Art.

We take turns nursing this blog, usually after months of ignoring it. I'm guilty of this, so is Aileen. Kathleen is better but she's been absent, too. Images Move Me has become this feral cat that has worms and an unsteady gait, that understands it needs to get fed where it can. Suspicious of people but a girl's gotta eat. Kathleen is the most constant feeder, giving it hearty food - tuna maybe. But I'm feeding it now so I get to choose what it eats...

Just a very long winded way of saying sorry for what you are about to read. But I don't think I need to apologize because no one reads this blog! Okay, around 800 people staggered here looking for Biggest Loser results (according to the stats that was our most popular post by about...800 times). We also have a surprising number of visitors from Germany. Guten Tag!

That is to say, I'm feeding this feral cat some rambling rants about comedy. And that's that.

Certain types of art are more liable to become victims of their own success. Art that is lo-fi, anti-establishment, that chafes against the system. What happens when it becomes the truth? This can happen with so many things. Rap went from being f*ck the police to bragging about designer clothes. And the moment when that happens, in any genre, becomes the moment when I can't love that piece/song/show like I loved it before. This wouldn't happen to I dunno, Britney Spears or anything because it's not like she was promoting some authentic version of herself or some hidden anti-consumer message. But artists who pounce on others for selling out then start hawking Nokia phones...that leaves a bad taste. But it's not just about "selling out" because that's a tired term and it's used so much that it's empty.

For instance, take Louis C.K. I've loved him for years. I remember watching Chewed Up a few years ago and committing the whole thing to memory. Then I forced people to listen to me do his bits. I guess I know why I don't have that many friends, but you get the point. He's contrarian. He tells it like it is. He points out human foibles, magnifies them then rails on them. But I recently tried to watch one of his more recent specials, "Live at the Beacon Theater" and I couldn't even get through it. It was funny, it was good. But it was off. Because his observations of human foibles morphed into something else -- into proclamations. He's universally loved and people write all these laudatory things about him, which he totally deserves, but his old line of humor just doesn't feel the same to me. It's not an outsider harping, it's an insider yelling. After I watched the special I looked up some old interviews of his on Youtube and I found one where he's talking to Howard Stern. It was right around the time he got green lit for Lucky Louie on HBO. He was excited but cautious. And in hindsight he had a right to be cautious because his show got canceled after one season...the audience didn't get that he was trying to play with form and re-invent the sitcom. But he spoke so differently back then. Maybe he was even saying the same things, but they didn't have the weight of truth behind them...so his words were lighter.  And for that reason, they had more impact. To me, at least.

I know you're probably thinking that that's such a stupid mindset to have. Fangirl until others find the light. That I'm setting myself up for failure. That's not it. I want art, not dogma. I'm going to end with a story that might be more confusing than illuminating. Bon Iver won best new artist (weird since they've been around for a while) at the 2012 Grammys. When he gave a speech, it was this rambling thing about how he didn't really believe in the Grammy's...he was grateful for the award, but saddened that so much talent was not recognized. It was not very gracious. It was not very practiced. But it was the truth.  That's where his music comes from. It comes from the outside and to have the ultimate insiders recognize it is a weird, wrist slapping commendation.