Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Why Flying Houses is Destined for Failure

Well, little more than a week has elapsed since the opening of the Flying Houses gates and it appears as if we have very few visitors and even fewer volunteers for contributions. I apologize for not being able to offer money yet, but I do believe Flying Houses could become a multi-million dollar affair. What it requires is patience, intelligence, and discretion. Of course, this is still just a lowly old blog, not your typical web-zine with fancy layout and linkage. No, so far I only review art by name, and you must know it by name if you want to see if I reviewed it or not. I review things I have bought, which means that most of the time they are probably going to be positive reviews because I don't make all that many mistakes when it comes to what I spend my money on. That said, I do make mistakes, and the Times New Viking album Rip It Off is going to be torn a new one in a few hours.

But we will not become a multi-million dollar affair because we are destined for failure. And why are we destined for failure? Lack of caring. Recession de-emphasizes the necessity of having art to occupy the mind in idle times, for there will be little idle time in the future. MFA programs have turned literature into an ugly, anxiety-bloated thing; the RIAA and File-Sharing programs and kids who like music but don't have $20 to throw away on a cheap plastic disc have turned music into total clusterfuck; Film and Television continues to reign supreme, digital cable offering non-stop stimulation, high-speed internet offering everything under the sun, multi-hundred million dollar opening weekend box office totals still occurring several times a year, people still buying popcorn and candy and soda and ice cream and coffee and pizza...even as easy/safe-money genre films (like uber-successful "raunch" comedies or by-the-numbers horror films) continue to be manufactured without fear or foreknowledge of a backlash. People get sick of hearing the same people are always the ones succeeding. But people are also stupid and think celebrities are their friends and so offer up devotion to one of them or many of them only to be met with depression when they can't pay their DirecTv or Time Warner Cable bill next month.

Flying Houses offers everything and more. As a filmmaker, musician, novelist, essayist, and journalist, I set no limit as to the potential offerings of FH, and I hope to post video, songs, excerpts of novels (novels must be bought, not downloaded...21st century blows), reviews (duh), interviews and quasi-revolutionary I.W.W.-type proclamations. Anybody who actually read that last sentence probably wants to level the accusation at me that I lack focus, and that the only things I am good at are smoking pot and letting others use me. They say my novels are bad and my stories are tedious. They say I can't sing and my four-year attempt at learning guitar is a waste of time and going nowhere. They say I don't know the first thing about filmmaking, or journalistic integrity. Do they care that I've wanted it for eleven years, and haven't bothered to train in other fields because of being so sure of the fact that I was fit to do it? Do they care that I've invested countless thousands into my variegated library? Do they care that I had my theatrical opening at 17, and was banned forever thereafter? Do they care about injustice?

Nobody cares. Nobody cares about injustice for others; people only care about injustice towards themselves, unless they practice law and stand to gain from some anonymous misfortune. Flying Houses will soon be a thing of the past. Such a shame that there are so many retarded blogs out there, and they're the ones not destined for failure. I suppose I should be more PC in my denigrations. Maybe then Flying Houses would be popular.

I am not interested in catering to anyone else's whims and fancies. If you are a writer, I will humor your interests and post them to Flying Houses, but I am not going to change my content or approach in order to be more palatable to the public at large. Undoubtedly no one will ever take a notice that such a thing as Flying Houses exists, but if they do happen to stumble upon it, I will be very happy to have reached, at the very least, one person.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Please don't give up a new project simply because you haven't gotten any feedback in the first week or so. These kind of things need some time to allow the word to spread, especially when the purpose of it is rather scattered at times.

Do it because it makes you happy. Do it because it gives you a sense of purpose. Do it because by having your opinion out there, it has the potential to reach those who would have never heard what you have to say had you kept it all inside.

Or do it for your own reasons.