessarily fall under the banner of Create & Commerce (although it is technically entertainment) but you have to see this kid.

Stephen Strasburg is a 21-year-old pitcher for the Washington Nationals. He was drafted in 2009 and signed a record $15.1 MILLION contract. After only 11 minor league starts, he made his major league debut tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In seven innings of work, Strasburg struck out 14 batters (a season high for the Nationals), gave up only two runs (on a two-run home run), allowed only four hits, and didn't walk anybody. Of those 14 strikeouts, seven of them came from the seven last consecutive batters he faced.

The Washington Nationals, who are ranked 21st in the majors in attendance (very low), sold every single ticket to the game and even started making up tickets by placing seats in the luxury boxes and squeezing every last inch of standing-room out of Nationals Park. Impressive.

ESPN and Sports Illustrated are calling Strasburg the LeBron James or Sydney Crosby of baseball. He is arguably the most hyped, promising rookie in the history of baseball.

MLB.com won't let me post the video, but follow this link to watch Strasburg's 14 debut strikeouts. It's...phenomenal.

Daily Quote

"To the extent that we're now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment -- in other words, give the public what it wants, not necessarily what it ought to hear, what it ought to see, what it needs, but what it wants -- that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism."

- Ted Koppel, former anchor, ABC Nightline
August 15, 2006 in an interview with Lowell Bergman for PBS Frontline

Inauguration

Welcome to the West where capitalism rules. It's quite literal - even the most humanistic of services like health care, education, social assistance, and democratic process can find themselves pinned down, preempted, and prepackaged to produce profits. It is what makes our economy tick. And as we have all come to understand, if the economy stops ticking, so too does everything else.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. For, it is the system we have and it has enriched many a life, and perhaps more measurable, many a lifestyle.

The arts, however, find themselves in a trouble spot. Like any enterprise, they are expected to make money but are often not built for it. Instead of true creative expression, we're much more likely to be sold the prefab entertainment products that the capitalist machine has learned, after decades of focus grouping and ethnography studies, to crank out. And that's exactly what capitalism is about. It's exactly what capitalism is supposed to do.

But what about art?

Create & Commerce is not about bashing the media industrial complex. It is not about deriding Hollywood. It is not a bitchfest about the quality or quantity of creativity in the world of capitalist entertainment. It is about the reality of the situation - the sometimes harmony, sometimes violent conflict that exists in a capitalist world between creativity and commercialism. It is about that unique relationship.

Capitalism works...most of the time. But so does creativity. Create & Commerce is about how they work together.