Yesterday afternoon I went to see "Lara Croft: Tombraider - Cradle of Life" with my wife and in-laws. I had read on www.mrcranky.com that this movie was truly horrible (it got the nuclear bomb rating: "Proof that Jesus died in vain"). I left the theatre with a depression that was deep and seemingly endless. The movie was pretty bad, but it certainly wasn't what had really upset me.

Before the show, there was "The 20" which comes on in the theatre 20 minutes before the previews and is basically advertisements. The one sanctity of the movie theatre was that it was not TV... it did not advertise for anything except other movies (i.e. previews). This too, I can deal with.

What ruined me was "Lid rock". "Lid rock" is a CD that is included with the purchase of a large beverage that contains "the lastest of up-and-coming pop stars". I came to find out that "Lid rock" has the new music videos of Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, the actress. It was then that it hit me... I will never, ever, be a part of popular culture. Not that I don't want to or that I hate it, it's just that I will never be a titless 18 year old hottie singing about love. All of my musical talent and endevours, all lay to waste compared to this young actress. I thought "I would be so lucky if I ever got as far as this chick got without trying... without even being a musician."

"Lid rock" turned out to be a metaphor for the entire movie-going experience. The movie was horrible as expected. It didn't stop it from being a multi-million dollar profit for the movie industry though, just like Star Wars and Die Another Day (Bond). When did popular culture start to embrace crap? Looking back on the 1980's, the musicians were doing quite a bit of interesting things like polyphony, polyrythem, and even mainstreaming rap. What do we have to show for our generation? Limp Bizkit? An American Idol Kelly Clarkson? When did pop culture stop demanding quality talent in exchange for attractive 16 year olds? When will this world ever make any fucking sense to me?