blake johnson

I should probably add an entry about Matrix Revolutions to follow up on my posts regarding Reloaded, but I don’t have time right now. I will say this though: I liked the movie. There were some extremely painful moments of dialogue, but overall the movie successfully finished the themes developed in the first two movies. It presented us with the ultimate realization of “Neo as Christ” (in fact, this imagery was a bit overdone…) and was extremely entertaining. Furthermore, the battle between Neo and Smith is far and away the coolest fight scene I’ve ever seen.

Sorry to all of you who are disappointed that your matrix-in-a-matrix theories are wrong, and also those of you that want to add your deterministic world-view into the movies— it just isn’t there.

I found an interesting comment about the Matrix that I wanted to post:

You might also consider that Neo is a messiah. A Christ figure. And integral to prophecies and messiah’s is that the truth they show, and the path they walk, is never what anyone expects. So Neo isn’t there to free people from the Matrix into the world of Zion. It’ll almost certainly be something else. —Morat

So, I liked the movie. The first 45 minutes or so needs to be re-edited. I felt like all the shots were either too short or too long. And the rave/sex scene was very odd. Actually, I can accept most of the first part of the movie only from the standpoint that I understand why the W. brothers made the choices that they did. Still, they could have done better.

But, once we get back into the Matrix, the awesome nature of the first movie returns! The dialogue gets better, the pacing returns, and the action is unbelievable!

There are many people that are upset that Reloaded has traded the “brain in a vat” question for a discussion of free will. However, Reloaded has changed many of our assumptions from the first movie, such as the truth of the prophesy and Morpheus’ role as the leader. The “brain in a vat” question is not gone either; in fact, the W. brothers have brought up some even deeper issues if you look beyond the surface of the film.

For once, I don’t know how the story will end! Reloaded is so filled with foreshadowing, though, that I am deep in anticipation of the next movie. It will be exciting to see how the W. brothers resolve this story in Revolutions.

I just read a except from a book by William Griffis, an American that went to Japan in the 1870s and stayed there for quite a few years. Griffis kept pretty extensive journals, but the reason that he did this is not entirely clear. One historian suggests that it might just have been out of family tradition. But, it reminded me of comments that I have heard others make (sometimes tongue-in-check, sometimes not) about leaving materials for our biographers. This always amuses me because it is at once a very arrogant statement, but on the other hand, if any of us actually do end up making a significant contribution to the world, then it is not such a bad idea afterall.

In any case, these thoughts have me thinking about trying to keep a journal again. Not because I think I am going to be a great person, but for my own entertainment (I have a journal from Swiss Semester which is highly entertaining to read).

I was reading an article in Wired magazine over break that was suggesting that the music industry may be on the verge of collapse. According to that magazine, CD sales fell by 11 percent last year on top of a 3 percent fall from the year before. I almost hate to say it, because the idea of what I am about to say sounded weird even to me when I first thought it, but I think that the collapse of the music industry would be good for music.

Why do I think this? Well, first of all, the collapse of the music industry would not necessarily hurt the artists. It is well-known that except in a few exceptional cases, musicians hardly make any money off of CD sales. Instead, their major revenue comes from tours. Now, it is true that the music industry often makes it possible for artists to make new music, but it is hard to believe that musicians will stop making music if the music industry collapses.

Second, I believe that the primary reason that the music industry is collapsing is that no one over the age of 30 cares! The music industy has been pointing its finger at the rise of file-sharing programs such as Napster, KaZaA, Gnutella, and the like, but these really are just a convenient scape-goat. The music industry has very effectively captured the teen market in its promotion of Brittany Spears, Christany Aguilera, N Sync, etc. The industy has at the same time, however, completely ignored the development of artists whose music does not necessarily appeal to the instant-gratification desires of teenagers. Sure, there are a few of these musicians hanging around (U2, Sting, and the Rolling Stones come to mind), but there are even more of such musicians singing to local crowds in America’s bars than there are making CDs with $100,000 production budgets.

The Wired magazine article predicted, quite correctly, I think, that the collapse of the music industry would “produce fewer global superstars and more locally successful musicians”. And this is why I think the collapse of the music industry would be good for music.