Friday, November 14, 2014

It's a Redfurore AKA chill out Redfoo

Reading about this Redfoo thing, I can't help but be reminded of the time a certain Aussie playwright got really upset that "unintelligent" people were taking offence at his script, and went on a rampage of Twitter blocking and Facebook defriending.

Offence is offence. It's everyone prerogative to be offended by whatever they feel offended by. Should artists worry about every single way in which they may offend someone before releasing a piece of work into the world? I don't think so, no. Where's the opportunity for subversion and change if we all tread carefully?* But if something does offend people, you've gotta suck it up buddy. That's the price you pay for publicising your personal take on the world, and making money from it.

To make public claims that people just "don't get it" is puerile and kinda sad. Deal with it, learn from it (or not, if you stand strongly by your artistic decisions) and let your legal team deal with the ramifications.

Don't hate on the haters. It just makes you look petty.

*I'm not advocating for Redfoo, just so's you know. While I do believe that discomfort is a natural response to new representations of sensitive issues, in this case, Redfoo's just written a really crappy song that offers nothing remotely new or interesting. But that's just my opinion.

Read more about the Redfoo saga here.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Headphones and hoodies


James Dalby, you make a sad day bearable.