Originally posted 6/3/12
What it is is this. I haven't written for a while about anything. What that means is that I'm in a situation where I try to remember things I've read or watched and already the purpose of this blog this year is kind of lacking, because I wanted to be able to look back on this and see all the books, movies, and sweet sweet games I played. What will end up happening this time, maybe, is a quick catch-up.
Bear with me, though. I've been wearing a pedometer for work to see how much I walk, and it turns out that when I'm hiking all day looking for hawk (understand that I'm using the word "hawk" as a catch-all for all birds of prey, but if I say "raptors," at least one person invariably thinks I'm looking for dinosaur bones) nests, the steps add up. Looking at the thing right now, it looks like I logged 19,000 steps or so today, or 11 miles. This is day five of such stepping, and not even the most I've walked in a day. Long story short, I'm not sure if I'm awake enough to make even a decent point. Let alone be funny.
Why even write, you ask? When from the get-go I'm making excuses for the quality of a post that isn't even written yet? And why do I keep inferring that this blog is supposed to be funny? How come I'm asking all of these questions and not answering any of them? Didn't my Writing For Magazines professor get after me once for doing that?
Anyway, I read The Family Fang. In it there's a family, named Fang, and they are performance artists. To be more precise, the parents are performance artists and they've kind of roped their kids into doing it because at least early on most kids don't have a lot of choice when it comes to these kinds of things. The Fang brand of performance art, though, is like a pretentious version of Punk'd. They stage elaborate pranks in public places and film them. Later, their now grown children are, um, a little messed up. But also very talented. Then there's a bit of an adventure.
It's a funny book, but it also gets into a discussion about what art is that I think is quite interesting. It's something I find myself constantly mulling over as I try to elevate my entertainment choices. Is anything anyone creates a kind of art? Even if it's something with a big budget and intense studio scrutiny? Or is art only found on the fringes, where people are pushing things in new directions that might be distasteful, and in some cases dangerous?
