Don't Be a Slave to the Age! part 2

Free yourself from mental slavery!

My biggest reason for writing this retro-minded blog (besides my obvious passion for Things That Are Old) is to expose others to the vast, seemingly endless surprises and joys of Old Culture and to help them break out of the chains of their current media imprisonment by going back in time to explore the pleasures of Retro.

You see, media today is so pervasive, so flashy and belligerent, that it's almost like we are slaves to what the big media masters want to give us. We can't escape from the mindless filth and idiotic pablum that gets served up by the MSM, so we either acquiesce or we simply tune out altogether and go read a book.

Sure, there are more CHOICES out there than ever before, but we have to willfully MAKE those choices and pursue alternative media on our own -- the MSM isn't going to hand it to us on a shiny Obama Inaugural Collectors Edition platter. And I'm not just talking about the MSM in terms of political media. The entertainment/pop culture mainstream media is as narrow and agenda driven as the political MSM.

But thanks to the Internet and to cable channels like TCM, it is easier than ever to enjoy truly different, truly individual, non-mainstream forms of media. But even though there are endless choices out there for people looking to break out of the cycle of dreck that populates the mainstream culture, it's not an easy thing to do to go exploring off the beaten path. It takes a conscious act of the will to break free from the grasp of the MSM and go looking for Old Stuff, or Unpopular Stuff, or Un-PC Stuff. It's not an easy thing to do to move beyond the superficial and lowest-common-denominator pop culture that the MSM confronts us with everyday. It's not easy to break the bonds of media slavery and free your mind.

But it did just get a little easier. LIBERTAS FILM MAGAZINE is a "new online film magazine that focuses on the idea of freedom as expressed in movies and popular culture." It's a new, updated and expanded version of the old Libertas blog, founded by filmmakers Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty, that features tons of film clips, short films, webisodes, trailers, podcasts, and more from independent filmmakers and artists who are interested in the ideas of freedom and liberty.

It also happens to feature me. I've been asked to contribute "visual essays" about classic films in my typically obsessive, crazed-old-movie-fanatic style. My first essay is up now. It's a piece about the Phil Karlson film noir SCANDAL SHEET, which aired recently on TCM as part of their Donna Reed Star of the Month tribute.

What I love about Libertas Film Magazine is the positive attitude the editors take towards cinema and culture. Libertas is interested in providing a platform for filmmakers and independent artists to share their work. It's a website that's interested in having a discussion about film and art and culture and it's not afraid to look outside the mainstream and give voice to independent ideas and pro-freedom artists. It's an antidote to the mental slavery that the current pop culture gatekeepers have tried to keep us in.

And it's not just some place for people to tediously bitch and moan about Hollywood and Hollywood Liberals. I've done my fair share of ragging on Hollywood and its garbage, sure, but after awhile, that kind of negativity gets boring.

Libertas is different. Libertas is interested in championing new films and filmmakers and celebrating the good stuff that's out there (including the good stuff that just happens to be Old Stuff, which is what I'm all about, of course). It's about being a positive force in the arts instead of a negative force. As the editors of Libertas put it: "Libertas’ goal is to show our readers movies they can enjoy – not just to warn them about movies to avoid."

So don't be a slave to the age -- and you can start by reading Libertas Film Magazine.

The Big Grand Theory of Everything (or how "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" started me on the road to Retroville)

How did I become a RetroHead? This is my theory:

See, when I was a kid, there was a bit of a retro phase going on in Hollywood. From about 1988 to 1994, there were several movies released that were either aimed at young audiences or were at least appropriate for young audiences and they all dealt in one way or another with retro culture and a retro world. Many were set "back in the day" (1930s/40s/50s); many often had ties to retro culture or made reference to retro things or had a retro sensibility (kids TV shows in particular were filled with retro references). And most importantly, even though these movies and TV shows were set forty, fifty, sixty years in the past, they were meant to entertain children. In other words, when I was a kid, the world of the past (the world my grandparents grew up in) was a perfectly appropriate world in which to tell a story. There was nothing weird or highfalutin' or eccentric about telling stories to kids and setting those stories in the Depression era, or the WWII era, or the Eisenhower '50s.

Not that I've done a scientific study of the thing, but I don't believe this is really the case anymore. Most (if not all) of the current entertainment for kids is set in the present day, or the future, or if they're going to go back in time at all, (God help us) the 1970s. In other words, for kids today, the era of the "Greatest Generation" is simply not on their radar in terms of popular culture. Whereas, when I was a young gal of ten I was watching the 1990 "Dick Tracy" movie, the one set in a primary-colored 1930s world of gangsters and dames, or "Tiny Toon Adventures" with their references to "Citizen Kane" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Those eras of the past were alive to me in a way I just don't think they are for kids who grew up in the late 90s and the 2000s.

MADness

Attention burgeoning RetroHeads!!! If you are not watching Mad Men, then you need to buy the dvds. Season 2 comes out July 14. Buy. Now. Don Draper commands you!