Me too kid. It was rough growing up without games.
I grew up in an era when video games were brand spanking new and adults had no idea what to think of them. They thought they were toys that needed to be destroyed. I was a big arcade fan growing up and my favorite game to play was Super Mario Brothers. My friend and I would spend hours and all the quarters we had just to make it to Level 1-2 or maybe level 1-3. Then I had to decide if I wanted to spend all the other quarters I had to see if I could make it any farther.
My mind was absolutely blown when I found out that Nintendo was creating a console that INCLUDED the game with it, AND it looked just like the arcade game. Somehow I managed to convince my parents to become early adopters on the Nintendo Entertainment System and I thought it was pretty much the greatest thing ever.
Because of this early video game nirvana, I became a huge Nintendo fanatic, even when all those other big consoles came out like the Sega, Playstation, and Xbox. I always tried to be the first one to get their console. In fact, I remember getting the Nintendo Game Cube even though there were no games I was interested in when it first came out. To fill the time, I decided to get one of the few games that did come out called Simpsons Road Rage. Basically, it was just a knock off of another game called Crazy Taxi, and my favorite thing to do was just drive around and cause destruction. The game included a lot of graffiti and I thought it was pretty cool.
This is art.
It seems like art has always been about rebellious acts, like painting things on a Sistine Chapel ceiling, drawing a dot, or drawing on our arms called tattoos. Honestly, I’m not sure how graffiti hasn’t been called an official art form yet. Let’s be truthful. Some, if not most graffiti is more creative, and well done that a lot of art.
Sometimes it has a message, other times it is frustration, and still others it is to mark territory. If dogs can do it, why can’t humans? All I know is a lot of graffiti is so well written that I think it is better than my writing. I should probably take some lessons from the graffiti artists and see if I can better craft a message.
I think the problem with society is that they so devalue creative art expressions (ie they don’t pay us for our art) that some of these super talented kids just express it on walls with spray paint. If people would pay artists for their work, we wouldn’t have to start blogs, spray paint walls, make homemade YouTube videos, or play music on street corners for nickels.
I’ve always wondered why creatives had to do side hustles while sciencey, mathy and computer codey people could just make their wealth at work and just eat dinner when they got home.
What do you guys think? Why do creatives have to work so hard to make a living? Why do society value coders, mathy, and sciency people so much more?
ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH
Bitter Graffiti Ben
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Ben's Bitter Blog 
Here’s my well-thought-out deeply-reflected-upon-with-bitterness, answer to your question: Scientists create the stuff we need to live. Artists create a reason for us to live. Unfortunately, artists often can’t afford the stuff they need to live, because while they are busy creating a reason to live, everyone else is busy grabbing up the stuff that’s needed to live. So artists starve and die, while giving everyone else a reason to live, to go with the stuff that’s needed to live.
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That sounds like a well thought out answer that makes total sense, which is why it doesn’t make any sense to me.
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if society were focused on taking care of its own people regardless of ability in STEM disciplines, we’d all be happier as a whole and prolly see more of a proliferation in sweet art. but the concept of society can seem a bit vague..
happy new year bro 😀 been a while.
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Yeah it has been a while. It was the whole losing my blog for a while that killed it for me.
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The truth is that many people do consider graffiti an art form.
I don’t know why we pay STEM jobs better than GLAM jobs (STEM being science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; GLAM being galleries, libraries, archives, and museums). But I also don’t know why we pay a few men so much money just to play a game. J.
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Seriously, I just marvel at the fact that NBA and NFL players make so much money to play a game. It seems like highway robbery.
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I totally agree! Art’s been around since the beginning of civilization, but for some reason these days, it’s not viewed as a true profession (we get paid for it). Artists, writers, musicians get the raw end of the $$ deal.
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Yeah, there are a few that make it big, but for the most part, the rest of us get the dollar shaft.
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I think every person has a creative side. If artsy jobs were well-paid, we’d all be doing them. And then who would assemble cars at Ford or make lattes at Starbucks or stock CharminPlus on the shelves at Dollar General? We’d have lots of paintings and poems and pottery but nothing to drive, keep us awake, or wipe our asses on. The threat of being a starving artist keeps people who like comfort doing necessary but boring jobs. 🙂
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I just wish it was the opposite where the super technical people were the ones that were make it or break it and they were the ones forced to do the boring and necessary jobs.
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Art and fashion have a lot in common. The 1960’s were a creative fashion phenomena that the 70’s tried to continue, so we ended up with 2-foot wide bell bottoms. I had a pair that wrapped around the other leg when I was walking. Add that to 4″ high platform shoes and you have a prescription for a broken ankle.
Art, as well as fashion, becomes ridiculous and possibly life-threatening over time (ask anyone who has been painted gold for a photo). 🙂
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I will find someone who was painted. I did live in the early 70’s and had some interesting 80’s fads. Some 70’s blended into the 80’s too.
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Goldfinger?
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I wasn’t in that movie so I was never painted. I can’t imagine that being a bond girl during the opening sequence would be pretty hard to deal with.
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