Xmas Joe Bob 🎄 + Landro being the Funko pops of the fine art world

It's Christmas, and while doing some holiday shopping online, I was looking at some Llando porcelain figures, one in particular caught my eye "Floral Dreams Woman Figurine", I think it's beautiful.

It's my secret shame, I quite admire Llandro sculptures, they are terrible investments, and are basically catering to the "Nouveau riche", but I can't deny I find their stuff is pretty (it's tough to find tasteful nudes).

On the other hand you have funko pops which I abhor, but in many ways are similar to Llandro sculptures, these are plastic pop culture figurines being mass produced to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

These FuNkY PoPs! figures all follow a base design theory, offensive in their inoffensive blandness, formulated with a "cutesy" look, and are only cosmetically different enough so they meet the minimum requirement to resemble the pop culture character they are supposed to represent.

I think it's the cynicism of how these figures are produced that causes me such disgust. The design of these things is such that they rip the elements of these unique characters, and repackage them into something generic, so these stupid toys can be mass produced and sold to the cultural carrion, they literally have a Tyler Durden F-U-nko p_Op, proof these kitschy things are bereft of any tangible meaning.

At 8-11 USD these things sell, and sell well, certain collectors have fucking entire rooms dedicated to these asthetic abominations. It's a problem with my generation, we've become so pusillanimous that we will accept these knockoffs of a knockoff as something representing art, instead of pursuing something more elevated.

Most of these FuNkiE PoPs center around superhero's, which is another unfortunate aspect of our current culture, super-hero shit is incredibly popular as evidenced by the box office intake these movies rake in, and the merchandise sales of said movies. Part of these sales are reflective of kids getting into this stuff, that's cool, superhero stuff IS for kids, it teaches them base moral lessons in a digestible format, but there is also a huge contingent of adults, grown men and women consuming this stuff, that's indicative of a larger problem...

I can understand an adult buying some toy to have as a nostalgic relic, I have a Ramona Flowers figure, and a godzilla statue in my home, but I don't pretend Scott Pilgrim is high art (Godzilla on the other hand), it was a comic that spoke to me as a teen, so I don't mind having it around to reminisce about that part of my life.

That's the thing, I'm reminiscing about that part of my life, because that part of my life is over, every cell in my body has already replaced itself, I am both figuratively, and literally a new person, and it's time to move on and explore more complicated, and real things.

Part of growing up is putting the toys away, but I think people gravitate towards these trinkets, and media because it's safe escapism, and as a society we've been so traumatized by our government, and being presented with difficult idea's, that we're using these characters as a means of regression towards the infantile, instead of doing the more difficult action of self improvement to move towards growth.

Not everyone is going to like you, not everyone is going to be agreeable, life isn't always going to be easy, you might not have a good boss, your co-workers might suck, ect, ect, ect.

You're going to need to learn to deal with it, life doesn't get better, people just get better at dealing with life, and buying toys as an adult when you either aren't happy, or rich is going to just keep you poor, and unhappy.

I love film, especially trashy shit, I love beer, but when I was poor and needed to deal with the awful excuse for a person which was my past boss, I didn't really buy any films, or drinks.

My only concern at the time was how can I use the resources I have at my disposal to better my circumstances, after a long two years I quit, if I was drinking heavily, and buying stuff that was useless I might still be in that same situation.

My bigger point is beer, FuK_IE PuRPS, Llandro, or whatever else, it's all useless shit, and isn't something you should buy if you're not rich, and stable. If you're well off and these worthless FUN-KO POPS bring you joy, knock your fucking socks off.

However it's way better to be in the stable financial position of being able to decide whether to waste your money on a Llandro instead of a FUCK-O POP, and that comes from acquiring tangible worth as a person, instead of just doing the bare minimum to get by.

Anyway merry Christmas, it's a Joe bob charity event this year, there will be gifts for OG members, BYOB, and a good attitude!