Monday, November 12, 2007

talk hard

kate and i watched this movie late saturday night, and i was thinking about how this is such a pre-internet view of adolecence, connection and reaching out with your voice (words).

would mark (hard harry) have been a blogger? would he have run a community? hung around places like mog and last.fm? would the same impact have happened?

sometimes i wonder if a level of creativity, inventiveness, and even adolescent rebellion has been lost in the age of technology.

then there are other times when i think that as an adolescent my self-image and feelings of being a part of something more would have been stronger, clearer and more true if i'd had the option of meeting people from all over the world.

4 comments:

  1. Great movie choice; I haven't seen this movie in far too long. Yes, I cheered for Hard Harry, profanity and all, because he found a manner of expression that suited him well.

    As a blogger, MOGger, or whatever, he would likely have impacted the same, or maybe more people. The trade-off is that the impact would have been diffused across the blogosphere, instead of localized. I doubt he'd have taken down the principal.

    I just got a mental image of Hard Anna, sitting at her laptop rambling on to her audience about Arctic Monkeys, and I'm smiling ear to ear. Hee

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  2. i remember the first time i saw it. i went to the movies alone. i'd skipped a night class in college to see it, because i'd wanted to see it so badly. i loved it, and saw it again a few more times, dragging friends along with me.

    i cheered him on, too. i loved that he'd found his voice, and i loved samantha mathis' character in it, too. how she was able to break through his wall, and see beyond his persona.

    i agree that no matter where he chose to put his thoughts down he would have developed an audience. that said, i think sometimes being localized does something more, or at least makes a certain level of change in a more tangible way.

    but, here comes my duplicitious view on it. i know i can look at my own online experience and know that i have been forever changed by some experiences, or interactions, from people i've never shared breathing space.

    i think it is a level of truth that is expressed, and the power that *that* has, you know?

    hee! i can so see anna like that, too.

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  3. I've not spent nearly as long creating and maintaining relationships on the Internet, but I can certainly feel the stretching the past sixteen months have put me through. I still have to suppress a giggle when someone posts on MOG that they wouldn't have gone to see an artist until I introduced them. And to think that there's a woman in Greece that calls me brother.

    Speaking of Hard Anna, we'll need to try to catch her show sometime this weekend. I caught her first show, but given the hour, I've not been able to listen again. I'll remind you as we get closer to the weekend.

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  4. I was just talking to someone the other day on how it is imperative that I get a copy of this movie on DVD. I think it was when I was at the Sovereign with Angela and I played "Kick Out the Jams" by MC5, and she remembered there was a version of it in the film. Only that was by the Rollins Band, and of course I had to point that out, since I'm a nerd :)

    I do think he would have had an impact on people, and I think it would have been strong. But I think he would have that impact on the individual level, not on a community level, sort of like what Dale was saying. He would have impacted a lot of people, but that impact might be invisible to people who didn't read/listen to him since someone would probably read him, but maybe no one they know in real life did too.

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