Indie Record Company Folds

The indie record company Touch and Go Records is going out of business. Whether one follows the kind of music they promote or not, this is worth a check-out as it's symptomatic of much that is going on with indie arts.

Tip of the hat to Carrie over at NPR's monitormix for her very good post.

CB's reaction said it best:

"I read the news about Touch and Go today. I was sitting in a restaurant and I checked my phone and gasped; my friend actually asked what was wrong. Something is wrong. We are careening toward a paucity of experience and a paucity of means with which to evaluate music. I mean, can we really engage with art on a Web site and in a vacuum, without ever bothering to contextualize it or make it coherent with our lives or form a community around the work? If we never move beyond the ephemeral and facile nature of music Web sites -- and let's not lie to ourselves, that's where it ends for a lot of us these days -- then that makes us worse than blind consumers; it makes us dabblers. We have become musical tourists. And tourism is the laziest form of experience, because it is spoonfed and sold to us. Tourism cannot and should not replace the physical energy, the critical thinking and the tiresome but ultimately edifying road of adventure, and thus also of life."

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

Which Cities Do Most Prefer?

It's one of the times I'm concurring with David Brooks. His piece goes well with a lot of the new research that revolves around urban planning.
Brooks writes:

"You may not know it to look at them, but urban planners are human and have dreams. One dream many share is that Americans will give up their love affair with suburban sprawl and will rediscover denser, more environmentally friendly, less auto-dependent ways of living.
...
America will, in short, finally begin to look a little more like Amsterdam."

Read it all here.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

H. Clinton's Technicolor Coat

Secretary of State Clinton arrived in Tokyo today dressed in, what I found, a metaphoric coat of colors and possibilities. This was one of the first things I noticed this morning and I remember thinking, 'that coat begs for attention.'

She gets my tip of the hat for 'Best Textile Text' I read today.

Consider the lining of the coat.

I agree with Rachel Maddow's commentary, too. Technicolor coat, anyone? Keanu's coat meets a Kimono?
Yes, and yes.
And yes, I approve. Inside and out.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

Verdi on High Definition?

Some snobbism is allowed when Verdi's work is at stake. At least, according to many Verdi-informed music lovers. Since I have loved his work since I was able to read, I consider myself worthy of voicing an opinion on the matter.

Incidentally, I am currently reading much about Verdi's impact on Italian/European politics of the 19-century and the more I become involved with the topic, the more I see my admiration for the composer morph into yet another (much deserved!) cognitive appreciation. Experientially, I have always 'gotten' his work. Now it's cognition's turn to catch up.

As a supporter of the arts, I list Verdi as one of the highlights of my upbringing and life. Watching things like Casa Ricordi didn't just give me musical pleasure for the moment, it also taught me concretely about the pragmatic aspect of creative genius. Verdi epitomizes just that. Having overcome an amazing sea of hardships, the composer manages to maintain his stoicism while creating some of the most soul-feeding melodies the West has yet to experience.

Watching a Verdi production live is something that the language cannot adequately contain or explain.
Nabucco, Aida, and Traviata were created to be experienced by sold out audiences and Verdi, like very, very few artists, had the right vision to know that when people would love his work, the would love it in great numbers and with much passion.

I read an interesting bit on the Times today about the use of technology in broadcasting and how it is making an impact on live productions of operas as well. I think Verdi would have been a fan of the notion of allowing many people to experience his works in almost perfect synchronicity.

Something like La Scala times 1000 would have given him pleasure, I think.

The composer produced the kind of music that inspired not only the bona fide music lover but people at large, peasant and nobleman alike.

Would I like to watch Aida on a huge screen in San Francisco when it is being performed live in Milan? Yes.

Would I rather want to watch it at La Scala? Yes.

This scenario strikes me as a rare yes/yes one.

A paragraph says:

"The Teatro Alla Scala in Milan broadcast its gala opening night, a performance of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” live on Dec. 7. At the New York showing, in the Miller Theater at Columbia University the Milanese glitter of tuxedos, gowns and dripping jewels on the screen contrasted with the bulky sweaters, down jackets and eccentric facial hair of an Upper West Side crowd."

The entire article is here.

And might I treat you with Verdi's "Va Pensiero sull' ali dorate" from his opera Nabucco? This particular production comes from 2001 at the Metropolitan Opera House.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

A Note on Sociality

At the airport I noticed an older gentleman who was sitting next to me who looked like he wanted to ask me something.
I was too preoccupied with what I was reading/writing, however. But something told me to go ahead and make eye contact.
I take great pleasure out of those moments in time when I get to quietly do my own thing and controlling the outer noise with my kind of micromanaged noise, my playlists, is something I take active interest in.

However, I decide to make eye contact with the older gentleman. As suspected, he was just in need of exchanging some general remarks about the weather, the immediate culture of the places we both live in, and the like.

I then did the unthinkable.
I turned off all of my gadgets and sat quietly for a few minutes. I thought it kind to get rid of my pronounced ignoring of all that was around me.

Perhaps a lack of apparent detachment is the best gift one give other, passing strangers. A little bit of silent human warmth goes a long way. And it does not need be verbal. A simple gesture of I-won't-be-turning-my-iPod-back-on-so-in-case-you'd-like-to-talk-more-about-nothing-of-significance-and/or-relevance can mean much to some.

And the caring of a perfect stranger might perhaps feel as relevant as that of the familiar/familial.

Maybe not.

Be that as it may, one of the few times it's ok to disconnect is silence-related. Not just purposeless silence but rather the kind that is informed by quiet caring.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

An Eight-Year-Old at Sea

The representation of art is much more powerful when it speaks of a verism that language cannot adequately capture. Catching a fish on the Mediterranean. It was a good day. The fish was big. The painter recreated the event months after.

A much loved piece.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

Marriage Makes One Fat? Study Says: 'Yes, It Does.'

Uri Gneezy and Jason Shafrin's study is entitled: "Why Does Getting Married Make You Fat? Incentives and Appearance Maintenance."

The abstract says:

"Married individuals weight more on average than non-married individuals. We suggest that exiting the dating market decreases one’s incentive to maintain their appearance and thus leads to an increase in body weight. The paper uses a 13 year panel data set and exploits variation in the type of domestic relationship in order to pinpoint how exiting the dating market affects body weight. We find a positive correlation between the strength of the domestic relationships in terms of probability of termination and weight gain."

A couple of paragraphs from the study say:

"In this paper we test the appearance maintenance hypothesis empirically using a 13 year panel data set from the Netherlands. We exploit variation in the type of domestic relationships to see whether individuals in domestic relationships with a higher
probability of termination will gain less weight than those who enter into domestic relationships where the probability the relationship will terminate is lower. We find that individuals who enter into cohabitation relationships gain less weight than those who enter into traditional marriage relationships.

Further, we observe that having a child reduces the probability that a relationship terminates. The marginal impact of having a child decreases the probability a couple separates more for cohabitators and marriages with a prenuptial agreement than for couples in traditional marriages; traditional marriages already had a lower separation probability so the marginal effect of having a child is less than is the case for cohabitators or marriages with prenuptial agreements. As our theory predicts, married individuals with a prenuptial agreement gain more weight after having a child than would be the case when an individual in a traditional marriage has a child. For cohabitators the results are imprecise because fewer cohabitators have children than married couples. Overall, our results show a correlation between the probability a domestic relationship will terminate and subsequent weight gain.:

Read it all via Tyler Cowen blog, MR.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

graph per google images

New Podcast: A Gendering of Big Love

In this podcast I am doing a review of the HBO show Big Love.
To listen to the podcast, click here.
The music featured on this podcast comes from Camille Nelson's new album First Words.

This podcast is also featured on iTunes under Gendering the Media with Brikena Ribaj.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast

Taylor Swift?! Uh-huh!

Today I rocked to country.
Yes. I did.

I rocked to country music.

The reason I say this twice is because, well, for lack of a better phrase, I don't do country. I don't know why. I just can't. I am not attracted to it. I never was. While I'm sure that country music feeds many people, it doesn't manage to feed me in any way. Not even with carbs. It's a preference issue, you see. For example, I love Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, and Mozart but I don't care for Schumann. I love Indie rock but basically everything about Grunge bothers me. And, yes, Nirvana is an exception. Kurt Cobain is bigger than any genre. And I loved him. Very much. I still do. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" continues to be a high-frequency track. It's not grunge, it's classic. So there are exceptions within certain genres, of course.

Now back to my country encounter today. I rocked out to Taylor Swift's "Love Story."
At the end of the tenth lap at the pool, I thought I would take a 60-second break and change up the routine. I remove the items that guarantee my isolation from the surroundings and I suddenly hear this uber-loud song blasting from the loudspeakers.
I gave out a 'huh?' Hmm. The pool is sounding like a Bavarian disco? How about that!

After my 60-second break at the pool, I found myself rocking to the song the loudspeakers were feeding my already-filled-with-water ears. At the end of the mini-break, I found myself singing along with Taylor: "Romeo, save me... My daddy said "stay away from Juliet" Marry me, Juliet... Baby just say 'yes.''

I remember letting out a 'HA!' and then put my cap and goggles back on and got to the second half of the work-out. I couldn't get Swift's words out of my head. I then tried to switch to Verdi. Verdi always bails me out. I tried Nabucco but words like 'Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone, you can be the prince, I can be the princess' kept creeping in. I had another 20 minutes left in my routine, so I was stuck. My iPod and Keane were calling me but I resisted. Instead, I gave in and sang in my head, ''And I said, Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone."

At the end of the workout, I get to my iPod and listen to Keane's Perfect Symmetry. Keane, de-Swift me swiftly, please. It didn't work.
I turn to Verdi. Nichts!

Now, I support the arts. And I most actively support music. For without music I wouldn't be who I am. But I am very, very specific about what I like. And country is not it. We're all entitled to having our favorites and Indie is what I choose. Indie is what I have chosen for years now. And this week has been a very good week for me. I got Franz Ferdinand's new album, Lily Allen's new stuff, and The Annie Lennox Collection. And it's not even Friday yet. So, what's this country business about?

And I know exactly what my annoyance consists of. Taylor Swift's little, puerile track is a distraction. Much like Lifehouse was a few years ago when their music kept me from more relevant artists like the Magnetic Fields or Morrissey. And this is supposed to be Verdi's time. This is Verdi's month. So, Taylor, I'm sure you have plenty of other fans out there. I am not hiring. I never was. My love is already spoken for. And it's good. It's very, very good.

Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman

Economy of speech, peut-être?

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast