On Guyland, a song, and the accidental shooting in the news
“What it all adds up to is that guys–young in their teens and twenties–are sick and tired of being sick and tired. One might expect this type of thing from middle-aged men who feel as if they’ve been sold a bill of goods and feel ripped off by a system that cares not a whit about them.” –Michael Kimmel, Guyland
Just the cover photo of this book captures the happy energy of young men; I remember the feeling from hanging out with male buddies in college. But there can be a negative side to male friendship too. Male adulthood has to do in part with accepting solitude and loneliness. I think women are a bit different, a bit more social usually.
“Indestructible” by Robyn. This is one of the pop songs from this Swedish artist from a very prolific time in her life a few years back. A lot of young people can feel indestructible sometimes. I did at times in my youth. But Robyn also combines the feeling with love for a single other. It can be found on YouTube.
You may have heard of the actor/producer Alec Baldwin’s recent accidental killing/injuring of two co-workers on a film set in my adopted city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I don’t really understand how a prop gun can kill someone. Baldwin did a good job in a few movies, especially a cameo scene in the film version of the play Glenngary Glen Ross. Anyway, there is a risk to dramatizing violence on film. When I was young, the film version of The Twilight Zone led to the real-life decapitation of one the movie’s actors in a scene that was about a helicopter landing in the Vietnam War.
There were also two Asian children killed in the incident in reality. It was especially sad because I think the point of the scene was that even though he had a serious drinking problem in his later life, he had been been a war hero. The scene is supposed to show him saving them from a battle.