Describing Dissemination

The problem with genius in any medium is dissemination. Over the past three years, I’ve been privy to three separate Picasso exhibits in three distinct portions of the US. And while each one must have had a specific focus, I can’t recall any of them. The recollection of each though is stamped in me with a feeling, a sense of time and place. And to a certain extent, that’s what we should take away from a purposeful human creation whether it’s visual, musical or emotional.

So, I have no idea how Picasso got his ideas into the eyes of those that determined initially that he was a master, a genius and indispensible from the standpoint of the greater culture. Where, I grew up – Ohio – bands seem to be gaining notoriety more today than at the chime of the new millennium. The Black Keys have taken on some sort of underground White Stripes stature, recording and holding court in the shambolic atmosphere of Akron. Times New Viking have signed to Matador and spent the last year or so being absorbed in the Vice-ruled culture. It’s a weird sensation to see an advert for a band that you’ve seen countless times in some record store on the opposite side of the country from where you heard them initially. The effete pop shenanigans of Bears has already crossed the country and been featured in too many magazines to make sense.

What has prompted the culture to assimilate the recordings and music of Ohio bands that really represent no great leap forward in craft, sound, production or vision? Is it the same reason that you can go to a beach in Florida and see an old man donning nothing more than a sling for his balls, travel to San Diego and see the same public misstep (or is it lack of care – either way, gross). How did both of those old men figure that the best and supreme way in which to make me not want lunch was to parade around with tufts of hair randomly emanating from various spots where the elastic meets the flesh? Dissemination works in ways that simpletons can not describe. So, why is a sculpture that Picasso did depicting whatever women he was currently in love with marked as a travesty at first and now heralded as a landmark.

But how are bands from Ohio getting signed and Picasso inter-connected. They both possess the an aspect of human nature that no one is able to escape: love. If each of those bands from Ohio realized that the place that they call home is perceived as a giant field of cows and farms by everyone else throughout the nation, they’d call it a day, sell their amps and buy farm equipment even though they all live in overtly urban setting. Similarly, Picasso upon being thought of as a hack by the stuffy intelligentsia of the time auspiciously moved forward, disregarding what he already knew was hyperbole.

Relationships work in almost the same way, and please excuse me for this personal digression, but the way in which you relate your feelings to another has some correlate to a style becoming accepted. How can I tell the one that I love how I feel if the accepted ways of doing so aren’t static and understandable to different people. There’re seemingly no two people who have such similar experiences upon meeting that they immediately understand all the implications of togetherness – or is that short sited. Surely there were fans of the Black Keys who immediately foresaw their future successes. The same should be assumed for the work of Picasso. But then does that mean that these viewers of culture carried with them previously the love of creation, the love of beauty. How did they have that? Whoever has the answer to that question can surely and easily gain ‘80s Michael Jackson style fame at a moments notice. Ready? Go.