Home From Balticon

I'm back from con and catching up a little on my email. Last week I was so busy I didn't have a chance to read anything or write much at all. In an email from WaPo I find this rant by Tom Shales.

Now the reason I mention this is because I attended a panel yesterday (I think it was yesterday, it all blends together) called something like What is Darkness Without Light, why are there more demons than angels in art? In that panel Pyrocanthus, who does fabulous panels about art, specifically one about colored pencils, said that the one trend that really disturbs her in today's culture is the trend towards hipster irony. When you only care about being a hipster ironist (ironoclast?) you can't ever say you like anything or get excited about something or be hopeful, etc. and she asked which of us was willing to make a pledge that we would actively work to promote the good in our art or writing. I did raise my hand, I think my work, even the darkest, tends to try and bring some order out of chaos and in my column I work very hard to stay positive. If I don't like something I generally don't talk about it. There is so much good stuff out there to talk about, why dwell on something I don't care for or that doesn't click?

So today I see this rant, it doesn't deserve the name review, by this guy and he says this:

The boy, played by Shane Haboucha (gesundheit), evokes memories of the telepathic tot in "The Shining" in that he has some sort of psychic simpatico with the sinister spirits at large.

And then he goes back to his dreary little world where everything is horrible and his only fun is bashing everything. I mean he finishes his style column.

So here we have a grown man, who looks at least as old as I am, possibly older, who gets paid to do this for a living, who feels that making fun of a child's name is cool? Was talking about the kid's acting (which I thought was decent) too difficult? Shoot even talking about his appearance would be sort of acceptable, we do tend to do that about actors, but no, he chooses something that is absolutely beyond this boy's control and mocks it in what can only be called a grade school manner.

But really it's even more than that. There is a certain amount of pressure on actors to change their names to something glam or that fits certain narrow parameters, look at John Wayne for instance, and for this boy to keep his more interesting surname is brave and to be commended, not run down, right?

If that is hipster irony it's not my cup of tea.

And yes I know I have made many a snotty remark in this blog, this whole post is probably yet another but I'm not doing it for a living and I'm not pretending that I'm a critic and that my words should influence what you watch on TV tonight. If they do influence your TV watching habits I'd probably tell you to turn it off and read a good book or go for a walk under the stars instead.

Oh comments about Balticon so far? Best. Con. Ever. But then aren't they all? But really super fun happy dancing times, we all had such a blast and now are exhausted.

More later as I recover.