...On Introductions!

Hello one and all and welcome to my new blog: Don't Get Me Started. Here's where I'll blather on incessantly for anyone who'll listen about movies, art, literature, internet and pop culture silliness... basically whatever's come across my dash and pissed me off the most in a given week or something else I've been musing about. Usually it'll be something I could go on almost indefinitely about. Hence the title of the blog. I won't let things get too crazy... or at least I'll try to keep them from getting there but I don't make promises I'm not positive I can keep.

Regardless, this space is, as I said, one to discuss numerous things: art, music, T.V., Movies, silly internet drama, pop culture wackiness, books, comics etc, all that wonderful stuff we love as nerds. I do want to stress though, this isn't a place to look for movie reviews. I can't go see movies on a regular basis and there are so many people much better and much more entertaining at doing movie review than I am. That's not the point of this space. I will however, be analyzing various movies and other media I find interesting more often than not. Typically these'll be things that have either been out for a while but still have a loyal enough following that talking about them isn't going to leave people scratching their heads. But sometimes it'll be some relatively obscure thing I like a lot but maybe other people don't or haven't heard of. It is my platform. No matter what the thing is though, I'll be examining it, breaking it down and in many cases trying to put it into a broader cultural context.

What kind of context you may ask?

Well that's a tricky question. I'm not going to limit myself too much here as I have a wide variety of interests and ideas about a number of different things and there are a few that I feel I have enough knowledge to have an informed opinion on. Not an expert one necessarily, but an informed one. However, growing up in a house dominated by women and being a black man in the U.S., race and gender equality matter to me greatly and I cannot help but look at media through these lenses. It colors my experience of media and the way I think about it in ways I spent too long trying to run from and only recently decided to embrace and properly learn from.  As such will be a great deal of discussion about the intersectionality of race and gender in media as well as other concepts along those spectrums.

Other things you won't see talked about here much: Videogames.

Simply put, videogame is one of the nerd languages I understand, but don't speak. Oh don't get me wrong, I play them from time to time but it's not a passion for me and in general I feel I'd do the medium a disservice by commenting on it too often. It's not an area where I can have much of an informed opinion. If a story blows up and I have a strong and informed opinion on THAT then yes I'm going to reserve the right to talk about it... just don't come here looking for game reviews/recommendations or E3 thoughts or anything.

Things that I'll try to keep from getting too entrenched but it's probably a losing battle: Politics

Ooooooh, the dreaded "P" word. Politics. One of the three things you aren't supposed to talk about in polite company. The point of this space isn't for me to wax on about my politics. I'm not John Stewart, I'm not John Oliver and I'm not Larry Wilmore (I told you I lean to the left. Cut me a break. Of course these are my touchstones right now). You won't see election coverage here. You won't see my opinions on the candidates. You won't likely see much in the way of any real substantive political analysis here (though I reserve the right to make jokes about anything political that I actually find funny rather than utterly terrifying or worrisome).

That said one could argue politics are just ideas turned into action. Since I know I'll be discussing issues of race, gender intersectionality and other concepts of a similar vein in media, politics will inevitably encroach somewhat, if for no other reason than people politicize those issues. But we'll try not to let it in on the party too much. Politics is a bit more serious than I really desire to tackle here. Regardless if this sounds like fun, strap in and I hope you enjoy the ride with me as far as this will go.