Welcome 2016

     Things I'm excited about in 2016

1. Disney is releasing a Pete's Dragon movie

2. The U.S. presidential election

3. Hoverboards

4. Ultra HD broadcasts (4k)

5. The Superbowl and the 2016 Redskins

6. iPhone 7

7. The Olympics

8. Virtual Reality

9. Smart Cars

10. and Leap Day February 29th 

    People are becoming resolute today. Enrollment is up at the gym, and Phillip Morris is once again bracing for low numbers in January. I'm sure you've seen a multitude of "Year in Review" episodes, and you'll probably see many more, because you've already forgotten so much and want to see if others remember what you did. We can expect some things to happen, and yet there is also much anticipation for things we can't expect. 

     Last year gave us a boatload of record breaking cinema, bizarre entertainment news, and the beginning of an exciting presidential race. However, 2015 was also over-shadowed by horrific violence at the hands of dastardly people and organizations. As a world we were knocked down more times in one year than I can remember. I don't know if the actual statistics are up, or if I'm just noticing them more because I have a growing family to worry about.

    Despite the awesomeness, the sour notes, the useless cultural epithets and the things that made us laugh, 2015 is now history. Some things were recorded with graphic detail, others are a pixelated recollection. Events of the world and the days of our lives might become a vague memory while most things will be forgotten, yet I'm oddly hopeful.

     I hope this past year teaches our leaders and helps them grow wiser to the plans of evil doers, so we can thwart more villains and bring more peace. I hope generosity and gratitude increases, so the less fortunate become more hopeful and the more fortunate become more socially aware of injustice. I hope the weather systems balance and seasons change appropriately, so farmers can be confident in their crops and I don't have to pay so much for food. For my sake, I hope nostalgia in the arts continues, so I can continue to share my childhood with my own children. But for my children's sake, I hope that there is an increase in fresh, cool ideas and stories to build their own memories and experiences with. 

      I wish everyone out there strength to deal with the downs of the new year and humility to deal with the ups. 

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Nostalgic Feeling needs Creative Healing

You know that feeling you get when you smell that Croatian girl in front of you at Burlington Coat Factory, and it reminds you of a steak you had in an airport during a layover in Vienna, Austria. Then you grunt slightly thinking of that steak and the roasted red potatoes that you almost didn't get because the mixed vegetable medley sounded better. Then the final synaptic memory breaks free, and the entire trip comes flooding back into recollection, the people, the places, the time. Despite that epic sneer from the Croatian girl you just offended by grunting and smiling at her backside, your feeling pretty good, waxing reminiscent on "The Good Ole Days."  What happened there? Nostalgia happened, in the form of an olfactory evoked recall, and it is very powerful, almost as powerful as pure instinct. Just ask advertising agencies around the world.
Here's the order: Fear, Sex, and then Nostalgia. An elite assembly evoking strong emotions, intended primarily for the survival and continuation of the human race. Over the years, our mothers, our husbands, our girlfriends, our teachers, our bosses, and even our children have learned that these things can be used to motivate even manipulate each and every one of us. Fear-mongering has gotten a bad wrap ever since our mothers told us that if we kept making that ugly face it would freeze that way. But despite it's overwhelming negativity, it sells the most product. And the term "sex sells" has been a staple of good salesmanship ever since Eve stood there all sexy and nude and whatnot holding that cursed piece of fruit in front of Adam. Who hasn't jumped on that bandwagon? Everyone talks about fear and sex, but for the lionhearted and chaste among us, I'm going to delve into this phenomenon of nostalgia. To start I would like to provide a list of things that give me nostalgic feelings and see if you don't agree.
1. Corn dogs dripping with grease

2. 8-bit arcade games in an actual arcade

3. Comic books

4. Matchbox cars in the sandbox

5. Saturday morning cartoons

6. Riding bikes until you pee in your pants.

7. Old playgrounds

8. Box Turtles

9. Disney princesses

10. Icy pops on a Friday afternoon.

And one last thing, any webpage beginning with: You know your a child of the 80's if...
Most feelings of nostalgia induce positive vibes, unless of course you are getting re-acquainted with a favorite song that suddenly reminds you of why you had to find that happy place under the stairwell in junior high school. That would be considered a totally freakin' nostalgia backfire. However, nostalgia has been a golden goose for the Hollywood box office, automobile companies and toy manufacturers. As a father I'm enjoying seeing these flashbacks of my childhood, as a consumer I'm a sucker for those advertisements, but as an artist I'm disgusted.
Where did all the creativity go? In the interest of going green creative minds everywhere have entered the Age of Recycled Ideas. Ford Mustangs that harken back to the glory days of the 60's, Cabbage Patch dolls on the shelves in Wal-mart 15 years after they were cool, and a blockbuster movie based on the most boring adventure game ever, Battleship. "C-4" "Awww... you sunk my battleship." I can still see the faces of those kids on the front of the box, having the best time. Sorry, Hasbro, I never had any fun playing that game. Maybe if I had used real C-4...

Creativity is a last resort now-a-days. Why? Because it's cheaper. The price to earnings ratio is much more acceptable in such a questionable economy. Who wants to go out on a limb for a new idea, when there are so many old ones that work so well. Why not play the nostalgia card? It's working because we are all suckers for it. We don't realize that it will soon come back and bite us. The world needs creativity, it needs artists to create something out of nothing. Who knows, if we keep going down this path of least resistance we'll be making remakes of remakes of remakes, and theaters will vomit digital video out of their projection booths because we have become lukewarm.
Don't get me wrong, the creativity is there it just needs space. It needs money. it needs recognition. Don't let your weakness for nostalgia push the creative genius's further out into the starving artist sea. Support the arts. The reason the remakes are good is because they are resting on the shoulders of the greats, the originals.
It all started somewhere.
...and don't even get me started on Reality TV as my wife makes me watch American Idol.