I Beez Smart

Throughout history most innovations and ideas have been improved upon, right? Technology, agriculture, and industry for example have all been greatly improved. So what went wrong with the Arts? Lets go back to pre-20th century and take a look at some of the creativity. Obviously the biggest creative innovations of the 20th century were TV/Movies, the commercialization of Radio and the popularity of the Camera, so 20th beats 19th on that. But, lets compare the following five:

1. Art
pre-20th Century = The Mona Lisa, The Sistene Chapel, Nearly every Art Movement, David, The Scream, Starry Night, The Last Supper, Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Rapheal and Master Splinter.
20th Century + = Pollock, Picasso, O'Keefe, Hopper, Munch, Nick from Family Ties.

COMMENT: I'm not a huge art fan, but how can you you even compare Michaelangelo and Pollock? Fine it's different styles, but Pollocks style sucks. Pollock was an interesting dude, but his art was a friggin joke. Same thing with Picasso, everyone thinks it's so good just because it's different. It's a joke. At some point, art went from something that I could NEVER do, to something that a two year old could do. Whats up with that? Sculpting has gone from "David" to a rendering of a human head made out of paper clips. Not to say that all 20th century art is bad, it just pales in comparison. I DO think that Edward Hopper is very good though.

2. Music
pre-20th Century = Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, and my all-time favorite...Minstral music.

20th century + = The Village People, Al Jolson, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Van Halen, DMX, and one of my favorite bands....Anal Cunt.

COMMENT: I really have no gripe with current music, while alot of it is crap...there's also much that I enjoy. Infact I really have a hard time listening to classic music. But you have to respect it, pre-20th century classical is the only genre in which you can really say that a piece of music is a "masterpiece". These dudes where indeed geniouses...unlike me, and I really wouldn't say "genious" about any artist in the last 100 years, even the Beatles (hands down the most influential band in the last century). OK so I might call Andrew Lloyd Webber a genious....maybe. Just the thought that musical talent has gone from Beethoven who was deaf or Mozart who wrote his first symphony at age 8 to The Village People or Suger Ray, is pretty sad.

3. Literature
pre-20th Century to mid 1900's = Dickens, Poe, Shakespeare, Dickenson, Homer, Twain, "Beowulf"

mid 1900's + = King, Clancy, Crichton, London, Fitzgerald, Asimov, Orwell, Dylan Thomas

COMMENT: This category I had to alter a bit because numerous great works had been written in the early 1900's. But, somewhere in the 1950's things started going down hill. Not so much the content, but the style. I have no beef with "current" authors. For the most part I'd prefer to read modern literature, only because it takes less effort to understand it. Modern authors write in the style of which we talk, which is cool i guess, except for one thing - we can't talk good no more! When it comes to the art of the spoken word, Clancy can't hold a candle to Twain (whatever that means). At some point the education system failed us. At one time people used language to it's fullest capabilities, now it seems like no one can speak correctly. Look at me, I'm a high school graduate and my vocabulary is horrendous and I seriously can't spell for shit (even though I came in 3rd in the 4th grade spelling bee). For example, look at the politicians and revolutionaries of yesteryear compared to now: Lincoln vs Bush, MLK vs Sharpton, James Otis vs John Edwards. Ever read the Declaration of Independence, or the Bill of Rights or the greatest work of fiction ever "The Bible" (i kid. sort of) ? Now that's some writting. Whatever happened to philosophers or the "great thinkers"? When did "MacBeth" turn into "Mama Mia"? When did Edgar Allen Poe turn into Maynard G. Krebs, and when did Maynard G. Krebs turn into some street rapper at a poetry slam named Schooly? Whatever, who cares right? I certainly don't.

Anyway, let me close by saying Edward Gorey was pretty cool. Also, I figued out why I like Good Eats so much, because i'm a huge science geek. Goodnight.