“I have a very simple definition of an artist. The artist is someone who pays attention and reports back.” – James Benning
Hi. My name is Roger. I’m 23. I have a mix of good taste and bad taste which together I refer to as “indifferent taste.” I was born and raised in Queens, but since the age of 17 I’ve essentially drifted around and lived in a few different places off the beaten path in America. You could call this locational ADHD. My living situations have ranged from flop houses, to legitimate houses, to brief periods spent in my Honda. I’ve gone to at least a million schools and am gradually completing a degree in Film & Media Arts at American University (with any luck I should be done next year.) In my free time I write fiction, play Super Nintendo, watch NBA basketball, listen to music, occasionally experiment with fun drugs, and participate in other mostly indoor activities. Overall, I guess you could consider me a jack of all agoraphobic trades. However, I do frequently go outside to take pictures and kick game to loose hipster bitches. I love meeting out-there people, and am grateful for being able to say that I’ve encountered my fair share. More than any art, I find myself inspired by unusual / unstable personalities, and have always found scumbags, drop-outs, stoners and other various types of degenerates far more appealing than all of the hyper-opinionated, jaded “intellectuals” I’ve met in New York. Subversion isn’t limited to what can be critiqued by Amos Vogel.
In case you were wondering, this is what I look like when I sit next to a window in a room with gloomy lighting.
The boards on here are too hostile, and the users often ooze of the most obnoxious mix of complexes – insecurity and elitism. Everyone seems to read people’s posts sentence by sentence, looking for something to argue about in order to claim intellectual dominance. If your careers in film don’t take off like you’d planned I’m sure there is one waiting for you as bitter, long-winded English teachers. To whom this applies, if you have such an immense understanding of cinema, stop talking and actually do something. People seem to take themselves very seriously on this website. I don’t, and I definitely wouldn’t use time out of my day to passionately write a 13 paragraph smashing of a film because it doesn’t fit my standard for substance and depth, or argue over whether or not “Bladerunner sucks.” Nearly all critics demand one similar criterion – the application of consciousness and care into all work. There are very few people on this website who don’t share this principle, so lighten the fuck up and stop being so competitive with one another over who can over-intellectualize / over-complicate a language that is supposed to be one of the most universal. I one time found myself arguing with another user on this board over whether or not a film we both thoroughly enjoyed had moments of catharsis. It was that day I realized that being an obnoxious internet troll is no worse than being that. Different people are going to identify with different things based on their individual experiences. I celebrate all types of creative thinking, and am interested in seeing what I can make out of my own life rather than someone elses. Epictetus said it best – “Don’t be prideful with any excellence that is not your own.” I bought my first Sonic Youth tape when I was in the second grade, and saw my first Herzog film when I was eleven years old. I’ve spent enough time digesting these things to know what they mean to me without having to worry about the contention of others.
However to fit in around here, I’ve put together a new rating system -
1 Star – Find every copy, put them in a rocket, and fire it into the sun.
2 Stars – Look up director’s home address, and egg their house.
3 Stars – I hate this movie.
4 Stars – Lame.
5 Stars – Work of art
Pz.
