Tuesday, June 14, 2011

THE 'MEDIA' "TASTE" AND CORPORATE AMERICA [PS: AND NORBERT LEO BUTZ]

I noticed on the few public radio shows I heard today and some TV news shows that the bit that knocked me out the most on the Tonys last night, the one a friend from my Jersey community performed but I didn't recognize him and instead just kept thinking, man, this guy is a total original, that his name wasn't mentioned in the summaries and pieces on the Tonys, but those who won Tonys for their performances in the blockbuster successes, THE BOOK OF MORMON and WARHORSE, were.

It's the same old deal that the media talks about what everyone is talking about, which is whatever the media focuses on usually, which is whatever their corporate masters want focused on.

And there are so few corporations controlling most of everything we get exposed to, including the framing of our public discourse on politics, which includes the economy and culture, that the subjects are limited to those that can be profited from, which is the definition these days of "success."

I shouldn't post at the end of the day when I'm tired and heading for bed because I don't articulate what I'm thinking as well then, but I'm sure you get the idea and have already observed this yourself and maybe even understand it better. But what I mean is, I expect a lot of what I dig to have limited appeal to the majority of my fellow humans and to be little known in the wider world. A lot of what I write about on this blog falls in that category.

But even when it's major media stuff, like the Oscars or Tonys, the things I dig most often go unnoticed (like BARNEY'S VERSION at the Oscars and Norbert Leo Butz's amazing performance on the Tonys) or at least unmentioned in the media afterwards because (at least from my perspective) they aren't associated with "success" and therefore are of no use to corporate America.

[PS: Couldn't find any footage of that performance until just after I wrote this, so here it is. To get the full impact watch it all the way through. Let me know if you see what I found so original (it was like watching Jimmy Durante or on of those oldtime performers whose act was mostly just about letting you dig them, only in this case Butz is doing a character not himself, in fact so far from it I didn't, like I said, even recognize him.]
[PPS: He's not the guy at the beginning.]
[PPPS: Watch through the slight glitch toward the end, and notice how a lot of the camerawork is terrible for a full chorus dance number, which still doesn't take away from the performance, that alone says a lot.]
[AND A BELATED PPPPS: In case I didn't make it clear, Butz won a Tony for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, but in the news coverage and summaries of the Tonys award show the next day, neither his Tony win nor his amazing performance in the show as illustrated in the video below were mentioned, though the winners from the big hit shows and/or those famous from TV and Movies were mentioned.]

4 comments:

Tim said...

Wow!

Harryn Studios said...

yeah - there's a reason why so many of these tea party and conservative whiners don't want the government in their lives - 'cause they don't want to play by the rules ...
what did he sing in the beginning? On the playground ya have to decide between the bullies and the good guys ...
mmm ...

Jamie Rose said...

His performance was THRILLING! I loved his movements. NOrbert Leo Butz or something like that? He won. And last year too for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Lally said...

Yeah, I wasn't saying he didn't win a Tony, my point was in the summaries of the Tonys I heard on public radio the next morning and on TV news shows throughout the next day and evening, they mentioned the Tony winners from BOOK OF MORMON and they mentioned John Larequette and Francis McDormand etc., all people either famous from TV and movies, or if "unknown" famous now for being in a hit show (BOOK OF MORMON or WARHORSE etc.). But Norbert, who as Jamie points has won before or at least been nominated, his name never came up let alone that incredible dance and singing performance on the show, which was the highlight of the evening for me before I even knew it was him. My point being that the main media, the corporate media and even public radio gets sucked into "success" as the criterion for giving attention to which breeds the celebrity culture where a handful of stars get most of the attention and work etc. etc.