>>7633571The internet killed design, for one. There was something alchemical in our culture when print media was highly relevant. Gaming magazines had a sensory power, the smell of the pages and ink, the zany enthusiasm of ads as cultural currency about the future, the solace of memorising information at home to prepare for social interaction, getting information you could use at the arcade later that day.
A magazine like Rolling Stone created a parallel world, a bubble of wild culture and privy details, that helped strengthen your imagination and enrich your awe of America and what was possible. It was the Hero's Journey meets the Id of American Excess, and that's healthy not degenerate to think about it.
Closed doors were closed. To just get a peek was orgasmic. When Ain't It Cool News hit online, Hollywood literally wanted to kill Harry Knowles, the owner. To hear details about the biggest school yard movies months, years, in advance was a future quake. But suddenly closed doors opened wider. You learned how sausage was made. Until the closed doors were always wide open with "Welcome" signs by PR depts and anayltics vampires.
I think it's why that movie Free Solo, while I don't even care to watch it, everyone understand this movie's relevance. The last thing to do to find authenticity is to risk death against the natural world. Unfortunately I think Free Solo will ease the way for death on TV in a decade. The Running Man will be real, very very soon.
