last night i went with the posse to see fennesz and keith rowe at MIT, a "non-event" that seems to have been 'curated' instead of 'booked,' if you know what i mean. all tomorrow's parties ruined that word. rowe's set was hard for me to get in to with its base of machine hum, snips of stolen radio, weird surging cut outs of sound after sharp crescendos. fennesz slayed me in 01 with Endless Summer, and I was not disappointed with his revisiting of that mood in two segments of his set, just absolutely huge, heartbreaking sheets of distortion sculpted and beat up (har har, intended double).... reminding me of a conversation i had with luke that same day about how frustrating it is that you can listen to one record or all your records, or all the records in the world together in one lifetime, but each decision you make means you're not making the other decisions, and something is lost in the choice. he said 'or, you could just listen to the first sample of one CD forever...i kind of think that's what heaven is like,' which i didn't really understand but then POW fennesz just make it happen for me. and...he's so dreamy, he made my friend josh exclaim that which is the title of this post. also, fennesz looks like boris karloff a little, when the lights are low. (but he doesn't look like nick cave. no one does). it was kind of lovely and kind of ridiculous, this concert.
also kind of lovely: my first piece for the Village Voice is out today.
also kind of ridiculous: air guitar championships
5.25.2004
fine, i guess you don't look like nick cave
so, a few days ago i got into what became a very strange conversation/fight with someone about how ridiculous it was that i would posit that he looked like nick cave. the logic was not that he looked or didn't look like cave, but rather that the statement was bankrupt of meaning, because 1) he didn't know what nick cave looked like and 2) because of that, there was no acknowledged stylistic kinship, and thus I shouldn't be able to infer anything about his state-of-being from his weird, sartorial and bone-structure coincidence.
well, what struck me about this was that five years ago, when i was 20, this would have been a totally acceptable thing to say to someone. people were 'still figuring out' their style, their worldview and what place artists and musicians, writers and whomever else, had in shaping how we spoke, carried ourselves, and yes, dressed. i suppose this is insulting to someone as they mature, because we're supposed to be over it and not taking cues from lame rock stars, even ones as beautiful and well-heeled as nick cave. so, ya, dude, i take it back, you don't look like nick cave. you fully look just was robotically h&m as everyone else our age. does that make you happy?
but really, this is one of those annie hall moments. know the scene where woody allen is in bed with the blonde rolling stone critic, and she's boring the crap out of him with her jabbering wit re: some concert...har har, there's me! only i'd like to think that my mind operates way outside the bounds of 'rock writing,' whatever those bounds are, to include some of the 'normal' things that people talk about (tho god help me, i'll never be so tacky as to talk about wealth management in public). still, as i get older, it does seem like explicitely caring about popular music, as a profession, becomes less and less cool and more ridiculous, especially as a woman. Ann Powers says it best here. All this comes from a Girl Group conversation about music, writing and aging re: the Nick Hornby op-ed in the NY TIMES. My response to said is below. Also here's sasha frere-jones' response...thanx to amy for posting it for the group.
Re: Hornby, link here: XXXX
Whoa - this reads to me like an incredibly conservative 'gee, wasn't
rock better when it was white men singing about love' revisionist
nostalgia piece, sadly sent to the top by the nytimes in their new
quest for celebrity music writers. tirade follows.
most problematic ideas:
-invoking of the sad, middle age man's 'justify my existence' through
rewriting what rock 'should be' to fit his listening, which is silly bc
he's only working in a narrow, media created frame of what rock has
been anyway, like 'vh1 told me i can't like rock!' oh NO, welcome to
not-being-the-target-market! now you have to be creative in your lyric
listening/identification through music like all the non-white,
non-male, non-hetero, non-young, (and maybe in ameri-pop's case,
non-Xtian?) people!
- music is 'too full of itself' because obviously, Jerry Lee Lewis
wasn't full of himself, but instead just trying to have 'fun' without
that damned self-consciousness that plagues modern man. Quote:
"And if bands see the need to use electric drills instead of guitars in
order to give vent to their rage, well, bring it on. But is there any
chance we could have the Righteous Brothers' "Little Latin Lupe Lu" —
or, better still, a modern-day equivalent — for an encore?"
umm. well, you could, but hey buddy, it's different times. one of the
most bizarre things to think about is how people since the 80s have
been fetishizing 60s culture, and think about it -in the 60s, 20 years
ago was the 40s, so fetishizing the 60s now would have been like people
in the 60s fetishizing the 20s - a.k.a. "Honey Pie" by the Beatles, a
piece of nostalgia shlock, charming but throwaway period piece, not an
'authentic' return.
- rock can't be both high and low, commerce has **suddenly** ruined
this duality, known to me as the "mansion on the hill' syndrome
lamented finely in the book of the same name.
-no mention of women, as already mentioned, but of special interest -
my joke for the week has been inserting the term 'heteronormative' into
everything possible...
- slighting Throbbing Gristle, as if a)anyone reading the Times knows
what the hell you're talking about and b) it was a personal crusade
against provocative, sexually ambiguous music that doesn't make you
feel like chasing tail, but instead examines what is chasing, what is
tail.
"I just want it to have ambition and exuberance, a lack of
self-consciousness, a recognition of the redemptive power of noise, an
acknowledgment that emotional intelligence is sometimes best
articulated through a great chord change, rather than a furrowed brow."
"However, there is still a part of me that persists in thinking that
rock music, and indeed all art, has an occasional role to play in the
increasingly tricky art of making us glad we're alive. I'm not sure
that Throbbing Gristle and its descendants will ever pull that off..."
the immediate above, true, but not the only, and hasn't been that way
for a while. arrgh. sorry for the long ass email - this kind of
top-of-the-mountain regurgitation of VH1 rock narrative with fake fru
fru language makes me a little yarfy.
finally, Slate ran this about the Hornby backlash phenomenon...
well, what struck me about this was that five years ago, when i was 20, this would have been a totally acceptable thing to say to someone. people were 'still figuring out' their style, their worldview and what place artists and musicians, writers and whomever else, had in shaping how we spoke, carried ourselves, and yes, dressed. i suppose this is insulting to someone as they mature, because we're supposed to be over it and not taking cues from lame rock stars, even ones as beautiful and well-heeled as nick cave. so, ya, dude, i take it back, you don't look like nick cave. you fully look just was robotically h&m as everyone else our age. does that make you happy?
but really, this is one of those annie hall moments. know the scene where woody allen is in bed with the blonde rolling stone critic, and she's boring the crap out of him with her jabbering wit re: some concert...har har, there's me! only i'd like to think that my mind operates way outside the bounds of 'rock writing,' whatever those bounds are, to include some of the 'normal' things that people talk about (tho god help me, i'll never be so tacky as to talk about wealth management in public). still, as i get older, it does seem like explicitely caring about popular music, as a profession, becomes less and less cool and more ridiculous, especially as a woman. Ann Powers says it best here. All this comes from a Girl Group conversation about music, writing and aging re: the Nick Hornby op-ed in the NY TIMES. My response to said is below. Also here's sasha frere-jones' response...thanx to amy for posting it for the group.
Re: Hornby, link here: XXXX
Whoa - this reads to me like an incredibly conservative 'gee, wasn't
rock better when it was white men singing about love' revisionist
nostalgia piece, sadly sent to the top by the nytimes in their new
quest for celebrity music writers. tirade follows.
most problematic ideas:
-invoking of the sad, middle age man's 'justify my existence' through
rewriting what rock 'should be' to fit his listening, which is silly bc
he's only working in a narrow, media created frame of what rock has
been anyway, like 'vh1 told me i can't like rock!' oh NO, welcome to
not-being-the-target-market! now you have to be creative in your lyric
listening/identification through music like all the non-white,
non-male, non-hetero, non-young, (and maybe in ameri-pop's case,
non-Xtian?) people!
- music is 'too full of itself' because obviously, Jerry Lee Lewis
wasn't full of himself, but instead just trying to have 'fun' without
that damned self-consciousness that plagues modern man. Quote:
"And if bands see the need to use electric drills instead of guitars in
order to give vent to their rage, well, bring it on. But is there any
chance we could have the Righteous Brothers' "Little Latin Lupe Lu" —
or, better still, a modern-day equivalent — for an encore?"
umm. well, you could, but hey buddy, it's different times. one of the
most bizarre things to think about is how people since the 80s have
been fetishizing 60s culture, and think about it -in the 60s, 20 years
ago was the 40s, so fetishizing the 60s now would have been like people
in the 60s fetishizing the 20s - a.k.a. "Honey Pie" by the Beatles, a
piece of nostalgia shlock, charming but throwaway period piece, not an
'authentic' return.
- rock can't be both high and low, commerce has **suddenly** ruined
this duality, known to me as the "mansion on the hill' syndrome
lamented finely in the book of the same name.
-no mention of women, as already mentioned, but of special interest -
my joke for the week has been inserting the term 'heteronormative' into
everything possible...
- slighting Throbbing Gristle, as if a)anyone reading the Times knows
what the hell you're talking about and b) it was a personal crusade
against provocative, sexually ambiguous music that doesn't make you
feel like chasing tail, but instead examines what is chasing, what is
tail.
"I just want it to have ambition and exuberance, a lack of
self-consciousness, a recognition of the redemptive power of noise, an
acknowledgment that emotional intelligence is sometimes best
articulated through a great chord change, rather than a furrowed brow."
"However, there is still a part of me that persists in thinking that
rock music, and indeed all art, has an occasional role to play in the
increasingly tricky art of making us glad we're alive. I'm not sure
that Throbbing Gristle and its descendants will ever pull that off..."
the immediate above, true, but not the only, and hasn't been that way
for a while. arrgh. sorry for the long ass email - this kind of
top-of-the-mountain regurgitation of VH1 rock narrative with fake fru
fru language makes me a little yarfy.
finally, Slate ran this about the Hornby backlash phenomenon...
5.21.2004
smarmy indie rock assholes should never be their own publicists
take yer pick. if you've done your homework you'll know that music critics have said exactly those things so far. or been similarly confused. but only you can decide whether i'm offending you.
anyway, if you like the music, that's the important thing.
dc wrote:
Ya, well, I'm really confused about this email - are you offending me,
my friend, my profession, my school or just being, you know, witty and
offhand?
--- rob mccolley wrote:
> oh, i remember. "music dept." means people who spend 8 hours a day
> in a cubicle room, have swollen upper lips or red spots on their
> jaws, and go to classes where they learn to be a master.
>
> see, i confused it with "music director," a person who receives piles
> of cocaine, twinkies, and playoff tickets in the mail. in this case,
> a guy named matt.
>
> dc wrote:
> Rob,
>
> don't follow yr message, but i'm friends with matt (we writers stick
> together) and he's a writer for pitchfork. i'm a writer elsewhere. i
> got yr CD to my philadelphia address.
>
> best,
> daphne
>
> --- rob mccolley wrote:
> > AAM sent one to THIS guy.
> > WBSRMATT LEMAY BROWN UNIVERSITY
> > what were they thinking?
> >
> > what you're saying is you want one too. is that it? EH?!?
> >
> > dc
> wrote:
> > Hello Rob,
> >
> > I wonder if Brooke from Fanatic gave you my mailing address for yr
> > CD?
> > If so, please take note of my address change - I'll only be here a
> > little while longer, then will be moving to NYC in the fall. I'll
> > send
> > you an email again when I've moved.
> >
> > Best,
> > Daphne Carr
> >
anyway, if you like the music, that's the important thing.
dc
Ya, well, I'm really confused about this email - are you offending me,
my friend, my profession, my school or just being, you know, witty and
offhand?
--- rob mccolley wrote:
> oh, i remember. "music dept." means people who spend 8 hours a day
> in a cubicle room, have swollen upper lips or red spots on their
> jaws, and go to classes where they learn to be a master.
>
> see, i confused it with "music director," a person who receives piles
> of cocaine, twinkies, and playoff tickets in the mail. in this case,
> a guy named matt.
>
> dc wrote:
> Rob,
>
> don't follow yr message, but i'm friends with matt (we writers stick
> together) and he's a writer for pitchfork. i'm a writer elsewhere. i
> got yr CD to my philadelphia address.
>
> best,
> daphne
>
> --- rob mccolley wrote:
> > AAM sent one to THIS guy.
> > WBSRMATT LEMAY BROWN UNIVERSITY
> > what were they thinking?
> >
> > what you're saying is you want one too. is that it? EH?!?
> >
> > dc
> wrote:
> > Hello Rob,
> >
> > I wonder if Brooke from Fanatic gave you my mailing address for yr
> > CD?
> > If so, please take note of my address change - I'll only be here a
> > little while longer, then will be moving to NYC in the fall. I'll
> > send
> > you an email again when I've moved.
> >
> > Best,
> > Daphne Carr
> >
5.20.2004
the eu noise directive, order now on soleilmoon
Gross sent me this link about band and orchestra directors being exposed to high levels of noise. luckily, with decreased funding for all arts and social sciences programs through the magnificent failure of no child left behind, there only noise pollution teachers will experience will be while waiting in the long unemployment lines.
From the above link, the sinister corporate interest comments of Sec. of Education Paige include these Tipper-like anxieties about libidinous, heathen-friendly popular culture:
"We face formidable forces--music, movies, the arts and even our culture itself all teach students to prize greed, celebrity and indifference, and to disregard violence. I have a particular concern about the lack of positive role models. Overall, we are failing to foster good character."
Har har, rap is making our culture more violent. If only everyone would behave, we could focus more on war.
Noise noise, well I was trying to find all those articles about orchestras having to change their dB levels bc of the EU's directives on pollution levels, but all I could find was this funny link to the EU Noise Directive", which has detailed instructions on how loud yr household appliances can be. No wonder the Europeans don't deserve defense contracts - they're so fussy!
From the above link, the sinister corporate interest comments of Sec. of Education Paige include these Tipper-like anxieties about libidinous, heathen-friendly popular culture:
"We face formidable forces--music, movies, the arts and even our culture itself all teach students to prize greed, celebrity and indifference, and to disregard violence. I have a particular concern about the lack of positive role models. Overall, we are failing to foster good character."
Har har, rap is making our culture more violent. If only everyone would behave, we could focus more on war.
Noise noise, well I was trying to find all those articles about orchestras having to change their dB levels bc of the EU's directives on pollution levels, but all I could find was this funny link to the EU Noise Directive", which has detailed instructions on how loud yr household appliances can be. No wonder the Europeans don't deserve defense contracts - they're so fussy!
5.19.2004
multi-mafia connections
okay, today i interviewed matt from bedhead/the new year for stop smiling, and turns out he is getting his doctorate at brown. yesterday i interviewed the head booking agent for the middle east, and he too is getting an advanced degree at brown. i'm officially part of some kind of fucked up, overeducated, overmotivated to privledge quasi-professional yuppie punk continuum. well...at least i didn't go to harvard. uggh, i can't believe i even wrote that as a joke.
all i want to do is listen to willfully miserable music these days. right now it's...ya, it is...the cure best of, and last night it was five leaves left (n.drake), which is now totally indistinguishable to me from Sea Changes, by Beck (a mediocre album which sounded great at the time), the newish mohave 3 (i'll never give up - shoegazers unite), son house and love life.
there are a few not really great photos of LL in Winterberg's book, which is a shame because Katrina Ford is the most amazing performer i've ever witnessed and it doesn't really translate as well as the post-hardcore rock bonanza action of dudes in wb's book. maybe he knows how to photograph people holding instruments better, or dudes in general?
also, deborah frost just joined girl group, and seems totally amazing. here's part of her first post:
"...but maybe one of the nice things about that era was that it
was not necessary to categorize it all... that probably had more to
do with the statistic-lovers who 'd spent most of life before
growing out their crew cuts & inhaling a puff or two debating
batting averages that they (being even less adept at pushing
pencils than coordinating any two given limbs in the service of
any elegant, much less useful, activity) could only dream about...
in other words, the geeks who morphed into a professional
league of their own-- rock critics."
all i want to do is listen to willfully miserable music these days. right now it's...ya, it is...the cure best of, and last night it was five leaves left (n.drake), which is now totally indistinguishable to me from Sea Changes, by Beck (a mediocre album which sounded great at the time), the newish mohave 3 (i'll never give up - shoegazers unite), son house and love life.
there are a few not really great photos of LL in Winterberg's book, which is a shame because Katrina Ford is the most amazing performer i've ever witnessed and it doesn't really translate as well as the post-hardcore rock bonanza action of dudes in wb's book. maybe he knows how to photograph people holding instruments better, or dudes in general?
also, deborah frost just joined girl group, and seems totally amazing. here's part of her first post:
"...but maybe one of the nice things about that era was that it
was not necessary to categorize it all... that probably had more to
do with the statistic-lovers who 'd spent most of life before
growing out their crew cuts & inhaling a puff or two debating
batting averages that they (being even less adept at pushing
pencils than coordinating any two given limbs in the service of
any elegant, much less useful, activity) could only dream about...
in other words, the geeks who morphed into a professional
league of their own-- rock critics."
5.17.2004
heteronormative my ass
am catching up on a discussion on girl group about the painting of on-stage and media personas of women in '70s nyc punk. kind of jv discussion, but intriguing in light of the tracy + plastics conundruum i've been having, etc. add 'feminist theory' to the heap of stuff i have to catch up on this summer. geez!
so i'm somewhat obsessed with this idea of gift culture described by the hacker nerds, and am hoping that the peace love and happiness that i've put into the world through FRC could in some way be returned as mix-CDRs for my upcoming roadtrip across this fine country. i solicite love from readers - send me a most excellent mix and i'll send you postcards along the way...
183 ives street #1
provi, ri 02906
am here til the end of the month.
turned edits for my first ever VV piece, aren't you excited? it's on deathprod, a band that you would like if you really loved that part in 24 party people where tony wilson catches martin hannett out recording the wind on the heath. love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you...
also, the 99 problems video is fantastico, no? ripped of post from Oliver Wang re: Armand White's piece in the NY Press.
so i'm somewhat obsessed with this idea of gift culture described by the hacker nerds, and am hoping that the peace love and happiness that i've put into the world through FRC could in some way be returned as mix-CDRs for my upcoming roadtrip across this fine country. i solicite love from readers - send me a most excellent mix and i'll send you postcards along the way...
183 ives street #1
provi, ri 02906
am here til the end of the month.
turned edits for my first ever VV piece, aren't you excited? it's on deathprod, a band that you would like if you really loved that part in 24 party people where tony wilson catches martin hannett out recording the wind on the heath. love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you...
also, the 99 problems video is fantastico, no? ripped of post from Oliver Wang re: Armand White's piece in the NY Press.
5.11.2004
kmart sucks
so, sears is mad that a bitchy clerk in Mean Girls disses the company, and is now changing their whole fashion agenda. Does this mean Rain Man forced Kmart into bancrupty? what IS the power of pop culture in contemporary retail? more evidence that Josie & the Pussycats' excellent satire of the vertical integration of product/media was no kitsched-up posey parker teen drama puff piece, now was it?
hrmph. too lovely outside today to be inside blogging.
hrmph. too lovely outside today to be inside blogging.
5.10.2004
snapshots
two amazing photographers on my mind today:
Jeff Winterberg, current Coptic Light bassist, punk rock photographer and wonderful human being, has a new book out called rat a tat tat birds, which you should check out not in the least bc i think there might be a very very funny picture of yrs truly somewhere inside.
Also, another great EMP friend, Lisa Gidley, has this site dedicated to her work. I really love the photographs taken in close proximity to the nyc subway stops...a highly specific bounded idea with a sort of limitless number of possible outcomes - totally great.
Jeff Winterberg, current Coptic Light bassist, punk rock photographer and wonderful human being, has a new book out called rat a tat tat birds, which you should check out not in the least bc i think there might be a very very funny picture of yrs truly somewhere inside.
Also, another great EMP friend, Lisa Gidley, has this site dedicated to her work. I really love the photographs taken in close proximity to the nyc subway stops...a highly specific bounded idea with a sort of limitless number of possible outcomes - totally great.
destroy all frog eyes
okay, officially a nerd, blogging a show i saw only this evening at 2:22am. too wound up to sleep...
hanging out with undergrads, as mentioned, can be trying. today it was sort of okay, maybe great, protection against the weirdo cynicism of the stone-faced boston crowd - just total silence at the show as churned on with the dagons whom featured a boy strikingly similar to someone i knew in college, making me feel weird weird...two person garage/dream pop with no sense of dynamics and out of touch punk drumming. frog eyes, great stop start okay ya ya c'ptn beefheart (or bee fart, as my prof. says) ripoff, bass player looks like pete townsend and the keyboard player keeps a book of licks - pretty damn good, still, but as the backing band for destroyer, a little stiff, the conan-frog eyes guy a little excess for destroyer's fey, joey lawrence unicorn poet scraggly beard-'04 kind of high whine - it was just too funny, like a joke you get really late, standing there laughing hysterically in part bc i know someone who thinks this music is touching, when i think it's kind of hoaky, and isn't that great? well, the songwriting is too straightforward and in that incarnation, junk keyboards don't cut like piano, washing away any of the sorrow that lined the edges. maybe i'll like it more next time. maybe i'll like it more next time.
raced home with devendra on the stereo, what a fucking fabulous album. you can tell you're in touch with someone when they sit quitely in your car, singing along instead of talking, and you'd rather be singing too, then talking to the strangers, girls you might never meet again. then Apple O, which i misjudged, thinking it more angular than it really is - the space is nice, but there are only two truly great songs on that album.
hanging out with undergrads, as mentioned, can be trying. today it was sort of okay, maybe great, protection against the weirdo cynicism of the stone-faced boston crowd - just total silence at the show as churned on with the dagons whom featured a boy strikingly similar to someone i knew in college, making me feel weird weird...two person garage/dream pop with no sense of dynamics and out of touch punk drumming. frog eyes, great stop start okay ya ya c'ptn beefheart (or bee fart, as my prof. says) ripoff, bass player looks like pete townsend and the keyboard player keeps a book of licks - pretty damn good, still, but as the backing band for destroyer, a little stiff, the conan-frog eyes guy a little excess for destroyer's fey, joey lawrence unicorn poet scraggly beard-'04 kind of high whine - it was just too funny, like a joke you get really late, standing there laughing hysterically in part bc i know someone who thinks this music is touching, when i think it's kind of hoaky, and isn't that great? well, the songwriting is too straightforward and in that incarnation, junk keyboards don't cut like piano, washing away any of the sorrow that lined the edges. maybe i'll like it more next time. maybe i'll like it more next time.
raced home with devendra on the stereo, what a fucking fabulous album. you can tell you're in touch with someone when they sit quitely in your car, singing along instead of talking, and you'd rather be singing too, then talking to the strangers, girls you might never meet again. then Apple O, which i misjudged, thinking it more angular than it really is - the space is nice, but there are only two truly great songs on that album.
5.09.2004
nico, hot tea, googling yrself
these are things you do when it's unusually cold on a may sunday afternoon. good, because i found this article about EMP by the lovely writer Richardo Baca.
blah blah. So, someone bought me this shirt that says "rock star" in rhinestones. it's pink! i can't figure out if i'm mortified or in love with it, but after seeing "mean girls" last night, i at least know the kind of place where the want for said shirt came from. what a terrible, terrible piece of claptrap, worse than yr average teen drama bc it tries SO hard to be self mocking, yet unravels to a drivelly, full house dad moment very early on and offers still the weird, binary view of high school life that feeds into stereotypes. anyway, the queen of 'the plastics,' the popular girls, has all this fake rock star memorabilia in her bedroom, yet there is little or no actual music in the movie (except a terrible cover of a billy idol song at the end), and apparently, they did not release a soundtrack for the film. Well, hmm, a movie like this could have greatly benefited from an album full of bitchy rock music, no?, and it seems like maybe (ya, you know it was coming) gender ghetto thing that a movie about women in high school wouldn't have a killer soundtrack, where Donnie Darko or any of the Hughes films, etc, always make it very important to identify teenage drama with pop music. (I mean, the opening of Darko, with EatBunnymen's "Killing Moon" holy shit! they had me RIGHT THEN!).
Oh, also this post about my fear of publicists. am i wrong in this sentiment? well, maybe a little, bc there are labels that i tend to work with very often, and have not the most distanced relationships from, but it's because i share their visions....of course, those pubs never thank me...it's only really independent publicists that do this...wonder why?
blah blah. So, someone bought me this shirt that says "rock star" in rhinestones. it's pink! i can't figure out if i'm mortified or in love with it, but after seeing "mean girls" last night, i at least know the kind of place where the want for said shirt came from. what a terrible, terrible piece of claptrap, worse than yr average teen drama bc it tries SO hard to be self mocking, yet unravels to a drivelly, full house dad moment very early on and offers still the weird, binary view of high school life that feeds into stereotypes. anyway, the queen of 'the plastics,' the popular girls, has all this fake rock star memorabilia in her bedroom, yet there is little or no actual music in the movie (except a terrible cover of a billy idol song at the end), and apparently, they did not release a soundtrack for the film. Well, hmm, a movie like this could have greatly benefited from an album full of bitchy rock music, no?, and it seems like maybe (ya, you know it was coming) gender ghetto thing that a movie about women in high school wouldn't have a killer soundtrack, where Donnie Darko or any of the Hughes films, etc, always make it very important to identify teenage drama with pop music. (I mean, the opening of Darko, with EatBunnymen's "Killing Moon" holy shit! they had me RIGHT THEN!).
Oh, also this post about my fear of publicists. am i wrong in this sentiment? well, maybe a little, bc there are labels that i tend to work with very often, and have not the most distanced relationships from, but it's because i share their visions....of course, those pubs never thank me...it's only really independent publicists that do this...wonder why?
5.08.2004
the watusi
so, i've been watching this seven part history of rock, and what i've mostly taken from it is that there need to be more rock and roll dance crazes, because if you want to embrace pop, faddishness and the beat/body, what better way? i think that i'm going to make up a dance for the new !!! album, bc it's so damn weird and good that it deserves a dance craze.
went to see the culimnation of the Brown University Elm Project, pt.1, which my roommate and a few other friends have been working on for some time. The project is to use this old elm tree in its entirety to make objects, furniture, art, etc. Yesterday I went to the final show/bbq and saw a few really beautiful projects. One was a video done with parts of the tree, kind of like jan svankmajer stop animation, where leaves and other objects, including a dress, meet in a bathtub. projected on a sheet held by a log, quite lovely...and in proximity to a huge tent made of limbs, with industrial latex ballons tethered down, a worn striped blanket below -very lovely and inviting, magical? with the film maybe.
pt. two was a 5.1 ss installation on the main green, with many students' projects played through limb/speakers mounted in a large, central tree. the sound wasn't as clear as it could have been, and the spectacle made for difficult listening, but it was also well-executed and had potential to be a really cool, beautiful project. i envisioned the speakers being like those big bulbs in the square in Philly, just so loved by the community that they stay up year round - become something people remember fondly if not first about their sensual experience of a place.
went to see the culimnation of the Brown University Elm Project, pt.1, which my roommate and a few other friends have been working on for some time. The project is to use this old elm tree in its entirety to make objects, furniture, art, etc. Yesterday I went to the final show/bbq and saw a few really beautiful projects. One was a video done with parts of the tree, kind of like jan svankmajer stop animation, where leaves and other objects, including a dress, meet in a bathtub. projected on a sheet held by a log, quite lovely...and in proximity to a huge tent made of limbs, with industrial latex ballons tethered down, a worn striped blanket below -very lovely and inviting, magical? with the film maybe.
pt. two was a 5.1 ss installation on the main green, with many students' projects played through limb/speakers mounted in a large, central tree. the sound wasn't as clear as it could have been, and the spectacle made for difficult listening, but it was also well-executed and had potential to be a really cool, beautiful project. i envisioned the speakers being like those big bulbs in the square in Philly, just so loved by the community that they stay up year round - become something people remember fondly if not first about their sensual experience of a place.
5.07.2004
We love those alleys because they have not been gentrified
in daphne's ever freakout about where to live in nyc, come august, i can now add this. even the alleys cost $10,000 a day.
saw debussy's le mer last night at the ri phil's 'rush hour' concert, which is the most offensively stupid, patronizing piece of junk attempt to draw a new audience that i have ever seen. (was given free tickets) let's give 'em one movement of the grieg piano concerto, two of debussy and, damn it, this fantasia doesn't split so we'll just have to play the whole thing. very frustrating as a lover of classical music who hopes to see if live a good, long life. anyway, i love that the phil has a huge female population, that larry rachleff maintains a decently 20th century rep. and that the biddies wear ratty minks (it's so reconstruction to me) although i fear that the mall and the lux. condos next door do it no service. i wonder? maybe everyone eats at the cheesecake factory beforehand, gets their parking validated at border's and just loves the set up...
LATE BREAKING: van hunt, right? it's pretty good stuff.
saw debussy's le mer last night at the ri phil's 'rush hour' concert, which is the most offensively stupid, patronizing piece of junk attempt to draw a new audience that i have ever seen. (was given free tickets) let's give 'em one movement of the grieg piano concerto, two of debussy and, damn it, this fantasia doesn't split so we'll just have to play the whole thing. very frustrating as a lover of classical music who hopes to see if live a good, long life. anyway, i love that the phil has a huge female population, that larry rachleff maintains a decently 20th century rep. and that the biddies wear ratty minks (it's so reconstruction to me) although i fear that the mall and the lux. condos next door do it no service. i wonder? maybe everyone eats at the cheesecake factory beforehand, gets their parking validated at border's and just loves the set up...
LATE BREAKING: van hunt, right? it's pretty good stuff.
5.05.2004
FRC three = "most intense live show experience"
So, I'm making this the open call for Front Row Center #3. FRC is a zine dedicated to fandom in general, writing about fandom in the specific. It is a free, evolving, printed zine available to anyone who writes me/emails me/contributes/finds one in the world.
The third issue calls for 300-450 words on the most intense live performance you've ever seen. Line drawing also accepted, but photographs at your peril, as they will be printed on a consumer-grade copier. I would like to have this issue printed by May 20, so roll out! Send expressions of interest and/or subs (plus desired pen name and mailing addy) to pinkgerl@yahoo.com
One more thing about issue three. I would like to publish this zine under this copyright, as written by Creative Commons. I would like it if every writer who sends work to be included either picks their own copyright status, or selects the attribution/share alike status that I have as my default for the introduction, etc. Is this silly? No, I think it's really important for everyone to know about alternative copyright ideas and the choices involved with creating, sharing, and using intellectual property. What do you think?
The third issue calls for 300-450 words on the most intense live performance you've ever seen. Line drawing also accepted, but photographs at your peril, as they will be printed on a consumer-grade copier. I would like to have this issue printed by May 20, so roll out! Send expressions of interest and/or subs (plus desired pen name and mailing addy) to pinkgerl@yahoo.com
One more thing about issue three. I would like to publish this zine under this copyright, as written by Creative Commons. I would like it if every writer who sends work to be included either picks their own copyright status, or selects the attribution/share alike status that I have as my default for the introduction, etc. Is this silly? No, I think it's really important for everyone to know about alternative copyright ideas and the choices involved with creating, sharing, and using intellectual property. What do you think?
bigot in the classroom (please talk free?)
Main Entry: big·ot
Pronunciation: 'bi-g&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, hypocrite, bigot
Date: 1661
: a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices
- big·ot·ed /-g&-t&d/ adjective
- big·ot·ed·ly adverb
oh man, i just walked out of the class i TA because i thought i was either going to cry or scream. The good ole boy was talking about George Crumb, and one student (after an entire semester of listening to classical music) said, "I can respect this intellectually, but I just don't understand why anyone would listen to something that is so unconventional and unsatisfying." Okay, let's talk about this, right? Well, prof's explaination is that you can't listen to modern classical music expecting to be entertained, that it's not meant to be heard on the radio, or used as backround for your dinner (okay, I guess) and then went on about how Mozart's Lacrimosa is being used to sell American Standards, and how this is a sign of the sure downfall of American society, that really shouldn't we just flush away all the idiots who don't understand and just use the opulence of the Requiem to sell toilets?
Har har. Pretty funny that they'd stick a pop culture loving, embrace-the-mass-media kinda girl into a work position where she rubs elbows daily with the most conservative, unconstructive minds in the world, aka, the old school musicologists with tenure and nada clue past the last day of classes for their PhDs on Mahler or whatever. And I LIKE classical music too, that's the worst part.
Somebody hit me with a good book or essay about the decontextualization of meaning of music in use with mass media (not Adorno). pinkgerl@yahoo.com. I would like to intellectualize my combat of this type of mindset w/o resorting to the usual ethnomuze whines.
Pronunciation: 'bi-g&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, hypocrite, bigot
Date: 1661
: a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices
- big·ot·ed /-g&-t&d/ adjective
- big·ot·ed·ly adverb
oh man, i just walked out of the class i TA because i thought i was either going to cry or scream. The good ole boy was talking about George Crumb, and one student (after an entire semester of listening to classical music) said, "I can respect this intellectually, but I just don't understand why anyone would listen to something that is so unconventional and unsatisfying." Okay, let's talk about this, right? Well, prof's explaination is that you can't listen to modern classical music expecting to be entertained, that it's not meant to be heard on the radio, or used as backround for your dinner (okay, I guess) and then went on about how Mozart's Lacrimosa is being used to sell American Standards, and how this is a sign of the sure downfall of American society, that really shouldn't we just flush away all the idiots who don't understand and just use the opulence of the Requiem to sell toilets?
Har har. Pretty funny that they'd stick a pop culture loving, embrace-the-mass-media kinda girl into a work position where she rubs elbows daily with the most conservative, unconstructive minds in the world, aka, the old school musicologists with tenure and nada clue past the last day of classes for their PhDs on Mahler or whatever. And I LIKE classical music too, that's the worst part.
Somebody hit me with a good book or essay about the decontextualization of meaning of music in use with mass media (not Adorno). pinkgerl@yahoo.com. I would like to intellectualize my combat of this type of mindset w/o resorting to the usual ethnomuze whines.
moore stupid white men
NOT MUSIC RELATED:
from the NYTIMES, michael moore's new movie about the links between Bush and terrorist regimes has been blocked by its distributor's umbrella company, Disney. Here's my fav quote:
Mr. Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.
Really, at this point, shouldn't we be trying to get Jeb out of office just as heartily?
from the NYTIMES, michael moore's new movie about the links between Bush and terrorist regimes has been blocked by its distributor's umbrella company, Disney. Here's my fav quote:
Mr. Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.
Really, at this point, shouldn't we be trying to get Jeb out of office just as heartily?
5.01.2004
don't hate me bc i'm beautiful
saw tracy + the plastics, the quails and wikkid last night, which had its highs and lows. wikkid was shambolic but good, a little too march beaty for me, but generally kind of scissor girls mid-90s chicago which i can love but know is so retro. the quails were fun for five songs, all matching outfits and sounds that reminded me of tilt (skatecore!), but got old when they started lecturing the audience (fucking awesome girrlies proviland) about 'getting active,' like, duh! everyone there lived in a collective house, practically. and, well, my friend luke said that people from california are too literal. then tracy, who i've never seen and was sort of disappointed by. is she nervous or is she lazy? dunno, but i do know that she's really, really hot and that i felt the same weird ' do i just like this bc she's hot' feeling i get when i see catpower - whose music is loads better but whose lame mystique is about the same.
what do you think abt tracy? tell me pinkgerl@yahoo.com
am going to go have dinner with miriam and jeffrey from black forest/black sea. you should like their band if you don't already.
what do you think abt tracy? tell me pinkgerl@yahoo.com
am going to go have dinner with miriam and jeffrey from black forest/black sea. you should like their band if you don't already.
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