OK! What the HELL is up with bad things getting popular? I'm sure Florence Foster Jenkins wasn't the first. She was, as you might know, a terrifically bad singer with a large following. Today on facebook, I was turned on to a song called "Shine" by a band called Final Placement. Watch the video and try to pull your eyes away from this train wreck.
I enjoy a good train wreck as much as the next guy but I have to ask: what about all the GOOD stuff out there that no one sees/watches/tells their friends about? Is the only way to have success to suck harder than a souped-up shop vac?
The Florence Foster Jenkins thing upsets because the was produced/presented at Carnegie Hall in New York -- and thousands of people paid to hear her caterwauling. The cost of the the abortion could have funded how many Midsummer Night Dreams? How many talented but as-yet-unknown playwrights, musicians, dancers...
The Final Placement video must have cost something to film and edit, yet no one said, "No. I won't do this video because there are so many more deserving bands who can't afford one." The money spent on that video could have funded how many student shorts?
The part about consuming crap-as-art, for the masses is this: we feel superior to the poor under-talent we're watching. So we watch some more, feel good about ourselves and get on with our lives while the people who paid for the horrible show/video/movie/TV show watch the numbers soar.
The worst audition I ever did was one where I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I did well. Other people I respect were there too and confirmed that I was better than everyone who auditioned for that part. Then the director, who ignored me, brought up an actor who didn't really even get the timing, the feel or the humor of the scene but had the lines memorized and used props and LOVED it.
Now, this director has a position, a board and a budget to spend and, because the company is not-for-profit, it is in the public trust. This means that it must serve the community in which it operates. I ask you - how does it serve a community by producing what I produce at about 8:30 every a.m.?
The money. THE MONEY! I WANT THE MONEY. I can produce shit as well as anyone in my town and probably the next three counties! I can garner good reviews. Why it is that I, whose shit is better (I know this because nothing I've produced has become a viral phenomenon) can't get the thousands of dollars I DESERVE to to ART that is BETTER than...
OK. Whew. Thanks for reading (you may now feel superior to me).
