One of the joys of middle-aged fatherhood is the gift of the absurd — which is to say whatever entertains Kidz Theze Dayz — offered up by one’s sprout.
My son’s a gamer — Starcraft, TF 2 and WoW much of the time, but with an enduring love of Minecraft as well. He’s an avid consumer of E-sports stuff on the various Youtube channels as well. If you’ve missed names like the Yogscast, Day 9, the Cynical Brit (aka Total Biscuit, and known in my household as Whole Crumpet) and so on, you’re (perhaps blissfully) unaware of a huge segment of pop-culture.
I’m not sure I minded my long ignorance of the subculture of ‘casters and pro-gaming as entertainment, but once made aware, I have to admit it’s amazing — if only for the way that the gamer community constructed the entire infrastructure of a sports-entertainment industrial complex substantially (though not entirely) from the grass roots up.
There are significant sociologial and cultural insights to be gained from understanding that process and its results– or smart colleagues of mine think so: we talk a lot about the political reach (or not) of the digitization of experience and the rise of social networks, and here’s a whole universe in which this is taking place that one can study absent the confounding variable of political passions.
But forget the high-falutin stuff — given his gaming and Youtube passions, my son regularly expands my horizons by showing me stuff I simply would never think to discover on my own. And because I’m no sober scholar of modern tech/youth culture, I have my own interpretative lens that colors what he finds. So, as a non-gamer DFH would-be yobbo anti-pundit, I’ll just thank my son for showing me the 36 seconds that captures the pure essence of CPAC:
So, as you read about CPAC neo-confederates wondering how Frederick Douglass had the presumption to forgive his former master, who, in their view, had merely provided food and shelter, think this vid.
Image: George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey’s, 1909.
arguingwithsignposts
Right now, my son is into Lego and stop-motion animation and fantasy sci-fi. I had no idea there was such a Lego infrastructure as well. I sometimes wish I could be a kid again, then I realize I have all the makings and no curfew at my disposal now. It’s a wild world.
ETA: You have far too many words to be an anti-pundit :)
dr. bloor
Wonderful. All that’s missing is a Minecraft version of Malkin in her cheerleader outfit.
Roger Moore
I’m sure you’ll get a lot of fat out, but where are you going to get a kettle big enough to render all of CPAC at one go?
Baud
That video has too many minorities to represent CPAC.
Irving
There was a dinosaur in the back, though. That boy’s accurate.
Roger Moore
@Irving:
Was Jesus riding it? If not, then it wasn’t an accurate picture of CPAC.
Joey Maloney
@Roger Moore: You’re talking industrial-scale equipment, and for the quantities of toxic material that will be released, you’re going to need at the very least a disaster plan and all the MSDS on site. You might need to do an EIS before you can ever start.
nanute
@baud, They let the minorities in fantasy land, not in the real world. That is very funny, Tom.
Roger Moore
@nanute:
Oh, they let them in the real world, too; they just haven’t figured out how to make the place very attractive. They’re like a shepherd who leaves the corral gate open and a nice tasty pile of mutton in the middle and then complains because the sheep don’t wander in to get sheared.
MomSense
Those CPAC bastards are stupid and mean–which is obviously a terrible combination. Every time I think they are finally finished they bounce back and manage to mess things up even then–like 2010.
So I think we have to get a plan in place that is more than pointing in disgust and mocking because the 2014 elections will be here faster than we realize and we have to win. I’m starting to think that those two years are our last chance to accomplish anything of substance on climate change.
Irving
NOTE: After seeing this video, my daughter decided to re-enact it. Everybody DO NOT do the Flop. Repeat, DO NOT do the Flop. The ground is hard.
Roger Moore
@Irving:
Fucking mommy state liberals trying to tell us what we can and can’t do for “our own protection”. I’ll do the flop if I feel like it, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!/wingnut
khead
The NR piece on the CPAC shoe shine guy is craptacular.
Omnes Omnibus
@Irving: Find mud. Use mud. Mud is soft ground.
the Conster
Palin’s message a mystery as she prepares to address CPAC. It will still be a mystery after she addresses CPAC, but at least we can look forward to lulz.
Ash Can
I just showed the vid to my 13-year-old son, who is heavily into Minecraft, and explained to him that the fellow who posted it learned about it from his own 12/13-year-old son. “Yeah, no kidding,” was his deadpan reply. (PS: He liked the vid. And so did I.)
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster:
Ha!
Amir Khalid
@the Conster:
I suspect Palin’s message shall remain a mystery to all, even after her address at CPAC. I certainly don’t envy those who must try to figure out what she said.
the Conster
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also too, this: …Her political action committee, Sarah PAC, collected about $5 million during the 2012 election cycle, most of which went to operating expenses….
I think they really meant it to read “operating expenses”.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: Is “operating expenses” the new term for “pleather?”
maya
Where I come from CPAC refers to the size wad you need to buy a few lbs of the local smoke. I see it means the same there too.
Roger Moore
@the Conster:
The details may be a mystery, but the essence is easy to predict: pay attention to MEEEEE! Attention whore is whoring for attention.
esc
I don’t follow Yogscast much anymore, but they endeared themselves to me forever back in 2008 with a rather hilarious comparison between an end boss and John McCain. If you like WoW, look up their “How to Kil’Jaeden” video.
handsmile
OK, Tom Levenson, I give up.
Usually I can tease out out the connection (sometimes evident, sometimes tenuous) between your choice of illustration and post topic, but I’m at a loss with this Bellows painting (and I’ve spent quite a lot of time with his work recently at the Metropolitan Museum’s superb retrospective).
Overthinking perhaps? Is it no more than that blood sport “captures the pure essence of CPAC”? Now, the “Flop” YouTube I do get.
GregB
Someone needs to start trolling some of these wingnuts to let them know that the Supreme Court is going to overturn the Voting Rights Act just in time for them to lose out on the benefits now that they are on the cusp of becoming minorities.
Let the hilarity ensue.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or it could mean actual operations as in plastic surgery. I think several members of the Palin clan have had some work done-hence the “operating expenses”.
Roger Moore
@the Conster:
One more example of why we need health care reform. All those cosmetic operations would be a lot cheaper just about anywhere else in the world.
ETA: @MomSense:
Damn! Beaten to the punch!
Villago Delenda Est
Cosmetic surgery can do nothing for ugly that goes right down to the bone.
Such is the situation with the Palin tribe.
Villago Delenda Est
Cosmetic surgery can do nothing for ugly that goes right down to the bone.
Such is the situation with the Palin tribe.
maya
It’s tough being Palin when the bloom is off the Death Camas Wand Lily.
Sawgrass Stan
mmmm…. Bellows! Guy shoulda been a cartoonist, too.
Thanks, Ted
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
Great minds!
madmommy
My 12 year old son is heavily into Minecraft and Yogcast, he’s always calling me to look at some new, cool thing he’s found. I am an old, so it just sounds like the adults on the old Peanuts TV shows. But it makes him happy, so it’s all good.
Debbie(aussie)
I have a rather bad dose of insomnia (2:10am) and this thread has me cackling, laughing out loud and giggling like a ninny. Thai you all. Maybe now I can sleep
Tehanu
Thanks for the Bellows. I am a squeamish old lady who has never actually been to a boxing match and I have absolutely loved that painting since I was 4 or 5 years old, God knows why. As for CPAC, it really is a terrible pity that people with this level of ignorance and bigotry even exist, let alone get up and speak in public to reveal exactly what they are.
? Martin
@arguingwithsignposts:
You want to track down catsy who comments here somewhat regularly.
Yutsano
@? Martin: He’s actually been rather absent lately. Or maybe I’ve just been missing him (possible since I’m so fucking busy with furlough prep). Either way I hope he’s all right.
Tom Levenson
@handsmile: Two connections: 1) for any aristocratic interest in “the fancy,” boxing has generally been a people’s sport, not restricted to some class-bound few.
2) the one-on-one nature of the combat is what you get in the highest profile e-sports tournaments.
Blunt enough?
Joey Giraud
I love posts that echo things I’ve just noticed, my older son brings recent pop culture into my life; Full Metal Alchemist is our current thang.
For the younger one I’m trying to program a Minecraft mod in Jython.. good clean fun.