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FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bryan on September 30, 2008, 11:25:02 AM

Title: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Bryan on September 30, 2008, 11:25:02 AM
They did it right, but inspired lots of horrible, horrible imitators.

Writers:
Charles Bukowski
David Foster Wallace

Artists:
Chris Ware
Andy Warhol

Music/Musicians:
Bob Dylan (specifically his hot streak of Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde)

Movies:
Pulp Fiction
Rushmore
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Gibby on September 30, 2008, 12:19:36 PM
Slint
Gram Parsons
Mark Rothko
Lester Bangs
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Stupornaut on September 30, 2008, 12:27:45 PM
The Ramones.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Gibby on September 30, 2008, 12:29:43 PM
Napoleon Dynamite
Chris Morris
The decline in Christianity ( ::))
Airplane!
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: masterofsparks on September 30, 2008, 12:38:13 PM
Joy Division
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Beth on September 30, 2008, 12:52:43 PM
Rites of Spring
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Julie on September 30, 2008, 12:58:57 PM
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: namethebats on September 30, 2008, 01:09:03 PM
Upper Deck
Illmatic (thinking mostly of the "let's get a song by every hot producer" approach)
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on September 30, 2008, 01:14:44 PM
Garden State
The Real World (tv)
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: cutout on September 30, 2008, 01:17:48 PM
Led Zeppelin inspired an entire generation of terrible blues-rock bands.

Todd McFarlane also spawned ( 8)) many many bad imitators.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Chris L on September 30, 2008, 03:35:01 PM
Rites of Spring

Minor Threat, Fugazi
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Patrick on September 30, 2008, 03:36:39 PM
black sabbath
nirvana



what bad art, besides his own, did mark rothko inspire?  
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: jbissell on September 30, 2008, 03:58:40 PM
New Kids on the Block?
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on September 30, 2008, 04:23:43 PM
Jack Kerouac.  Including much of his own later output.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Pride of Staten Island on September 30, 2008, 04:34:46 PM
Karl Marx
Jesus
Howard Stern
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: dave from knoxville on September 30, 2008, 04:44:25 PM
John Waters
Lou Reed
David Lynch
R Crumb
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Pat K on September 30, 2008, 04:49:00 PM
The Simpsons
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on September 30, 2008, 05:16:37 PM
R Crumb

Really?  I think of him as a pretty positive influence on comics generally, unless you're talking about the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and that sort of thing.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: dave from knoxville on September 30, 2008, 05:30:03 PM
I am talking more about knock-off wannabes. He made the world safe for unfettered prurience; where his brand (at least in my opinion) within a fairly broad framework still managed to retain a sort of a specific aesthetic focus. I guess I prefer a fetter. It's like most cultural breakthroughs; less talented wannabes can ape the style, but have none of the attendant panache.

Many people can steal Warhol's/Magritte's/Rothenberg's style, but can't bring anything additional to it. That's what I feel about many of Crumb's lessers. Of course, I haven't really followed comics closely since the 80's.

Oh hell, what do I know, I am a math guy.

d/dx(e^(x^2)) = 2xe^(x^2)

That I can say with confidence.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Jimmy on September 30, 2008, 05:35:52 PM
the "got milk" milk commercials
the "...priceless" Mastercard commercials
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Fido on September 30, 2008, 05:47:35 PM
The MasterCard ads have been the victims of their own overuse. They've flogged that little device so long and so uncleverly, they've completely undermined or cannibalized their initial concept. My opinion anyway. Maybe the caliber of people who got a big chuckle repeating, "It doesn't get any better than this!" or "Where's the beef?" over and over think it's still just great.

Thank you for your patience with this rant.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: John Junk 2.0 on September 30, 2008, 06:59:11 PM
Garden State
The Real World (tv)


sound of a needle being dragged across a record...
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: samir on September 30, 2008, 07:35:22 PM
Ricky and Steve. I'll reinvent YOUR genre!

(http://www.omglists.com/global/radar/blog_images/65293-1.jpg)
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Gibby on September 30, 2008, 07:45:40 PM
Ricky and Steve. I'll reinvent YOUR genre!

(http://www.omglists.com/global/radar/blog_images/65293-1.jpg)

I'll see your Office/Extras and raise you

(http://www.criticsrant.com/Images/criticsrant_com/TV_Curb%20Your%20Enthusiasm/Curb_main.jpg)
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: cutout on September 30, 2008, 08:21:24 PM
^Spinal Tap is guilty of inspiring those faux-documentary-style shows.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: jamesp on September 30, 2008, 09:23:26 PM
Garden State
The Real World (tv)


Garden State was a great thing?
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: chrisfoll577 on October 01, 2008, 07:15:16 AM
Radiohead
Vin Scully
Julia Child
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: courtney on October 01, 2008, 09:01:36 AM
what bad art, besides his own, did mark rothko inspire?  

New Kids on the Block?

I love that those two ran together.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Amplituden on October 01, 2008, 09:12:49 AM
Tortoise
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: moonshake on October 01, 2008, 10:02:35 AM
Kraftwerk
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on October 01, 2008, 10:30:31 AM
Garden State
The Real World (tv)


alright, i get it!  

so Garden State or The Real World weren't exactly great things to me, but undoubtedly they affected us culturally (nobody is looking forward to catching Garden State on "I Love the 2000's"?), spawning worse and awful things in their trail (like The Shins in every commercial or movie to follow and the rot of the reality television invasion).  

at any rate, they were a bad influence.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Beth on October 01, 2008, 12:08:53 PM
I'm one of the few people who genuinely enjoyed Garden State. I thought it was a cute little movie. It's not my all time favorite, and yes it's a bit contrived, but it was a good story.  It did, however, spark more lukewarm, annoying things, like Little Miss Sunshine.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Pat K on October 01, 2008, 01:40:05 PM
I still hold a grudge about the time I was telling my friend how much I didn't like Garden State, and she told me the real reason I didn't like it was because "You don't have love in your heart".
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: mostlymeat on October 01, 2008, 01:44:38 PM
Maybe the caliber of people who got a big chuckle repeating, "It doesn't get any better than this!" or "Where's the beef?" over and over think it's still just great.

You need to listen to this song again and then tell me that it's no longer great:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/07/365-days-206---.html

Also this juicyfruit song is still really good:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xFr3oapzGc8

-Ajax

Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Beth on October 01, 2008, 02:10:05 PM
I still hold a grudge about the time I was telling my friend how much I didn't like Garden State, and she told me the real reason I didn't like it was because "You don't have love in your heart".

Well I was going to accuse you, and all others who came out against Garden State, of not having love in your hearts, but I managed to restrain myself.

In all seriousness, I think that there are hostile people on both sides of the Garden State debate. I've had people scream in my face because I said nothing more than "I thought it was a cute movie." This usually results in

 "WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY. THAT MOVIE SUCKED.  IT'S SOOOOO FAKE-ARTY AND THE SOUNDTRACK WAS SOOOO OBVIOUS AND CONTRIVED and blah blah blah."

"Yes, but I still liked it. There were some very sweet moments. It wasn't memorable, but I had fun when I saw it."

"Whatever, I'm going to go watch Twilight of the Ice Nymphs.  You obviously have no idea what real FILM is."




That said, I still don't endorse it as a "great thing"
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Martin on October 01, 2008, 02:15:31 PM
That's nuts - Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is clearly Maddin's most maligned work.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Beth on October 01, 2008, 02:36:13 PM
I didn't know that, but it makes sense, because I hate that movie. I was just using it as an example because it's incredibly pretentious, and I have met actual FWDs who put way too much effort into criticizing Garden State but loved Twilight of The Ice Nymphs. It was meant to point out the hypocrisy.

Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: <<<<< on October 01, 2008, 03:05:36 PM
what bad art, besides his own, did mark rothko inspire? 

I like Rothko's work.  Probably the greatest thing he inspired was pedestrian art criticism.
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Martin on October 01, 2008, 03:27:31 PM
I didn't know that, but it makes sense, because I hate that movie. I was just using it as an example because it's incredibly pretentious, and I have met actual FWDs who put way too much effort into criticizing Garden State but loved Twilight of The Ice Nymphs. It was meant to point out the hypocrisy.

I know, I guess I was just trying to out-FWD that statement. (It is completely true, btw - it's the only one of his films I can't stand, and I adore the man.)
Title: Re: Great things, bad influences
Post by: Beth on October 01, 2008, 03:45:13 PM
Oh typing, with your inability to convey subtle sarcasm, what are we going to do with you?