Low-Brow Art

I am so over being embarassed by my interest in so-called "low-brow" art. I like all kinds of levels or stature of things made by us humans. I like comic book movies, scifi, comedies, graffitti, noise music, and diversity. I find great insight into the human condition from many sources...and sometimes a "bad" film or tv show is so distilled away from "high-art" that it can be an excellent study for observing the human condition.

When we watch a "high brow" movie...we can walk away and feel we've spent some valuable time. The concept of "high brow" suggests we will be more cultured, more insightful and educated...we might learn something esoteric or exotic if we expose ourselves carefully to "high end" work or authentic work. (remember "authenticity " is stuff white people like)

I simply don't care if people think I'm a loser because I like what I like. I don't care if it's "pure" or "authentic" or "high brow". I also avoid restaurants that say "authentic" or "cuisine" on their signs...but thats another post.

I like pork rinds and I like all kinds of B-Movies and cult movies. One of my favourite holidays movies is Black Christmas. It's every bit as fun and insightful to me as It's A Wonderful Life. There is something noble about all of our trashy low-brow art...and I am fully out-of-the-closet in my passion for all genres and ranks of art. I embrace my guilty pleasures because I'm not guilty about them! Actually, did you know the director of Black Christmas is the same director of the holiday staple A Christmas Story? Black Christmas is a Canadian movie based on a real set of murders in Montreal.

My most obvious "guilty pleasure" is reality tv.

I'm absolutely crazy about reality tv. I watch about a dozen of this genre a year. including the following...

Survivor
Project Runway
Top Chef
Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab
The Bachelor
The Bachelorette
Chef Academy
Ruby
so You Think You Can Dance
Dancing With The Stars
America's Best Dance Crew

So..you can see I'm in pretty deep with my "guilty pleasures". The only thing I feel bad about is that I wish I knew more people who watched these shows so we could discuss them!

But right now...one of the very best of this genre...is Dr. Drew's Sex Rehab. This program is really amazing. I cry almost every episode. These people are really going through an amazing "awakening" and transformation. They have learned so much about life and how to live, and often their past is heart-breaking. Several of the people involved have already been through recovery for substance abuse. What happenes once they get sober and healing...is another "process addiction" has manifested!

Process addiction is an addiction to an activity or process, such as eating, spending money, or gambling. These addictive behaviors can be as debilitating as those associated with substance addictions, and they require psychological treatment. People sometimes have difficulty understanding process addictions, because they believe that people should just be able to stop negative behavior, but people with process addictions face the same problems that people with substance addictions do.

It seems kind of like an OCD behaviour and stops the people from having balanced, functioning lives.

Often ...what I understand is once a substance abuse has recovered...underneath it the process addition, like sex, surfaces. Dr. Drew explained that it's ultimately an "intimacy disorder".

In an interview Dr. Dew said, intimacy disorder in adults usually is associated with childhood trauma.

Most of the patients on Sex Rehab have shared terrible rape stories...as CHILDREN! on the program...horrendous. And yet...they are struggling to find a way to function healthy with the therapy and hard work. It's really amazing.

Not all childhood trauma is sexual or an obvious abuse. In addition to physical, sexual and verbal abuse, this can include anything that causes the child to feel worthless, unlovable, insecure, and even endangered, or as if his only value lies in meeting someone else's needs. From here

I remember seeing old footage of a toddler on a tv show making amazing golf shots...of course it was Tiger Woods. The idea that a small child would be trained and groomed so extensively...might not be healthy or natural. And I suspect that childhood lifestyle of being trained to perform like that is now rearing it's ugly head in Tiger's adult life. Sad. It's easy to forget that Tiger Woods in many ways was a "child star".