Why Kitsch Sells, II

There is a story behind everyone's taste.
That is at the core of Carl Wilson's book Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste.
I first blogged about this a couple of years ago. See that post here.

Carl Wilson was on the Colbert Report this week promoting the same book.

It's a short read. Give it a try. I am almost certain that you also know people who strangely like things like Celine Dion's music or Paulie Shore movies. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Maddow on Leno

Here's Rachel Maddow on Leno. She discusses AIG, Wall Street, and as most everybody else these days, Rush.

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New Podcast Series

HetPer is proud to announce a second podcast series called De Amore: On Love. This series will focus on the concept of courtly love in the Middle Ages and how it is transmitted and received in later times.

These podcasts will be strictly literary in nature and the majority of the direct and indirect literary and historical references will come out of the European Middle Ages. The focus will mostly be on German, French, and Italian texts.

Stay tuned for the upcoming first episode which should become available in a few days.

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Detroit and Music

Just saw this via Twitter. R. Florida is quoted in here. As is Mitch Albom.
A bit says:

'"Bare in Mind..... We All Find Behind, From Time To Time", is a popular quote from dance rockers, LCD Soundsystem and although these lyrics are uttered carefree, they conjure the sense of profound clairvoyance from the perspective a Detroiter.'

Seeing that I am an LCD Soundsystem loyal fan, I rarely find their lyrics carefree. But that is beside the point here. Having lived in Detroit myself for about half a year, I have often wondered about the sorry state of affairs in this city that once had so much promise. And the difficult economy has only made things harsher for this city.
Here's to hoping that the car industry fares better and that Detroit can re-capture the magic that it once was.

The link is here.

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New Music Review: Lily Allen, Franz Ferdinand, and Morrissey

Lily Allen's new album It's Not Me, It's You is what it needs to be, typically Lily.
To resort to a textile analogy, it's kind of like that nice, light t-shirt to wear underneath Autumn-like layers on a day that promises to get warmer. And as the sun comes out, you can remove the layers and enjoy the levity the little t-shirt has to offer.
That is what Lily Allen's new album It's Not Me, It's You is like.
And, coincidentally, my t-shirt today was, de facto, a white Lily Allen which I did use as a layering base. And the shirt analogy was truly coincidental.


Franz Ferdinand's new album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is one project that made me somewhat happy. Now I can finally think about their music when their name pops up and not their cropped pants and novel hairstyles (not that there is anything wrong with that, of course).
I mostly listen to this album when I'm doing cardio as the sound lends itself to a relatively quick pace. Tracks like Can't Stop Feeling, No You Girls, and Turn It On may become high-frequency tracks with some measure of ease. Tracks like Katherine Hit Me feature just enough 80's BritPop references to make one hunger for some Depeche Mode. It made me think of Enjoy the Silence and house music at the same time. This track also evoked some Bravery and, strangely enough, some Ladytron too.
Then tracks like Lucid Dreams and What She Came For are as old-school as the Beatles and the Stones.
I have always wanted Franz Ferdinand to succeed, especially after they gained much popularity for their fashion style as opposed to their musical relevance.
I think this album puts them on the right track.
If Lily Allen's album is a nice, light t-shirt, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand would be a comfortable pullover.

Morrissey's Years of Refusal is superb.
Let me try and explain why.

First, I wasn't always an active Morriessey fan. Morrissey used to be to me what a nice cocktail dress continues to be to me: great for a black tie but closeted the rest of the year.

Someone very special turned me on to Morrissey a while back and I have not looked back since. He's the dress I now wear, so to speak. Morrissey's been outed. And I like him. A whole lot.

Morrissey became truly relevant to me as a musician when the indie film New York Doll came out. Morrissey is featured in the soundtrack as well but what makes him stand out to me is his poetic presence in the telling of the story of Arthur Kane, the late New York Doll. Morrissey, the man, came across as human, relatable, cognizant of the human plight, and supportive of fellow artists who have encountered hard times. There's a kind of generosity of spirit that this artist oozes and that is precisely what makes his music so intimate, I find.

Morrissey's music features the kind of sensitivity, set of dilemmas, and quotidian pain that few artists have the gravitas and ability to capture and portray. It takes guts to truly like Morrissey because his music is gut-rippingly honest yet edifying. Morrissey is for brave souls.

His newest album, Years of Refusal displays the kind of musical savoir faire that only a true professional possesses. A truly rock song like Something is Squeezing My Skull almost makes one optimistic even though in it, Moz says things like:

"Oh, something is squeezing my skull
Something i just cannot describe
There is no love in modern life

Oh, something is squeezing my skull
Something i cant fight
There are no friends in modern life

Diazapam...valium...tarmazpam...lithium

Ect...hrt...how long must i stay on this stuff?"

Morrissey's voice is the stuff of the days when being talented meant carrying a tune without the crutches of computers and voice manipulation. When Moz sings, Moz SINGS. I cannot think of a track that does justice to his voice better than
"When Last I Spoke to Carol I Said"
In it, Morrissey's typically existential tone manages to come out seemingly effortlessly.

Yes, you definitely should listen to Morrissey's new album.

If Lily's album was the t-shirt, Frand Ferdinand's was the pullover, and Morrissey's Years of Refusal is that timeless jacket that goes with everything, because it is cool like that.

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graphs per wiki

New Podcast: On Friendship and Plato

In this twelfth podcast of the Gendering the Media with Brikena Ribaj series, I provide a reading of the concept of friendship by way of a tip of the hat to the philosophy of Plato and Derrida. This short piece simply attempts to address a sociality-oriented question and a more detailed discussion of the topic will be attended to at a later time.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Might I also direct your attention to an analysis of Derrida's book The Politics of Friendship by David Mills?

A bit from the article says:

" . . . and after the telephone call, I will turn my back on you to sleep, as usual, and you will curl up against me, giving me your hand, you will envelop me.

Jacques Derrida, The Post Card

The first version of this essay was written for a conference on Derrida's Politics of Friendship sponsored by SUNY-Stony Brook in New York in November 2002. As fate would have it, that was the last occasion I saw Jacques Derrida before he fell ill, watching him back away down 6th Avenue, slightly bowing as he stretched out his arm to wave in his very personal and personable manner, as if he never wanted to be the first to turn and walk away. I could not have known then what sort of definitive "back" he would have turned towards us by the time my words found their way into print, even though the fact of mortality is readable in everything he wrote, and especially in Politics of Friendship. What I did know, and what enlivens the memory of him in the wake of his death, was the experience of a friendship in practice, upright and supportive from start to finish. This is dedicated to that memory"

That article is here.

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Ode to Silence

One of the reasons I love Portland, OR, well, other than it being home to the best bookstore I have seen in North America, Powell’s, is how quiet it is.

The people have a certain placid quietude about them that I have yet to observe anywhere else. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall seeing anyone speak loudly on their cell phones or to actual people. Soft speech is musical and Portland has long been on my top 5 for a multitude of years thanks to its ‘vibe of silence,’ as I tend to call it.

There is nothing like the sounds of silence. And for someone who likes to listen to a lot of Verdi and a lot of punk that is quite a statement. In the company of almost utter silence is where the true gems of creativity are found. At least, that’s where my gems are to be located. I have the utmost respect for silence because it is very kind to my creative process. And I know better than not to pay homage to those things that shower me with creativity.

There is nothing like noise. Nothing like the aggressive noise that is determined to penetrate the realm of one's creative space. I do think that noise needs to be contained most actively as it can be a truly vexing distraction. Let me note a couple of things here.

Cell phone conversations in public.

Now, I understand the phone needs to be used. It can’t all be like Portland, OR. Some emotions might translate to louder speech, I suppose. However, why is it that one needs to raise the voice so much when on the phone? Especially when one is in public? Granted, I find myself raising my voice when switching to a language I have not used in a few days. For some reason, speakers do that at times, especially when Code Switching. But that is why, I would submit, one needs to divorce one’s self from a crowded space and go in search of more privacy so that the conversation can ensue.

What is the appeal of conducting private conversations while waiting in line for one’s grande soy latte? Now, it can be entertaining to learn that some people out there are distraught over the new plot developments of this TV series on ABC called Lost.

And it might even be educational to some to learn that the Dharma Initiative is featured profusely in the new season. If these references mean nothing to you too, do not worry. They will make sense to you if you are forced to participate in a stranger’s phone conversation who over the course of three little minutes has managed to edify you extensively about their nature. You know that they like to order the grande soy latte, they really love TV, and their colorist is semi decent. You also know that they resort to the kind of flowery detail that would make the most prolific of Baroque writers blush.

Yet, the [forced] gazers/listeners/audience members (whose consent to participate in the ‘conversation’ was not obtained), are perfect strangers to the phone speaker. Being forced into linguistic participation is the worst kind of noise, I find. Manners are a good thing. Respect for the private domain is a very good thing. And just because we occupy public spaces at times, doesn’t mean that we can forget the rules of decency and respect for others’ privacy.

Remember the phone booths? That notion might be too hard for us to masticate at this point in the year 2009 since there aren’t any around.
Modernity doth come with a price, after all.
But they are featured in old films from, uhm, the 80’s. A phone booth is an alternative space that oozes privacy. It says, it’s ok to place your call now. It’s appropriate to verbally relate to the other party and inform them of such private things as why you thought the party you all went to was a royal waste of time or that you, as much you don’t want to, dislike a few people. Or that you think so-and-so’s book is overrated and your in-laws get on your nerves. You may do so because the only audience you have is your chosen party on the other end.

So, today, today I give a tip of the hat to comprehensive silence. Not just a lack of sounds, mind you. I’m, after all, an ardent fan of my kinds of micromanaged, uber-controlled sounds. I’m referring to the kind of silence that’s applicable to each of our unique spaces of thinking, creating, working, living, that very special space where idiosyncratic creativity can be actualized.

And another tip of the hat goes to those who get its importance and follow the good instinct to respect the space of other people.

Good thinking resides in quietude. Let us all strive for the latter and, in the meantime, earphones and, at times, ear plugs are a godsend. As is texting.

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Ely Kim Video: Absurd/Interesting

I find this Ely Kim video absurd yet interestingly context-loyal.

The dancing chap sure cares about context.
Bizarre?
Yes.
Oddly contextual?
Yes.


BOOMBOX from Ely Kim on Vimeo.

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Interesting Chapter on Misogyny and Punk Rock

I just read an interesting chapter entitled "Careers in Misogyny" which comes out of the book The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n Roll.

A bit says:

"' In 1977 rock has become very much a gladiatorial sport,' commented Burnel approvingly. Females were too weak to participate in this men-only activity: 'their bodies decline so quickly ... by the time they are forty they're soft and flabby, whereas you see handsome men at forty.'"

Right.

One of the better chapters I have read about misogyny in the text of 'rock 'n roll' in the late 70's.

I recommend.

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New Books

If you're interested in learning more about the life of Flannery O'Conner, give Brad Gooch's biography of the author a try. The book is entitled FLANNERY and if you find yourselves in literary scholarship, this might just be the kind of read that will not disappoint. Not a whole lot is known about the southern author who died over four decades ago so this is a welcome addition.

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