tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52408682024-03-08T01:28:50.834-05:00clap clap blog: we have movedRamblings about music and the music biz, and wacko lefty politics. Indie, pop, electronic, mainly.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.comBlogger1753125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-80076490266827976382007-02-02T10:20:00.002-05:002007-02-02T10:21:03.302-05:00Hello. The new site is now up. You can find it at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.clapclap.org">http://www.clapclap.org</a><br /><br />See you there!Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1168301870084023752007-01-08T19:08:00.000-05:002007-01-22T17:21:14.518-05:00As you may have noticed, things have been a little slow around these parts. As it happens, I am in fact shutting down this old blog and starting another with its very own domain name. It will be launching February 2. Watch this space.<br /><br />In the meantime, though, I thought I might offer a clap clap best-of. Enjoy.<br /><br />- There was the whole <em>Blueberry Boat</em> series, probably this blog's biggest achievement. <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/10/hello-there-new-york-times-readers.html">This is a good summary post</a>.<br />- I <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/02/cuckoo-comments-to-this-woebot-post.html">broke down the three levels of pop</a>, probably too briefly. I've done a lot more thinking about this and a considerably longer version of this model should come out at some point.<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/03/so-hey.html">very close reading of MIA's "POP,"</a> one of the best things I've written.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/12/oh-sweet-lord-i-love-kelly-clarkson.html">Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone"</a> as a relationship you're having.<br />- <em>Mutual Appreciation</em>, fictional memoirs, realism, and <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/03/it-wont-be-awkward-itll-be-fun-back.html">the cultural hegemony of the tragic mode</a>. (Note: nowhere near as bad as it sounds!)<br />- An analysis <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/04/in-everything-ive-read-about-new.html">of a New Pornographers song</a>, sort of the basis for the Blueberry Boat analysis.<br />- An <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/02/our-love-it-forms-v-two-posts-down-i.html">in-depth analysis of a Billy Joel picture</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/10/went-to-coney-island-again-few.html">Going to Coney Island</a> with a 9-year-old seeing the ocean for the first time.<br />- I saw <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/just-got-back-from-seeing-courtney.html">a crazy-ass Courtney Love concert</a> and did <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/you-know-i-used-to-have-sort-of.html">an extensive analysis of the picture of some guy sucking her boob outside Wendy's</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/10/brief-ode-to-bedroom-oh-how-i-love-you.html">Home recording</a>: it is awesome.<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-had-first-heard-about-steven.html">response to Steven Berlin Johnson's <em>Everything Bad is Good For You</em></a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/01/some-things-you-should-know-about_12.html">Things you should know</a> about music critics.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/06/not-liking-music-ism-nlmi-possible.html">Reasons not to like music</a>--something we don't talk about enough.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/05/blog-post.html">Bill Clinton and others</a> at the Apollo.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/01/man-theres-nothing-better-than-music.html">LCD Soundsystem's "Yeah"</a> and <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/01/addendum-to-below.html">lyrical analysis v. musical analysis</a>.<br />- The romanticized aesthetic of <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003_10_05_claps_archive.html#106565341157660787">art-under-repression</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/11/inside-job-note-this-will-be-post.html"><em>Borat</em> as a comic model</a> for the 2006 midterm elections.<br />- The <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/01/in-tragic-aftermath-of-love-monkey.html">horror of <em>Love Monkey</em></a>.<br />- My <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/03/gunning-for-santino-slot-transcript-of.html">fake application for the Rolling Stone reality show</a>.<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2006/07/rock-star-or-transvestive-you-be-judge.html">discussion of Rock Star: Supernova</a> and the new class of "rock people."<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/10/at-prompting-of-certain-editor-heres.html">A fairly nasty review</a> of Liz Phair's <i>Somebody's Miracle</i>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/09/i-was-talking-with-sean-and-he-pointed.html">Freak-folk and the notion of community</a> in music.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/07/results-of-payola-investigation-have.html">Why we have payola</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-gather-that-ilm0-has-already-pricked.html">Fiction writers writing about music</a> v. writers writing about music.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/06/oh.html">Five books</a>--a survey that turns all serious.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/05/i-am-shocked-shocked-that-i-was-not.html">Sex advice from a music critic</a>. (Warning: kinda gross.)<br />- The <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/01/saw-i-heart-huckabees1-on-sunday-and.html">use of Shania Twain</a> in <i>I Heart Huckabees</i>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/01/for-long-time-i-have-wanted-to-produce.html">How to produce a (good) Tori Amos album</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2005/01/songs-i-listened-to-this-year-that-i_12.html">Kimya Dawson's "Loose Lips"</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/12/so-we-were-all-talking-bit-about-that.html">Henry Darger</a> and outsider artists as pop artists.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/11/there-are-lot-of-things-i-like-about.html">MIA and Diplo's</a> <i>Piracy Funds Terrorism</i>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/11/i-am-watching-frontlines-persuaders.html">A response to "The Persuaders,"</a> i.e. fear-mongering about advertising.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/10/finally-got-moving-around-4-today-and.html">The Cross-Manhattan Expressway</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/07/i-snuck-drink-in-car-smashed-corporate.html">Playing (inadvertently) at a jambands festival</a> in Scarsdale.<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/07/brief-summary-of-why-prince-is-cooler.html">Prince concert</a>.<br />- If music <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/07/how-would-music-be-different-if-there.html">had a league commish</a>.<br />- Me <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/06/writing-music-odd-confluence-of-things_18.html">on my own writing</a>.<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/05/i-hadnt-really-figured-out-how-i-felt.html">historical view of American Idol</a> and William Hung.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/04/from-aforementioned-neil-strauss.html">More Courtney</a>.<br />- Pop/rock's <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/05/in-some-ways-it-almost-seems-pointless.html">debt to art music</a>.<br />- Nirvana: <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/04/me-and-some-other-folk-were-going-to.html">not sad</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/genre-confluence.html">Genre confluence</a>.<br />- The <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/scorpions-index-song-that-i-figured.html">Scorpions index</a>.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/i-swear-i-hadnt-read-k-punks-great-mbv.html">Music and work</a>. (And Nirvana and MBV.)<br />- An <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/artistic-bill-of-rights-my-three-major.html">artistic bill of rights</a>: the right to irony, etc.<br />- The <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/over-at-fluxblog-matthew-has-posted.html">dangers of peer critique</a> in early art.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/03/some-people-say-that-new-york-get.html">New York when it has just gotten warm</a>. <br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/02/quo-vadimus-on-figh-uh-lately-by-way.html">Apolitical political comedy</a>.<br />- <a href="http://newflux.blogspot.com/2003/08/hole-awful-i-kept-to-party-line-on.html">Hole's "Awful."</a> (From old Fluxblog.)<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/02/while-back-someone-on-mailing-list.html">Strong Bad Sings</a>: a good album.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/01/rachel-stevens-sweet-dreams-my-l.html">"Sweet Dreams My LA Ex"</a>: a good song.<br />- <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/01/speaking-of-which.html">Evanesence</a>: a good band. Sorta.<br />- "<a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/11/listening-to-unicorns-right-now-and.html">Experimental pop</a>," yikes. This is not what <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/11/man-youre-just-asking-for-it-pitchfork.html">The Unicorns are</a>.<br />- Mellencamp's <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/10/more-i-listen-to-john-mellencamps.html">"Pink Houses."</a><br />- Outkast's "<a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/10/i-listened-to-big-bois-rooster-back.html">The Rooster.</a>"<br />- A <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/09/klosterman-wcornrows-and-pudge-ok-ok.html">defense of Chuck</a>.<br />- Bangs: <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/09/salon-writer-andrew-leonard-provides.html">kind of a jackass</a>.<br />- The <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/08/starlight-mints-submarine-3-theres.html">Starlight Mints' </a>"Submarine #3."<br />- Music as <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/11/sasha-linked-to-this-essay-on-language.html">actual language poetry</a>.<br />- Culture and politics: <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2003/07/we-all-dance-to-things-we-disagree.html">different</a>.<br /><br /><br />More later. Also, if anyone can find that post where I talk about Courtney Love outside Wendy's, I'd be grateful. <strong>UPDATE:</strong> Aha, found it! See above.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-36235953485604883252007-01-01T16:09:00.000-05:002007-01-17T18:20:46.329-05:00I know, I'm shut down, but there's something I want to say, and it won't be relevent in two weeks.<br /><br />You remember those old stickers that said "Skateboarding is not a crime"? Those always annoyed me. Skateboarding <em>is </em>a crime, because there is a law that says so. That is the only thing that determines whether or not something is illegal. We can talk about whether or not skateboarding <em>should</em> be a crime, we can talk whether it's moral or not (although morality isn't really the issue, the common good is), but there's no argument about whether or not it's a crime. The state says it is, so it is.<br /><br />I'm reminded of this because of the whole outcry surrounding DJ Drama getting arrested. Yes, it sucks. Yes, he should be freed; someone should not be put in prison for making music. But what he was doing was illegal, and so to pretend shock that he would be arrested for doing what there are laws against doing is absurd. Making mixtapes and then duplicating them and selling them is against the law. The practice is supported by the labels, it's supported by the artists, it's supported by the retailers. But they can support it all they like implicitly; they have done nothing to change the law, and so it is still illegal, and people can and do go to jail for doing it.<br /><br />You can rail all you want against the RIAA. What they are doing is stupid and wrong, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that it's (almost) entirely legal. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be able to continue raiding people's homes and suing them and sending them scary lawyer letters. Posting MP3s without the explicit consent of the copyright holder--which 99% of the time is the label, and which does not take the form of an e-mail from some low-level digital marketing lackey--is illegal. Downloading music you have not paid for is, broadly speaking, illegal. Making mixtapes with uncleared samples or songs not owned by you and then selling them is illegal. The labels may like you doing these things or they might not. But having their implicit consent doesn't matter when it comes to the law. If you do these things, you can get sued or put in jail. There are fair use exceptions, yes, but almost all the possibly illegal activity online involving music simply falls outside the definition of "fair use."<br /><br />The point is not that you shouldn't be doing it because it's illegal. (This is what your mom would say, but what does she know about modern music, after all?) The point is not that it's morally wrong, or that it hurts the artist, or that the labels don't want you to do it. All these things have been debated endlessly, and frankly, no one has any idea whether they're true or not. But one thing is a fact: it is against the law, and when something is against the law, the law can punish you for doing it.<br /><br />Laws are made by the state, but the great thing about democracies is that you are the state. You can work to change the laws. If you think all this shit is wrong, don't spend your time decrying the RIAA, or loudly proclaiming that music should be free when bands ask that you please not post the music they have made, or pretending that all your disclaimers and justifications make what you're doing legal. Pressure labels that support mixtapes and MP3blogs and mashups and all those sorts of mutually beneficial uses of copyrighted material to lobby to have the laws changed. You have a relationship with labels? Great. Write them an e-mail and tell them to support copyright reform. Tell them that the double standard they've supported lets them have it both ways while sending mixtape makers to prison. The labels have a relationship with consumers that the RIAA does not, and the status as copyright holders to ask the government to make room in the legal code for these uses. They have a real need to do something about this and the ability to make a change. All they lack is the will.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1164841571582772252006-11-29T17:58:00.000-05:002007-01-05T17:08:32.430-05:00I have had some reviews in Flagpole lately: <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/2006-11-22">here are last week's</a> (Evenescence and another one), and <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/2006-11-29">here are this week's</a> (Architecture in Helsinki and Isobel Campbell). Ones of note are <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/SunDomingo/2006-11-22">this one</a>, because the band members respond and it's hilarious, and <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/ArchitectureInHelsinki/2006-11-29">the AIS review</a>, which is of their remix album and says some things about the genre of remix albums in genreal that I think might be worth a look. I'm expanding all this right now and hope to have something longer to say about it in the near future.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1163715337450700442006-11-16T12:30:00.000-05:002006-11-26T03:03:07.046-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/tit_ekobridge01.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/320/tit_ekobridge01.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">not pictured</span></em><br /><br /><strong>Third Mainland Bridge</strong><br /><br />There's a great article by George Packer in the Nov. 13 issue of the <em>New Yorker</em> about Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and one of the ten largest in the world. It's a fantastic piece of journalism, rich in on-the-ground detail, and it presents a pretty cohesive picture of a city teetering on the edge of chaos. Along the way, it also takes some shots at an attitude that's deeply ingrained in the geek establishment--"liminal spaces," William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, etc.--that the functional anarchy that apparently prevails in much of Lagos (no state presence whatsoever, all civil functions provided by citizens/gangs, all space as public space, the ever-present market) represents a kind of utopia and model for the future. But being "off the grid" isn't so great when you can't get on the grid even if you want, and a place where some of the most basic social services, such as garbage collection, aren't being performed, and where nothing is done without an economic incentive, is a pretty depressing model for the future. Valorizing the slums of Lagos or Rio De Janario just seems like an urbanist varient on envying the rural poor their simply, uncomplicated lives. <br /><br />But aside from that, it evoked two more tangential reactions in me. One was related, sorta, to an exhibit <a href="http://www.wunderkammern27.com">Jesse</a> did a few years back about spam. Packer mentions briefly in the article the rash of e-mails from Nigeria trying to scam Westerners by dangling a supposed lost fortune in return for some bank account info and, eventually, transfers of cash to "finance" the effort to recover the illusory millions. He does this as a way of illustrating the culture of Lagos, one that finds nothing wrong with scams as long as it enriches the scammer, and that trades in deception as a daily matter of course. But Packer also did a good job in the article of presenting everyone he dealt with as a full human being, not just another hustler. And so when he brings up the e-mail scams, it made me reconsider my whole notion of who was at the other end of those e-mails. I've had my e-mail account for over 10 years now, and so it's probably on every spam list on earth. When I get the Nigerian scam e-mails, they're mixed in with all the bot spam I get, and like the bot spam, they're rife with mispellings and odd grammatical constructions and all taken together, they just sound like more nonsense looking for a click. But they're not--they're actually looking for a fairly sustained interpersonal interaction. And while there may be some spamming involved, it's presumably much less broad than the e-mails trying to sell me pills or porn. Those don't care about me, and indeed I have an only vague idea why someone would send that out. <br /><br />But the scam e-mails are different. Packer's article presents the people trying to hustle him--one actually offers him a varient on the e-mail scam, in person--as people with clear motivations for doing what they do. And so now I have a picture of the person sending me that e-mail--they probably paid someone for my e-mail address, and if they suceed in the scam, they will owe multiple people their cuts of that money, from their patron to the person who let them use the computer to the cops to their local gang. It was a strange feeling, an absolute shift in perception, like a sudden translation. The gibberish made more sense now.<br /><br />The other thing it made me think about was, of course, Matt Friedberger. (I know--what are the chances, right?) While some of the things in Lagos have very evocative names clearly rooted in the past, others have names like "Third Mainland Bridge," being, I guess, the third bridge going between Lagos Island and the mainland. Mr. Friedberger named one of his solo albums <em>Seventh Loop Highway</em>, and while it had no particular resonance for me at the time, it's now come a bit more into focus. I never really got into that album, but the lyrics were fantastic, and reading this, I can see why he's attracted to those sorts of names. There's something attractive about their obdurate banality, their insistence on the name exactly matching the description, in contrast to our modern tendency to hide behind names chosen more for their aesthetic qualities, like "Shady Acres Estates" or "Viagra." At the same time, though, such prosaic language doesn't seem to fully capture the essence of what is being named, given that it is, after all, a Motherfucking Bridge, a massive triumph of human ingenity whose sheer scope can stop you short. And so this duality serves a useful artistic function: it evokes something specific yet unfamiliar with very few words, while hinting at a whole superstructure beyond the mere facts. It's something you have to focus on to really let it hit you, though, and the fact that it's mixed with music that doesn't encourage that is a nice summation of the strategy that album seems to take.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1163691542857738752006-11-16T10:30:00.000-05:002006-11-16T10:39:02.913-05:00My <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/GirlTalk/2006-11-15">review</a> of Girl Talk's <em>Night Ripper</em> <a href="http://flagpole.com/Music/RecRev/2006-11-15">went up at <em>Flagpole</em> yesterday</a>; it reflects an opinion of the album more positive than my initial impression, but less positive than my current assessment, given that I am actually listening to the damn thing right now before my officemates arrive. I do still think it's getting a wee bit more credit than it should (I didn't read all the reviews, but did anyone bring up "Intro Inspection"?), but it's also a really fantastic little thing. Some mornings I can put it on and enjoy the flow, and other times I can pay close attention and notice just how good he is at bringing in elements and throwing them around to create movement without making it seem schitzophrenic. The part of "Smash Your Head" before the Biggie verse comes in is pretty great, too, with the production changing under the vocals every four bars, and it's shit like this that opens up more possibilities for non-mashup music. That's one of the great things about mashups: it lets people play with arrangement and production without having to deal with the additional work of making original elements, and given that freedom, new ideas can emerge.<br /><br />Should be a few posts up today, so watch this space.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1163014519324089002006-11-08T14:27:00.000-05:002006-11-09T19:31:50.146-05:00<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/borat_l200606301554.jpg" /><br /><br /><strong>An Inside Job</strong><br /><br /><em>(NOTE: this will be a post about, in part, the movie </em>Borat<em>, and will discuss scenes you may not want spoiled if you have not seen the movie yet. So read no further until you've seen the movie, unless you don't care about that sort of thing, in which case do. But seriously, see the movie first.)</em><br /><br />It should probably go without saying that commentators and critics have entirely missed the point of <em>Borat</em>. They saw the slapstick and the nudity and the poopy and called it gross-out humor; saw the Englishman making fun of rural Americans and called it cheap laughs; saw the Anti-Semitism and the ignorant (and presumably Muslim) foreigner and called it offensive.[1] And above all, they called it merely a comedy, funny, but not, you know, <em>meaningful</em>.<br /><br />Putting <em>Borat</em> in terms of what it did <em>not</em> do is probably the best way to show just how impressive an achievement it is. Most of the things it addresses--racists, gun nuts, evangelical Christians, feminists--are such easy targets for outsiders that attacking them has become something of a cliche. They are easy targets in large part, of course, because they are so cheesy. These people have no <em>taste</em>. They have ridiculous outfits and say ridiculous things and are unafaid to look ridiculous in public. And so all you need to do is show up, stand outside their gatherings, and point a camera at them acting ridiculous and the audience will know how they are supposed to react. Your very gaze becomes the joke.<br /><br />But Borat does not stand outside, which becomes clear when he attends a evangelical church service near the end of the film. There are some establishing shots of white people twirling around, which is always funny, but then the guy who's taken a dirty and dispirited Borat in brings him up front to accept Jesus, and when the preacher hits Borat in the head to heal him, Borat gets this look in his eyes like he doesn't know what to do. And he doesn't: Borat, like Cohen presumably, did not grow up with this culture, and does not know what is expected of him at this moment. But then he goes with it, and conjures a weirdly sexual ecstasy, all bucking hips and slithering tongue. He does not do this to make fun of them, or to disprove the presence of Jesus, as would be most people's instinct, but because he genuinely wants to be accepted by these people, to understand and be a part of this American tradition.<br /><br />In other words, Borat gets inside. He does not stand on the perimeter and mock with his gaze, keeping everyone out of the joke. And since no one would willingly join him, he instead joins them; he walks into the joke and becomes part of it. This is precisely why <em>Borat</em> works so well. It does not attempt to <em>find</em> America, or to <em>indict</em> America, as you might expect a movie of this type to do. But neither does it celebrate America. Instead, its clear goal is to become bigger than America, and by doing so, contain it. It takes a foreigner's outsize image of what America is--this big, gaudy, self-confident place, a place without shame, a nation of perpetual grins--and attempts to merge that vision with the reality, to become one with it not by slipping in unnoticed, but by exaggerating it and internalizing it, making it part of your character, so you can encircle it completely with a hug. At the end of the movie, Borat finds Pamela Anderson--as perfect a symbol of America in all its mixed-blessing glory as we have at the present time--and attempts to <em>put her in a sack</em>, which is the movie in a nutshell. There's no attempt to fly under the radar here; instead of hiding from America, Borat tries to become America. He doesn't want to be an outsider, and so he continually thrusts himself inside.<br /><br />This is why it's such a perfect political movie. Instead of creating fictional scenarios in which he can insert himself and create a comic meaning--which would of course be too easy, and make the meaning seem unreal itself--Borat is thrust into these real situations where he has to either work with their rules or ignore them completely. The process of finding out those rules is, of course, what produces the comedy. Borat--and please note here that I am explicitly talking about Borat the character, not any motivations that Cohen the creator might have had--genuinely thinks he is being as respectful as he should be with the feminists[2], and when he's at the rodeo, his escalating rhetoric about Bush and Iraq isn't a satirical attempt to provoke, but actually a rather careful probing of exactly what it is and isn't polite to say in praise of the President, whose power and strength Borat really respects. All in all, it's not so much the wrong way to go about it, it's just that Borat's image of America is so off-kilter that he fails to become part of it. Still, he's getting inside the joke and rooting around, trying to find a place where he fits, and it's that willingness to engage with his subjects rather than yell at them from outside that gives the film its power.<br /><br />And that's why <em>Borat</em> is the <em>Farenheit 9/11</em> of the 2006 elections. I couldn't say for sure that there was an intention on the behalf of <em>Borat</em>'s filmmakers to influence the elections, as Moore made clear he wanted to do with the 2004 Presidential election, but <em>Borat</em> did come out the weekend before the 2006 midterms, and it was the #1 film at the box office that weekend. If there was a cultural influence for voters yesterday, <em>Borat</em> is the most likely candidate.<br /><br />What's more, the Dems seem to have taken a particularly <em>Borat</em>-esque tack in their election strategy this year. One of their biggest problems so far this decade is that the left has been portrayed--and, in fact, has kinda acted like--the outsiders at an event they themselves are vaguely disgusted by, throwing criticisms at it, but refusing to engage with the American political scene on its own terms, stubbornly waiting for the gaudy participants to admit they were wrong and come back to the ones who see them for what they really are, i.e. stupid and violent and tacky. (And when they gingerly ventured into the fray, they couldn't hide their repulsion and came off looking very awkward, i.e. John Kerry hunting.) But now the Dems seem to have come down from their lofty position and are willing to work with the electorate on its own terms, to come inside America and keep a straight face. So they are running more conservative candidates in more conservative districts, even ones who aren't pro-choice (or say they aren't pro-choice), and so actually have a chance of getting elected. I mean, for god's sake, they actually ran a guy who looks like this:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pathguy.com/john_tester_montana.jpg" /><br /><br />Of course, Cohen's film and Moore's film differ in one crucial regard: where <em>Farenheit 9/11</em> failed, <em>Borat</em> succeeded. In 2004, the GOP won, but in 2006, the Dems seem to have finally regained power. Sure, there were outside factors, mainly the GOP's cornucopia of scandals and the war in Iraq, that probably had more effect on the election's outcome, but outside favors are, by definition, ones the Dems can't control, and so there's no point learning the lesson of "hope the opposition diddles more boys." The lessons of <em>Borat</em>, however, may be of some use.<br /><br />Comedies often don't get pegged as political unless they're not actually very funny, because only didactic things, ones that make their point abundantly clear, are considered political. But, again, Moore's film, one that was supposed to work by revealing truths and giving people knowledge they didn't have, with which they would surely have no choice but to vote Democrat--that film failed. This suggests that maybe the old saw that the truth will set you free neglects certain realities on the ground, like the one where people have the information already but simply don't accept it, or the one where the things the truth should make them do goes against their rules, or has been put that way, anyway. <br /><br />Outwardly political art, like Moore's movie, are essentially issue ads, useful at times but not really sufficient. But political art like <em>Borat</em>, which demonstrated effective it can be to get inside the joke, works as a paradigm shift. It changes the narrative, maybe not explicitly, but it can certainly nudge things in that direction. And the truth is meaningless in the wrong narrative. If you want to change something, you can't hate it, or be disgusted by it. You have to be willing to dress up, keep a straight face no matter what, and manipulate the rules at hand until you can, with every good intention and measure of logic, show up to a dinner party with a bag full of your own shit. <br /><br /><br />[1] Although in at least one case, it's a funny-because-it's-true situation: people from the area Borat ostensibly hails from do seem to have a baffling and unabashed hatred of gypsies, presumably because they have actual contact with gypsies. The one person I knew who was of gypsy stock (hi Hawk!) was always pretty pissed off about anti-gypsy sentiment, but I think to Americans, making fun of gypsies is like making fun of wooly mammoths or something, funny because it's ridiculous.<br /><br />[2] People have expressed their dislike of this particular scene as a low blow. I am going to see the movie again and will check this, but I am almost certain that while the two more middle-aged feminists were disgusted by his behavior, the older, more grandmotherly feminist actually seemed amused by the whole thing, like she recognized how blinkeredly over-the-top the sexism was and had seen enough of it in her lifetime to find it ridiculous rather than offensive.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1157657485078532082006-09-07T15:26:00.000-04:002006-11-01T17:57:48.103-05:00Three reviews <a href="http://flagpole.com/Weekly/RecRev/2006-09-06">in Flagpole</a>: the Ice Cream Socialists, which is alluded to in the post below; Autolux, which posits an interesting theory; and the Essex Green, which is, um, whimsical.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1156436550232174562006-08-24T11:50:00.000-04:002006-09-15T03:22:27.180-04:00It's hard to think of a better encapsulation of the differences between 90s indie and 00s indie than <a href="http://music.for-robots.com/archives/001590.html">the Go! Team covering "Bull in the Heather."</a>[1] The most obvious thing, of course, is the vocals: instead of one woman cooing at you in a voice that alternates between lifelessly detached and sounding like something is pounding into her nether regions every time she lets out a line (and she is enjoying it, in a detached and beautiful way), you have a bunch of girls (even though it is probably only one) yelling at you, turning the fucking into a cheer, a rousing chorus of pep. The 90s version is intimate, with maybe a confused mariachi band playing in the closet, but very one-on-one, very whispery--and very adult. The 00s version sounds like it's in a gym, with a steaming hurdy-gurdy lurching along under the basketball hoop while a troupe of teens pom-pom it up while you sit in the bleachers, so oddly enough, it ends up being more detached than the Sonic Youth version, though in a different way. Now you are not being whispered to, you are part of a crowd, all feeling the same thing. It's depersonalized. But so is indie.<br /><br />There are more subtle differences, too. In SY's version, Steve Shelly is trying to play something close to a breakbeat, but you can hear the clatter in the room, even with Butch smoothing things out. But the Go! Team literalize that breakbeat and mechanize it, and it flows smooth as a monorail. The guitar harmonics that serve as the hook (imagine!) that were very present and organic are now sequenced and chopped-up, sounding less like explorations and more like little bombs of intentionality. Also, there are handclaps, which I'm almost certain there weren't before.<br /><br />Partially all this is related to Carl Wilson's point about <a href="http://www.zoilus.com/documents//2006/000784.php">indie kid sexuality</a>, and the lack thereof. But I think it's interestingly related to the overall direction this sort of music has taken recently. I wrote a review yesterday of <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=31646000">Ice Cream Socialists</a> (who are alternately great and cringe-inducing) I talked about the differences between golden-age twee (K Records) and silver-age twee (Decembrists, Athsmatic Kitty). Used to be, twee was more or less explicitly 20-somethings self-consciously pretending to be children; now, it's people actually acting like nerdy middle schoolers, and the one good thing that got lost in this equation is the creepy sexuality that Calvin Johnson was so ickily good at.[2] Interestingly--and confusingly--this seems to have been lost overall, as the twee aesthetic is diluted and thus spread throughout indiedom. And I think the reasoning (albeit unconscious reasoning) works a little like this:<br /><br />"We are tired of all this dour music. We want to have happy fun dancy music again! But ingrained in our souls is the idea that dour music is mature and happy music is childish. So we will be childish!"<br /><br />Indie has cleaned up its act and is now wholly suitable for children, and while I do like this, I also like fucking; it's notable that the acts Carl cites as exceptions to the no-fucking rule in his post ("KoTV, the Hidden Cameras, Spank Rock, Xiu Xiu") have almost all gotten a lot of flack for this sexuality, although I guess in fairness Xiu Xiu's sexuality would get some flack regardless of the era, one hopes. But that, too, is indicative: the acts with sexuality take it really far so it's almost cartoonish, which is, again, kind of childish.<br /><br />So is it possible to be fun/dancy/yay, sexual, and, um, good? You wouldn't think it would be too hard, but it seems to be.<br /><br />[1] aka "The song that got me into Sonic Youth," I must admit.<br />[2] Those former nerdy middle schoolers in my reading audience--which I'm sure is a <em>minute</em> portion of you--may recall those years as not being particularly sexual, especially compared to the rumored antics of their peers.<br /><br /><strong>ADDENDUM:</strong> I am reminded (via my referrer log) of a post I wrote <a href="http://claps.blogspot.com/2004/01/i-like-lot-of-things-about-this.html">two years ago</a> in which I discussed how the currently disreputable electroclash boom directly presaged/influenced a lot of the music we see today. It's interesting that electroclash was <em>highly</em> sexual (and also, actually, very unskilled--how twee!), although arguably it was a specifically gay or cartoonish sexuality. There's probably an interesting connection in there somewhere. Current indie as taking electroclash's spirit but totally changing the content (i.e. fucking + amateurism + artificiality)? Hmm.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1156349787352064042006-08-23T12:12:00.000-04:002006-08-23T12:16:27.383-04:00I have <a href="http://flagpole.com/Weekly/RecRev/2006-08-23">two pieces in Flagpole this week</a>: a generous but mainly negative review of the Ratatat album (currently listed as "Beggars") and a definitely negative review of The Knife that I think I meant to come out more persuasive than it actually did. That album is really fucking annoying, though, the two singles aside.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1155849133908000252006-08-17T16:47:00.000-04:002006-12-22T00:00:47.520-05:00A breakdown of why <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4sJMcgeDe0">this clip is so amazingly awesome</a>:<br /><br />1) Kelly's reaction to the guitarist suggesting she show her boobs: horrified but amused, conveying the message "I am not going to do that not because I am a prude but because flashing your tits on stage is like lame X 100. But har har."<br /><br />2) Then later she flashes her sweater vest. Sweater vest! What famous person wears a sweater vest out in public? And then makes a boob joke involving it?<br /><br />3) Then later she takes off the sweater vest, but only in order to acheive a "performance look." She would clearly rather be wearing it, but OK, she thinks, I'm on stage now, better look put together.<br /><br />4) After taking off her sweater vest, she then ducks behind her male companion, the Dude From Yellowcard, and pretends to play with his nipples. This is emo but with a sense of humor. (Remember, emo + girls = tolerable!)<br /><br />5) The suggestion (only half-serious I think) that she is there to "put some edge" on her image. No rational person would consider going to see a band called "Metal Skool" if they wanted to seem edgier, though if anything this is a point in Metal Skool's favor. They would go into rehab, or punch the shit out of Carson Daily, or something. Plus, Kelly Clarkson is like 75% of the way toward being the coolest white person alive, she doesn't really need help at this point. Correspondingly, she nods sarcastically. And then licks her fingers and pretends to play with her nipples. Very thematic!<br /><br />6) It is simply unwise to have Kelly Clarkson singing immediately after anyone else. Normally she just sounds great; in direct comparison to other people, it's like, oh, that's what good singing sounds like. Poor Dude From Yellowcard.<br /><br />7) She clearly doesn't entirely remember the song but <em>sings harmony</em>.<br /><br />8) The headbang! That's a pretty good headbang.<br /><br />9) In light of the previous rock people discussion, I think it's fair to take this not as an indication, as it usually would be, of either metal's relevence to pop, or of Kelly Clarkson being awesome, although it is both of those. Primarily it indicates how rock is now just another tool in pop's bag, illustrated best by the Metal Skool people never breaking face but Kelly laughing her head off. It's all a laugh because it <em>is</em> all a laugh--none of this shit's real anymore. Rock people are already halfway to this conclusion, but part of their particular viewpoint is pretending like they're not, like it's serious and it matters, while also wanting to party. Kelly just thinks it's hilarious, and from an outside perspective, hers is the one to make the most sense. An <em>American Idol</em> winner comes to an ostensible metal concert and doesn't feel out-of-place--indeed, feels so comfortable that she actually gets up on stage and starts singing? This does not seem to be particularly indicative of the genre's vitality, or of the ostensible trueness that its more serious-minded boosters posit. It's in the spirit of Metal Skool itself: not parodic, but certainly tongue-in-cheek.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1155787862038088592006-08-17T00:06:00.000-04:002006-12-23T13:39:53.450-05:00<strong>My Interior Monologue: <em>Snakes on a Plane</em> Trailer Edition</strong><br /><br />"Wait, why are there ninjas?...Oh, right, that's a stupid question."<br /><br />Always a stupid question: "Why are there ninjas?" (Also: "Why is there bacon on this?")Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1155743274866408502006-08-16T11:39:00.000-04:002006-08-19T09:52:56.656-04:00Oh hello there. I have <a href="http://flagpole.com/Weekly/RecRev/2006-08-16">three reviews in Flagpole this week</a>: Casper & the Cookies, CSS, and Mr. Lif. All, or at least the last two, are probably worth your time, and you know how highly I value your time. The Casper album is the one I mentioned some time ago about talking myself into liking it, and it has actually really grown on me. I feel I need to be a little less jumpy in my music-listening habits.<br /><br />In totally unrelated matters:<br /><br />- Has anyone pointed out that the singer from Man Man sounds almost exactly like Rob Zombie? He's just farther back in the mix.<br /><br />- I think Nelly Furtado is going to be this year's Gwen Stefani in the sense that I loved loved loved it at first but slowly grow to absolutely despise it. I'm pretty disgusted with "Maneater" now. And I can't tell you how happy I was to hear the Stefani diss on the Puffy album.<br /><br />- Speaking of, is there something sonicly particular about teenpop albums that makes them sound better on headphones, presumably the chosen medium for the chosen audience? The Puffy album sounded pretty meh on the home stereo, but on headphones this morning it really popped.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1155308968273599852006-08-11T11:06:00.000-04:002006-08-14T08:52:56.856-04:00<strong>A Perhaps Unkind Definition</strong><br /><br />Based on this:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/arts/design/11vass.html">That’s how bohemia worked, as a mesh of interconnections, immediate and remote.</a><br /><br /><em>Outsider Artist:</em> One who has failed to penetrate the social networks of bohemia but, due to mental instablity, presses on regardless.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1155059644698817362006-08-08T13:52:00.000-04:002006-08-08T16:29:17.346-04:00Uh, given that the ratio of comments I have received on recent posts via the blog's commenting sytem to comments I have received about recent posts via other avenues is something like 1:10, I am assuming people are having problems with the commenting system here, specifically the number verification thing. So I have turned that off and turned moderation on, and you should give commenting a try again, if you would like.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1154981731312154362006-08-07T15:42:00.000-04:002006-08-08T14:15:02.490-04:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/pope%20benedict%20prada-729118.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/320/pope%20benedict%20prada-729118.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Last night I saw <em>The Devil Wears Prada</em>, and yes, I am attempting to transition from a death notice about a political philosopher to commenting on a blog about a movie about working at a fashion magazine, based on a thinly-veiled roman-a-chicklit. (Now I understand how hard it is to be a local news anchor!) Anyway, I won't share my general impression with you, since when I shared it with my moviegoing companions the reaction seemed to be the sort of awkward silence that crops up so frequently in my day-to-day life. Instead, I will say that my reaction had a lot in common with Jeffrey and Jack Lewis' "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror," which you can <a href="http://www.fluxblog.org/2006/08/crowded-five-to-apartment.html">find at Fluxblog</a>. (You can, and should, <a href="http://jeffreylewisboard.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=85&">read the lyrics here</a>.) Matthew mentioned that he immediately thought of me upon hearing it, and indeed, those two of you familiar with my complete musical works may notice that the instrumental componant here is fairly similar to that of one of my speaky-speaky solo songs, and one of the verses is remarkably similar to one of the verses of the title track on my band's last CD. I point this out not to be self-aggrandizing or to conjure dark intimations of plagarism (since, among other things, the verse of mine that a verse of "WWOH" resembles is actually something I stole from Alanis Morissette, so even if I wanted to complain I couldn't), but merely to point out that this sort of thing is out there, in the air, etc. etc., although as evidenced by the fact that I'm referring you to other people rather than actually talking about it myself, I think it's something we're all a bit embarassed to be thinking and talking about. ("WWOH" deals with this conflict in a satisfying way--it's a great song--which is not surprising given that Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson are BFF and share a remarkable ability to talk about fears in a self-aware way, to be emotional without being emo.) This relates to <a href="http://stopsmilingonline.com/archive_detail.html?id1=617">something else</a> and its <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/musicreviews/060804/">cousin</a> (yay more links, yay less talking about me!), the main thrust of which is sort of questionable given the author but does seem to represent a viewpoint that is, again, Out There. And it does raise some interesting questions: are bands actually more careerist now, or are the receptacles for bands (publicists, labels, bookers, audiences) just dealing with them in a different way? Is the problem that bands should, like Pavement, pretend to be more untouchable, or that bands and critics and listeners remain too concerned with shame? Has indie's bubble status concealed the fact that, if it were to break wide, the most mediocre acts would in fact triumph, since an indie breakthrough, no matter how much we want indie to be otherwise, is really just chomping into the demographic that likes Dave Matthews and KoRn? And are we really expected to feel shame both for failing and for not failing enough?<br /><br />Anyhoo, there's one point in <em>Devil Wears Prada</em> (remember that?) where Anne Hathaway is in the townhouse of the Anna Wintour character, looks up, and sees faux-Wintour's twin girls leaning over the bannister, looking down at her. In the midst of all that opulence and luxury, it's clearly intended as a sort of Hallmark image, but it struck me as a reference to <em>The Shining</em> or <em>Children of the Corn</em>. It's interesting to think of this movie not as a modern-day descendent of <em>Breakfast at Tiffany's</em> but as an alternate way for Americans to make a Japanese-style horror film: jam-packed with grostesqueries and tension, but with the promised bloodbath failing to come, for reasons that are never really explained. Maybe the ritual sacrafice of an unpublished <em>Harry Potter</em> book put it off; maybe the two scenes where Hathaway sees, in essence, Grendel without his monster-face on somehow deflate the threat. But ideally, they would put out a <em>Final Destination 3</em>-style DVD where, at this juncture, you could press a button and choose instead to have Hathaway climb the stairs and intrude upon the Wintour character feasting on the entrails of a chubby pre-teen girl, surrounded by blood-smeared models with hairlips, and would spend the remainder of the movie scurrying around the darkened, steam-shrouded streets of Manhattan, her every respite interrupted by the heart-rending sound of stilettos on cobblestones, with a final shot of the sun rising on the meatpacking district, animal blood mingling with old women's blood in the gutter and splashing the tires of a towncar heading down the West Side Highway to Wall Street, filled with old men in suits, laughing and laughing.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1154964450899323312006-08-07T11:10:00.000-04:002006-08-07T11:30:30.506-04:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/young.png"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/320/young.png" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060802.young.shtml">R.I.P., Iris Marion Young</a>, far too soon. She was probably the greatest living political philosopher, a position based in part on her critique of the previous holder of that position, John Rawls. The classroom classic is <em>Justice and the Politics of Difference</em> but <em>Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays</em> is probably the more accessible work. She was just ridiculously smart and, unlike a lot of other political philosophers, a fairly readable writer, and was brilliant at integrating feminist ideas into wider questions of justice--questions which tie directly into the global issues that dominate our political discourse today. I'm not writing this very well and not really doing justice to her ideas (the obit above does it far better), but suffice to say that it's really important to have read her if you want to talk about justice, I think. She was one of those people that I always figured I would meet one day and have a nice conversation with. I guess that's kind of a self-centered thing to say, but there it is. Philosophers shouldn't die at 57.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1154532128351125432006-08-02T11:17:00.000-04:002006-08-02T11:22:08.366-04:00I will have a fuller Rock Star update in a bit, but for now, go on ahead and <a href="http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=431a3f5a-51ae-47d3-a3bb-fc4b50b96294&f=rockst&fg=copy">watch Toby singing "Pennyroyal Tea."</a> You know, I always thought it was one of those songs you couldn't ruin, but I was wrong. God but I was wrong. The reasons will be clear, but in sum, a) he does not do the loud parts loud (?!?!?), b) he sings it like Nickelback, and c) he sings "give me Leonard Cohen afterglow / so I can die eventually." I pictured Courtney Love charging into the studio afterwards and kicking him repeatedly in the shins.<br /><br />And I'm not even going to subject you to the dude who sang "Losing My Religion" like it was an epic Coldplay ballad and Michael Stipe was straight as the day is long. Just deal with "Pennyroyal Tea" for now.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1154211834515086662006-07-29T18:15:00.000-04:002006-07-29T18:23:54.553-04:00<strong>Realizations I Have Had About Two Seemingly Unrelated Songs That Will Forever Color My Appreciation of Them</strong><br /><br />The voice in which PJ Harvey sings "lick my legs, I'm on fire" in "Rid of Me" is roughly the same voice as is used for the carrots in "<a href="http://www.culturebully.com/archives/695">Party in my Tummy</a>." Which is sort of appropriate and sort of disturbing and sort of enlightening.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1154103197270958952006-07-28T12:00:00.000-04:002006-07-28T12:15:24.426-04:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/paramore003.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/320/paramore003.jpg" align="left" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I owe you all another post about <em>Rock Star</em>, but for now please let me point you toward <a href="http://www.paramore.net/">Paramore</a>. (Who, it probably should be said, I have a "professional relationship" with, but all this really means is that I get to go to their show for free, which means more content for y'all, and quite frankly I would never have heard of them otherwise.) They are basically a teenpop group--the lead singer is a 17-year-old girl--masquarading as an emo band, and they are awesome. Please watch <a href="http://streamos.atlrec.com/qtime/atlantic/paramore/video/pressure-300.mov">the video for "Pressure,"</a> which involves eating disorders (in a way that critiques them, I mean, not in a Lohan-circa-2004 way) and then at the end the sprinklers go off and everything gets covered in water <em>including the drummer's cymbals</em> and it's even more like a pop-metal song than it was before. And the drummer is <a href="http://www.paramore.net/tool/images/Pressure_Video_Shoot/pictures/Pressure_Video_Shoot_-_9--25--05_074.jpg">chubby</a>! I love them.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1153947907277870502006-07-26T17:02:00.000-04:002006-07-26T17:05:07.303-04:00So let's say I'm...back? I'm not promising anything. But we can hope.<br /><br />Hey, it's still technically July, right?Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1150815596409857612006-06-20T10:58:00.000-04:002006-06-20T10:59:56.426-04:00Still no actual content (still June!) but the profile I wrote of Parts & Labor is now up <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0625,barthel,73581,22.html">at the <em>Voice</em></a>. I love that album, and you should too. Miss Clap even likes it, and Miss Clap does not like these sorts of things. It's loud! Yay loud!Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1150171483867627912006-06-12T23:55:00.000-04:002006-06-13T00:17:00.136-04:00Hi all. I am about to leave for a nice little trip and some things have been changing in my life lately and so I think I am going to take a little hiatus from this blog, which is crazy, I know, both because I actually have complete entries written up on notebook paper (remember notebook paper?) and ready to go, to say nothing of the multi-part serieses I have half-finished, but I think I'm going to take June off and then see where it goes from there. I may start up sooner, but in all likelihood you can just check back on July 1 and I'll start right back in, either enlivened by the changes to actually like and engage with other people's music again, or distracted by the feckless whims of my brain to pursue writing in other areas and finally realize my ambition of turning this into an MP3 blog of nothing but field recordings from my daily life and audio clips of me being snarky about fashion and vaguely lascivious toward female starlets, but as if I were Jimmy Carter. So anyway.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1149177850810764162006-06-01T11:54:00.000-04:002006-11-09T09:14:44.040-05:00Just as a public service, I should mention that the Anton Corbijn <a href="http://www.palmpictures.com/videos/thedirectorslabelvol6theworkofdirectorantoncorbijn.html">video collection </a>is not very good. It was the first one I netflixed because it seemed to have the most videos, but all of them are basically the same; if you edited them all together, there'd be enough interesting images/scenes/shots for maybe like 3 complete songs. Maybe 2. Dude is a good photographer, but this is a big part of the problem, as the videos seem to be just a photograph that moves, and unless there's a lot going on in that photograph, including some sort of narrative arc, that is not interesting, and aside from the Nirvana video (which, probably notably, was based on Kurt's drawings, which he has a whole bundle of), they indeed are not. <br /><br />Of course, I also hate U2 and am not so crazy about Depeche Mode, so maybe I was biased. Bet that Ian Curtis biopic is gonna turn out super-great, though. I hope it will be in black and white with a lot of dirtiness and static shots.Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5240868.post-1149112356100252022006-05-31T17:43:00.000-04:002006-08-11T12:07:46.626-04:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/1600/1971-mikado-kb3.1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/8126/166/320/1971-mikado-kb3.1.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>The Lapsed Nerd's Guide to Final Fantasy's <em>He Poos Clouds</em></strong>[1]<br /><br />Mr. Owen Pallett, Final Fantasy himself, says that the <a href="http://www.tomlab.de/front/index.php?action=release_detail&release_id=152&release_strike=74&artist_id=35&PHPSESSID=b88747baa312cabc5451869b5544cfd9">three goals</a> of this album are as follows:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>1. A set of songs that attempt to modernize each of the eight D&D schools of magic<br />2. Every song will be written for string quartet and voice<br />3. Nobody who listens to it will ever again entertain thoughts of suicide.</blockquote>Ah, but what are the eight D&D schools of magic, and how do they relate to the (ten, unfortunately) songs on the album? Well, armed with <a href="http://shzine.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=fantasy&action=display&thread=1141616971">the lyrics</a> and a copy of the D&D <em>Player's Handbook</em> (third edition[2]), I set off to find out. As it turns out, there's a pretty clear one-to-one correlation between the songs and the schools.<br /><br /><strong>1. "The Arctic Circle" = Abjuration</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Abjuration are protective spells. They creat physical or magic barriers, negate magical or physical abilities, harm trespassers, or even banish the subject of the spell to another plane of existence."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "Shieldth up! Shieldth up! Bar the door, and keep your duketh up!...<br />But the quarry don't share his taste for Anne McCaffrey<br />And he dresses alright but the conversation is wrong, all wrong<br />Nobody nobody nobody will ever know his longing<br />He has a heart that will never melt...<br />Now you can endure the fear now you can endure the hell<br />Now you can endure the lies now you can endure the fear.<br /><br /><strong>2. "He Poos Clouds" = Enchantment</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says:</em> "Enchantment spells affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior...All enchantments are mind-affecting spells...A compulsion spell forces the subject to act in some manner or changes the way her mind works."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings:</em> "And move him with your thumb, I move him with my thumb<br />He needs, he needs my guidance, he needs, he needs my time<br />Though I am not the only one<br />He swam!<br />To the edge of the wall of the world!<br />Followed my voice, and he cried<br />Master! The answer is maybe... Maybe not... Maybe not...<br />Maybe not! I have goals!<br />Gotta fulfill the seven prophecies!<br />Gotta be a friend to grandmother!<br />Gotta rescue Michael from the White Witch!<br />Gotta find and kill my shadow self<br />Gotta dig up every secret seashell<br />You may have been made for love...But I'm just made."<br /><br /><strong>3. "This Lamb Sells Condos" = Conjuration</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Conjurations bring manifestations of objects, creatures, or some form of energy to you; actually transport creatures from another plane of existence to your plane; heal; transport creatures or objects over great distances; or create objects or effects on the spot."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "Have you seen our visitor? Look! Over the treetops!<br />Newly conjured erections are making him a killing<br />And Richmond St. is illing, so the graduates are willing<br />To buy in to the pillage, now there is no hope for the village...<br />When he was a young man, he conjured up a firemare<br />And burnt off both his eyebrows and half a head of hair<br />And then as an apprentice, he took a Drowish mistress<br />Who bestowed upon his youthfulness a sense of Champagne Chic<br />Oh seduction, his seduction to the world of construction<br />Now his mind will start to wander when he's not at a computer<br />Now his massive genitals refuse to co-operate<br />And no amount of therapy can hope to save his marriage"<br /><br /><strong>4. "If I Were a Carp" = Necromancy</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Necromancy songs manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings:</em> "Tragedy, tragedy! Death has you fooled!<br />No throne of bone, no terranean pool!<br />No scythe, no cowl, no skeleton<br />His greatest trophy is the myth<br />Every sailor, salmon, every carp will follow rivers to the source<br />Only the dead complete its course, and furthermore...<br />Do you really want to know of the afterworld?"<br /><br /><strong>5. " --->" = Evocation</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Evocation spells manipulate energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, they create something out of nothing. Many of these spells produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "A taut wire, her father's evil empire<br />Jenna dreams of being physically able<br />To behead herself at the dining room table"<br /><br /><em>(this is the entire song; I think he may be giving Jenna a little too much credit, but then again the image of a failed evocator rings true.)<br /></em><br /><strong>6. "I'm Afraid of Japan" = Necromancy</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Necromancy songs manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "For some the spell was shafted, but I am in your sway<br />Yes, I am still enchanted by the ways of yesterday...<br />If I do it with an ice pick, will I come back as a jock?<br />If I fast until starvation will I be born again a Christian?<br />I read that death by burning means returning as a girl<br />But only by seppuku can I retain my virtue<br />But all my efforts have only made<br />An army of greedy gays..."<br /><br /><em>(incidentally, these are probably my favorite lyrics on the album, and the D&D parallels here are actually revealing: he's afraid of Japan because he views their honor & ancestors system as a kind of creepy-ass necromancy, necromancers in the D&D system often being after sort of half-human ghouls.)<br /></em><br /><strong>7. "Song Song Song" = Illusion</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Illusion spells deceive the senses or minds of others. They cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "Out of dust, out of empty space<br />From the bedroom to the marketplace...<br />Concern concern concern yourself with the invisible!<br />Concern concern concern yourself with the incredible!<br />Don't turn to motherhood so fast, you have been blinded<br />There's a word for all you keep inside<br />And though you try to hide it, we will write it!"<br /><br /><strong>8. "Many Lives -> 49 MP" = Divination<br /></strong><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Divination spells allow you to learn secrets long forgotten, to predict the future, to find hidden things, and to foil deceptive spells."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "Hey, Timothy, I wish for clairvoyance<br />I wanna see my wife and kids<br />And how I would live, and how I would die...<br />I picture a man who lives in the past<br />He keeps a book of photographs<br />Of his younger self, clairvoyant self"<br /><br /><strong>9. "Do You Love?" = Transmutation</strong><br /><br /><em>Player's Handbook says</em>: "Transmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition."<br /><br /><em>Final Fantasy sings</em>: "This hand, this hand is a cunning little bugger<br />With a habit of turning every A into a B...<br />There's a twitch twitch twitch and a rash, and an itch<br />For a job, for a magic job, and a magic diet and exercise plan...<br />Take a look at this brochure:<br />Inject, inject, strip away, peel away<br />The scars of self abuse with a couple of hours in a private clinic<br />What have I left in life?<br />The Knife! the Knife! this knife! this knife!<br />Every inch, every inch of me will come to know its magic!"<br /><br /><strong>10. "The Pooka Sings" = kind of a grand summing-up</strong><br /><br />And so, we might as well take an opportunity here to sum things up, this blog being, if nothing else, annoyingly schematic. While at first I was fascinated with the music on the album, over time I've come to be less impressed with it. The turning point was probably when I saw the new version of <em>Sweeney Todd</em>, which I meant to do an entry on in earnest because it's so interesting. But the point is, where before I had seen it in terms of composition-major influences, I now saw it as a take on artistic musical theater[3], with the music's tendency toward the unmemorable being wholly justified in its service of the lyrics, which I then proceeded to enjoy without reservation. They really are the best thing on the album, highlighted by the fact that they actually fulfill their mission: not only do individual songs productively tease out the metaphorical implications of the individual schools, but over the course of the album a lot of parallels are drawn between the fictional settings of not only D&D itself but nerd culture as a whole, and the reality in which those geeks live, a juxtoposition that can be roughly summed up as "going to a sci-fi convention." That Pallett is as interested in nerd culture as he is in D&D itself is probably most blatant in "I'm Afraid of Japan," since, after all, Japan technically has not a damn thing to do with D&D, but it has a lot to do with modern nerd culture.[4] But the exploration is everywhere, from the semi-ironic casting of anti-gentrification efforts as an epic struggle in "This Lamb Sells Condos" to the melding of dates at the shooting range and Anne McCaffery[5] in "The Arctic Circle" to the application of magical language to dieting in "Do You Love?" <br /><br />But I think the most interesting example is the title song, which begins with a D&D-ish computer game that is compared to human relationships ("But hey, hey, all the boys I have ever loved have been digital/I've been a guest, on a screen, or in a book!/I move 'em with my thumb, I move them with my thumb") to the much more prosaic/banal, sordid/dirty real world of dating and sex ("Escape! Escape! This time, for real!/We fool around in the service lane/He's the only friend I have who doesn't do cocaine") and then back into the mythically distant ("He swam! To the edge of the wall of the world!/Followed my voice, and he cried/Master! The answer is maybe... Maybe not...") which is supposedly a differenet kind of cleansing distancing than games--chronological separation rather than the more present barrier of the screen--but even here it's put in the language of computer games, as anyone who has experienced their character bumping up against "the edge of the wall of the world" can attest. It brings up all sorts of interesting metaphorical parallels--between role-playing in games and in life, between emotional distance from fiction and emotional distance from reality, between myths about the outside world and myths about the self--without explicitly stating any of them, and in the process represents the movement between the private and public spheres with remarkable precision and complexity. Good shit.<br /><br />[1] People complain about the album title, but in retrospect it's a pretty smart move, given that not only does a general search for "Final Fantasy" prove unhelpful, but <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47E17DD4CAD7220C1822F5DE9B361F707DA46F6C011324D49C8B86210860E5EB740A0C6CEB0E577B479A9B32BAE5E0BD9CAE9469CA1&sql=1:FINALFANTASY~C">a search</a> on the <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/">All Music Guide</a> doesn't even turn up the Canadian FF--it turns up some UK techno act. There is, however, no other album named <em>He Poos Clouds</em> in the history of music.<br />[2] Although I had a really good Thursday in general last week, the highlight of my day was undoubtedly when meeting up with <a href="http://textuality.org/">Scott</a> to borrow a copy of the player's handbook: as he works near Broadway and Price, and as we wanted to see which edition had a better description of the schools of magic, we ended up standing outside the Prada store, comparing versions of D&D guides.<br />[3] Much as I think there's a temptation to hear <em>Rehearsing My Choir</em> in terms of the Furnaces' live shows, but it's more productive to view it as a song cycle; I left the theater with the distinct impression that RMC was the best album of the decade, but this is a horrible indie-rock thing to think, I know.<br />[4] Although the reference to <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679752684/qid=1149115719/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-1862003-4771819?s=books&v=glance&n=283155">The Sound of Waves</a></em> has nothing to do with either; it's just straight nerdy, or I guess maybe geeky. God bless us aesthetes.<br />[5] Sort of the Pink Floyd of a certain type of nerd girls, for the unfamiliar. (Pink Floyd is the Pink Floyd of a slightly different type of nerd girls.)Mike B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06554556290192827166noreply@blogger.com5