Soulless Cinema

Being a fan of the old school I was reluctant to spend my green on the remake of "Point Break," but I was bored.  It was Superbowl Sunday.  The day after the remnants of poor taste still linger.  After the Lady redeemed the genre of pop music with outstanding performances of both jazz and show tunes, it was perplexing to view her first few seconds of her rendition of our National Anthem.  I couldn't watch.  Her performance was on par with all the problem laden performances that proceeded hers.  There is a standard for the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner," and it is found in the concept of a traditional music education.  The newly created modern American pop genre feels it is not bound by these ideals.  Like so many filmmakers in America selfishly they indulge their immature passions, and they fail.  Lady Gaga failed yesterday, and it was further insult to the American people.  Then again we are being insulted daily with the 2016 presidential campaign.  How can one take anything seriously?  It is depressing to turn on the television and realize the election of the most powerful political leader in the world is a farce.  Truly if you do care about America's future, this election would seem to have nothing to do with it.  It is a puppet show, and I would guess Rupert Murdoch is pulling some strings.  A transplanted Aussie has no place controlling the news in America.  Much of America is owned by foreign interests.  We have become a barren industrialized wasteland bearing no resemblance to our once free world.  This brings me to my point of soulless cinema.  I have seen three films released in 2015 which all transmitted a similar dynamic.  There were beautiful epic images and lots of location shooting at varying destinations.  No wonder the budget is high.  With all of that visual hubris something was lacking.  It is soul.  I have watched three separate films, "Spectre," "Point Break," and "Sicario," which all suffer from the same bleak perspective.  I am beginning to learn this is the affectation of the millennium.  This is the way millennials feel.  They feel very little, and it is because the barren industrialized wasteland of America no longer feeds our souls.  Millennials would be so desperate with lack of feeling to enjoy the Superbowl half time experience.  I couldn't watch it, because all ready I knew.  I gave the Lady and chance, and she regressed her career.  I assume because it was the NFL, not a pinnacle of Christian sentiment, was orchestrating.  Briefly as a music educator I have to critique her performance.  The National Anthem is that.  It is an anthem not a pop song.  An anthem has a connotation, and it is not a pop song.  When singing an anthem the methodology of pop performance is moot.  Correctly to convey an anthem it must be reverent, spiritual, and selfless.  An anthem is paying tribute to a far greater good than Lady Gaga, the NFL, or television.  A rule of jazz performance applies to the singing of an anthem.  Play the melody straight the first time.  Prove you know and can play the melody straight by singing that way.  Harry will tell you.  The embellishments are moot, extraneous, and embarrassing.  To succumb to that low brow practise was a  mistake for Lady Gaga.  I was disappointed, because her authentic interpretations of jazz music spurred by Tony Bennett and show music were nullified.  People will remember the Superbowl.  Of all the opportunities to set an example for taste, this was it.  Like the 2016 presidential campaign it has failed.  Is this the real Lady Gaga?  It was sickening, but I guess I expected it.  I want to comment on this soulless facet of America.  Today most of the supportive structures that have nurtured artistic performances no longer are there.  Our environment is polluted with waves of all kinds.  To cling to your own wave today takes much effort. The Superbowl was not the place to do with our National Anthem as a vehicle.  There is little time for emotional and spiritual rejuvenation, because our environment no longer contributes.  This is not God's way.  The land of the free formerly did contribute.  It was here first.  The majesty of purple mountains found in mother nature provide spiritual fuel for certain lineages of humanity.  Native Americans are one, and systematically America either has extinguished or emasculated their culture for our own gain.  It is no wonder God's spirituality conspicuously is absent from America and film.  "Bridge of Spies," "Sicario," "The Revenant," and "Point Break" all have become metaphors for this vacuum.  They are giant black holes that suck the spirituality from God's earth.  It must be a trend, and the soulless Playstation is running the game.  Made up characters suffice for real humans, because millennials never have been allowed to develop their own spiritual psyches within the pristine and unadulterated American landscape.  We live in a vast, barren, industrialized wasteland much like the setting of "The Walking Dead."  Is this what we want for America?  It offends me to see filmmakers depict the beauty of God's earth in such a vacuous way. Either you see the glass half full or half empty, and it is clear many current film directors prefers the latter.  Watching their films is isolating, oppressive, and depressing.  Why would any director taint God's glory with nothingness?  It is because they themselves apparently have no soul.  Soul comes from Christianity, and from Christianity comes good.  The majority of followers of the Muslim faith are peaceful followers of Allah similar to Christians.  Only has one rogue faction of extreme religious terrorism misrepresented Islam.  Billy Joel did a better job singing the National Anthem.  Watching a cat in heat on Superbowl Sunday was an atrocity.