Is this part of that Cloverfield 'viral' ad campaign?
I hope, for the sake of David Cox's sanity, that that's the case.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Real Life
Check out this story about superheroes, from the Twin Cities' City Pages. No, I mean it, actual, flesh-and-blood human beings who live on this plane of existence (Earth Prime?) , don outlandish costumes and go out - in public! - and fight crime. Real-life superheroes, or "reals" as "most observers" refer to them (as in "By most observers' reckoning, between 150 and 200 real-life superheroes, or "Reals" as some call themselves, operate in the United States, with another 50 or so donning the cowl internationally.").
Mostly its just a bunch of mini-profiles strung together, but I must admit I've never read a news story devoted solely to this topic (the Twin Cities seem to have a disproportionate amount of these guys, which is kind of weird; note, also, that Minneapolis is home to Galactic Pizza, which sends its own crew of "reals" out to deliver your pizza), so bravo. Do be sure to check out the slide show; I must say that the Black Arrow has a pretty sharp-looking logo.
Mostly its just a bunch of mini-profiles strung together, but I must admit I've never read a news story devoted solely to this topic (the Twin Cities seem to have a disproportionate amount of these guys, which is kind of weird; note, also, that Minneapolis is home to Galactic Pizza, which sends its own crew of "reals" out to deliver your pizza), so bravo. Do be sure to check out the slide show; I must say that the Black Arrow has a pretty sharp-looking logo.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Thomson on There Will Be Blood: There Will Be Blood!
David Thomson's latest piece for the Guardian is so dopey that he winds up apologizing for its sloppy methodology twice in the text itself; first time is right in the middle: "Of course, it is a tricky game, trying to read a nation's mood in its films", and then in the very last paragraph: "It may be fanciful to read national impulse in the tropes of art." But just because a particular approach is unlikely to result in useful, original analysis doesn't mean that Thomson isn't going to try.
I guess calling what he does a 'methodology' is giving him too much credit. Thomson does the old trick of taking three films in current release and finding - inevitably - reverberations of whatever global or national crisis we should be worrying about rather than wasting our time at the movies. What do Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men have in common? Why, they reveal "America's pain inside", of course!
In the entire history of the "diagnose-the-zeitgeist-through-popular-art" column, has anyone ever penned an article that goes like this: "Until very recently, I was convinced that the news about [current event x] meant that America had completely lost its mind, and was doomed to a death spiral of nihilism, violence and alienation. But, you won't believe what happened next! After going to see Charlie Wilson's War, Alvin and the Chipmunks and One Missed Call - three films in release right now - I've come to believe that I was wrong. Because of this element in this film and this element in another, I now see that the US as a whole actually has a pretty healthy attitude toward [current event x], and will no doubt weather this crisis with honor and stoicism."? That is, has anyone's pre-conceived ideas about whatever ever been overturned by their clever little analysis? If you're really the perceptive viewer that you claim you are, shouldn't you be able to find things that surprise you or confuse you or upset your prejudices? Shouldn't you maybe start to worry a bit about your critical acumen if everything you see, hear and read seems to confirm everything you already knew in the first place?
For something that's such a "tricky business," Thomson doesn't waste a second. How, for example, to explain the failure of almost every 2007 film that explicitly with Iraq, terrorism, etc.? Could it have something to do with proximate causes like poor marketing, poor reviews, studios' over-reliance on opening-weekend box office, underwhelming word-of-mouth, the general decline of movie-going and ticket sales? Could we turn to sources of information first - like trade publications - and generalize a hypothesis from there?
Nah, why bother, when we can just rely on Thomson's psychic abilities? So, Dave, why'd all those films go belly-up then?
'As if with Marine training, the audience sniffed these subversive elements, closed ranks and marched past the theatres. They acted as if they did not want to know, or see - and so it became all the more possible in the US that a little surge can save us. Don't underestimate the self-protective attitude of many Americans: they don't know where Iraq is on the map and are clinging to that blindness for dear life.'
Thomson also reveals the reason why No Country, Sweeny and Blood, uh, exist (unlike the failed Iraq films, he doesn't make any economic argument here, probably because the three aforementioned movies haven't been out long enough to make any definite pronouncements about their financial success (or lack thereof). But why is box office performance an important consideration for the Iraq films but not for the other three? If all three turn out to be terrible bombs, would it be a sign that the American public has rejected what Thomson sees as their underlying message?).
'So just because the movie audience has rejected all signs of warfare this year, don't think it isn't preoccupied with dread and bloodletting. The most striking recent films have this violence as their threat...'
So these films are signs of the times because they "have violence as their threat," huh? This is an unprecedented development! Certainly this can only be due to some wholly contemporary situation, right, Dave?
'What it says about the inner life of America is more than alarming. It may be fanciful to read national impulse in the tropes of art. Yet there may be no better way. It seems America is getting ready for a great interior violence. Don't think its civil war was ever settled.'
Yes, three arbitrarily chosen films, all based on previously published works, none of which have been out long enough for us to know if they're going to find any resonance with audiences (although No Country looks like it might be on its way) - obviously they not only have "something to say" about the "inner life of America", but that message is not even ambiguous: Great "interior violence" is on the way! Civil war part II!
Perhaps Thomson could pick my lotto numbers for me.
I guess calling what he does a 'methodology' is giving him too much credit. Thomson does the old trick of taking three films in current release and finding - inevitably - reverberations of whatever global or national crisis we should be worrying about rather than wasting our time at the movies. What do Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men have in common? Why, they reveal "America's pain inside", of course!
In the entire history of the "diagnose-the-zeitgeist-through-popular-art" column, has anyone ever penned an article that goes like this: "Until very recently, I was convinced that the news about [current event x] meant that America had completely lost its mind, and was doomed to a death spiral of nihilism, violence and alienation. But, you won't believe what happened next! After going to see Charlie Wilson's War, Alvin and the Chipmunks and One Missed Call - three films in release right now - I've come to believe that I was wrong. Because of this element in this film and this element in another, I now see that the US as a whole actually has a pretty healthy attitude toward [current event x], and will no doubt weather this crisis with honor and stoicism."? That is, has anyone's pre-conceived ideas about whatever ever been overturned by their clever little analysis? If you're really the perceptive viewer that you claim you are, shouldn't you be able to find things that surprise you or confuse you or upset your prejudices? Shouldn't you maybe start to worry a bit about your critical acumen if everything you see, hear and read seems to confirm everything you already knew in the first place?
For something that's such a "tricky business," Thomson doesn't waste a second. How, for example, to explain the failure of almost every 2007 film that explicitly with Iraq, terrorism, etc.? Could it have something to do with proximate causes like poor marketing, poor reviews, studios' over-reliance on opening-weekend box office, underwhelming word-of-mouth, the general decline of movie-going and ticket sales? Could we turn to sources of information first - like trade publications - and generalize a hypothesis from there?
Nah, why bother, when we can just rely on Thomson's psychic abilities? So, Dave, why'd all those films go belly-up then?
'As if with Marine training, the audience sniffed these subversive elements, closed ranks and marched past the theatres. They acted as if they did not want to know, or see - and so it became all the more possible in the US that a little surge can save us. Don't underestimate the self-protective attitude of many Americans: they don't know where Iraq is on the map and are clinging to that blindness for dear life.'
Thomson also reveals the reason why No Country, Sweeny and Blood, uh, exist (unlike the failed Iraq films, he doesn't make any economic argument here, probably because the three aforementioned movies haven't been out long enough to make any definite pronouncements about their financial success (or lack thereof). But why is box office performance an important consideration for the Iraq films but not for the other three? If all three turn out to be terrible bombs, would it be a sign that the American public has rejected what Thomson sees as their underlying message?).
'So just because the movie audience has rejected all signs of warfare this year, don't think it isn't preoccupied with dread and bloodletting. The most striking recent films have this violence as their threat...'
So these films are signs of the times because they "have violence as their threat," huh? This is an unprecedented development! Certainly this can only be due to some wholly contemporary situation, right, Dave?
'What it says about the inner life of America is more than alarming. It may be fanciful to read national impulse in the tropes of art. Yet there may be no better way. It seems America is getting ready for a great interior violence. Don't think its civil war was ever settled.'
Yes, three arbitrarily chosen films, all based on previously published works, none of which have been out long enough for us to know if they're going to find any resonance with audiences (although No Country looks like it might be on its way) - obviously they not only have "something to say" about the "inner life of America", but that message is not even ambiguous: Great "interior violence" is on the way! Civil war part II!
Perhaps Thomson could pick my lotto numbers for me.
Deez Nutz
First they came for the guys who hang rubber testicles from their trailer hitches, and I said nothing, because I wasn't a guy who hung rubber testicles from my trailer hitch...
'[Virginia] State Del. Lionel Spruill introduced a bill Tuesday to ban displaying replicas of human genitalia on vehicles, calling it a safety issue because it could distract other drivers...'
'He said the idea came from a constituent whose young daughter spotted an example of the trail hitch adornment and asked her father to explain it.
"'I didn't know what to tell her,'" Spruill said the constituent told him before Spruill vowed to stop such displays.'
I haven't missed my old job at a state legislature until now. I would've paid my boss if he'd assigned me to staff that particular committee meeting. Session seems like much more fun with this guy around as well...
[Spruill] said he won't hesitate to bring a set of $24.95 trailer testicles with him for a legislative show-and-tell.
"I'm going to do it," Spruill told a handful of reporters after Tuesday's House session adjourned. "I'm going to bring them out here and show them to you till they tell me to stop."'
'[Virginia] State Del. Lionel Spruill introduced a bill Tuesday to ban displaying replicas of human genitalia on vehicles, calling it a safety issue because it could distract other drivers...'
'He said the idea came from a constituent whose young daughter spotted an example of the trail hitch adornment and asked her father to explain it.
"'I didn't know what to tell her,'" Spruill said the constituent told him before Spruill vowed to stop such displays.'
I haven't missed my old job at a state legislature until now. I would've paid my boss if he'd assigned me to staff that particular committee meeting. Session seems like much more fun with this guy around as well...
[Spruill] said he won't hesitate to bring a set of $24.95 trailer testicles with him for a legislative show-and-tell.
"I'm going to do it," Spruill told a handful of reporters after Tuesday's House session adjourned. "I'm going to bring them out here and show them to you till they tell me to stop."'
Hats Off to Hugo
While you were crying yourself to sleep over the prospect of the cancellation of the Academy Awards, I was settling in for the only end-of-the-year awards that matter: The American Library Association's prizes for children's literature.
Alright, calm down. I know you want to cut to the chase - who won the Newbery?
'The Newbery Medal for "most outstanding contribution to children's literature" went to Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village (Candlewick). Laura Amy Schlitz's work was an unusual choice as well, because it weaves poetic first-person tales into a storyline that reads like a play.'
Sounds interesting, but, due to a very unsatisfying 3rd-grade encounter with Dear Mr. Henshaw, I've never quite trusted the Newbery committee. And anyway, as a fan of art and illustration, I'm more of a Caldecott man.
'Yesterday morning, as the ALA announced the top children's lit prizes here at the Convention Center, the one for top "picture book," the venerable Caldecott Medal, went to . . . a 544-page novel?
'Yes. And to thunderous applause.
'The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic) by Brian Selznick is "amazing," telling "a story in a way that no other that I've seen does," said Jane Marino, president of the Association for Library Service to Children, which runs the annual awards....
'With black-bordered pages filled with black-and-white illustrations, it has been likened to a movie storyboard - or even a flipbook - as it describes an orphan lad's fantastic discoveries while living in the walls of a Paris train station.
'"I read it and I loved it," said Marino. "It's so engaging you can't put it down."'
I can't wait to check it out. Although The Invention of Hugo Cabret reportedly "brought some of the heartiest applause ALA officials said they've ever heard," the choice is not without controversy.
The Caldecott and Newbery selections were "very bold, interesting choices," said Anitra Steele, children's specialist at an Independence, Mo., public library.
'Hugo Cabret is so much fatter than other picture books, "it's going to be a shelving nightmare," said Steele.'
Alright, calm down. I know you want to cut to the chase - who won the Newbery?
'The Newbery Medal for "most outstanding contribution to children's literature" went to Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village (Candlewick). Laura Amy Schlitz's work was an unusual choice as well, because it weaves poetic first-person tales into a storyline that reads like a play.'
Sounds interesting, but, due to a very unsatisfying 3rd-grade encounter with Dear Mr. Henshaw, I've never quite trusted the Newbery committee. And anyway, as a fan of art and illustration, I'm more of a Caldecott man.
'Yesterday morning, as the ALA announced the top children's lit prizes here at the Convention Center, the one for top "picture book," the venerable Caldecott Medal, went to . . . a 544-page novel?
'Yes. And to thunderous applause.
'The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic) by Brian Selznick is "amazing," telling "a story in a way that no other that I've seen does," said Jane Marino, president of the Association for Library Service to Children, which runs the annual awards....
'With black-bordered pages filled with black-and-white illustrations, it has been likened to a movie storyboard - or even a flipbook - as it describes an orphan lad's fantastic discoveries while living in the walls of a Paris train station.
'"I read it and I loved it," said Marino. "It's so engaging you can't put it down."'
I can't wait to check it out. Although The Invention of Hugo Cabret reportedly "brought some of the heartiest applause ALA officials said they've ever heard," the choice is not without controversy.
The Caldecott and Newbery selections were "very bold, interesting choices," said Anitra Steele, children's specialist at an Independence, Mo., public library.
'Hugo Cabret is so much fatter than other picture books, "it's going to be a shelving nightmare," said Steele.'
Hitchens to Fags: Drop Dead
No, no, not like that! Like this:
'After the drinks arrive I offer Hitchens one of my Marlboro Lights. Then something life-changing happens. Cool as a cucumber – and with no hint of remorse – Hitchens announces that he has given up smoking.'
But look:
'“I got up yesterday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, and I just threw my pack away,” he says.'
Arrrgh, say it ain't so! I've only been gone a month, and the Bougie-Commie-Fascist Madsion Lifestyle Police are already strong enough to not only press-gang Christopher Hitchens onto the wagon but accomplish it without recourse to force of arms, via some manner of airborne psychic brainwashing mechanism!? Don't take off the tinfoil hat, Chris!!!
'After the drinks arrive I offer Hitchens one of my Marlboro Lights. Then something life-changing happens. Cool as a cucumber – and with no hint of remorse – Hitchens announces that he has given up smoking.'
But look:
'“I got up yesterday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, and I just threw my pack away,” he says.'
Arrrgh, say it ain't so! I've only been gone a month, and the Bougie-Commie-Fascist Madsion Lifestyle Police are already strong enough to not only press-gang Christopher Hitchens onto the wagon but accomplish it without recourse to force of arms, via some manner of airborne psychic brainwashing mechanism!? Don't take off the tinfoil hat, Chris!!!
Dems to Fags: Drop Dead
I've always thought it was unfair for people to pick on Log Cabin Republicans. On the surface, it does seem, shall we say, counter-intuitive for any gay person to align themselves with a party which, in an effort to appeal to as many bigots and simpletons as possible, has practically made anti-homosexual prejudice an article of faith. But I admire their resolve: gay Republicans and conservatives are fighting in the very belly of the beast; if any minds are going to be changed, its going to be done there. And anyway, as Democrats they'd just be another put-upon 'out group' (so to speak) among many, whose reflexive support could be taken for granted every time and with, ultimately, nothing to show for it. See also: African-Americans, the poor, several others...
While you were half-listening to the Democratic debate last night, did this jump out at you?
"There was a bizarre moment in the Democrats' Nevada debate, in which Tim Russert asked all three candidates if they would enforece legislation that's been on the books for years depriving funding to academic institutions that don't support ROTC programs."
I thought it was weird too.
'And who could be against that? So all three candidates, predictably, answered yes.'
But...
'Neither Russert nor anyone else at the debate even hinted at the subtext to this question...'
I can't recall: the president who instated 'don't ask don't tell' belonged to which party again...?
(via Jewcy)
While you were half-listening to the Democratic debate last night, did this jump out at you?
"There was a bizarre moment in the Democrats' Nevada debate, in which Tim Russert asked all three candidates if they would enforece legislation that's been on the books for years depriving funding to academic institutions that don't support ROTC programs."
I thought it was weird too.
'And who could be against that? So all three candidates, predictably, answered yes.'
But...
'Neither Russert nor anyone else at the debate even hinted at the subtext to this question...'
I can't recall: the president who instated 'don't ask don't tell' belonged to which party again...?
(via Jewcy)
Reason: Rockwell, Rothbard Racists
Those of you who've paid any attention to the Ron Paul newsletter scandal (okay, fine, "newslettergate") owe it to yourselves to check out this article by Reason's Dave Wiegel and Julian Sanchez. Reason has been the source of, to my mind, the most thoughtful and serious-minded response to this whole thing (so its kind of unfortunate that this is what the cover for the new issue looks like - I think it went to the printer just days before this story broke big). They dig up convincing (to me) evidence that the "brains" behind the racism, homophobia and general nuttiness of Paul's various 'zines were libertarian luminaries Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell. I'm a half-assed, cafeteria libertarian if I'm a libertarian at all, so I have only the most basic familiarity with the men or their work (Rockwell's site always felt a bit creepy to me, and I've always preferred this Murray to Rothbard). So I was maybe a bit more surpirsed than I should've been to read about this:
'The newsletters' obsession with blacks and gays was of a piece with a conscious political strategy adopted at that same time by Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard. After breaking with the Libertarian Party following the 1988 presidential election, Rockwell and Rothbard formed a schismatic "paleolibertarian" movement, which rejected what they saw as the social libertinism and leftist tendencies of mainstream libertarians. In 1990, they launched the Rothbard-Rockwell Report, where they crafted a plan they hoped would midwife a broad new "paleo" coalition.
'Rockwell explained the thrust of the idea in a 1990 Liberty essay entitled "The Case for Paleo-Libertarianism." To Rockwell, the LP was a "party of the stoned," a halfway house for libertines that had to be "de-loused." To grow, the movement had to embrace older conservative values. "State-enforced segregation," Rockwell wrote, "was wrong, but so is State-enforced integration. State-enforced segregation was not wrong because separateness is wrong, however. Wishing to associate with members of one's own race, nationality, religion, class, sex, or even political party is a natural and normal human impulse."
'The most detailed description of the strategy came in an essay Rothbard wrote for the January 1992 Rothbard-Rockwell Report, titled "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement." Lamenting that mainstream intellectuals and opinion leaders were too invested in the status quo to be brought around to a libertarian view, Rothbard pointed to David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks," which would fashion a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition by targeting the disaffected working and middle classes. (Duke, a former Klansman, was discussed in strikingly similar terms in a 1990 Ron Paul Political Report.) These groups could be mobilized to oppose an expansive state, Rothbard posited, by exposing an "unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America."'
Plenty more of that sort of thing in the piece; do check it out.
'The newsletters' obsession with blacks and gays was of a piece with a conscious political strategy adopted at that same time by Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard. After breaking with the Libertarian Party following the 1988 presidential election, Rockwell and Rothbard formed a schismatic "paleolibertarian" movement, which rejected what they saw as the social libertinism and leftist tendencies of mainstream libertarians. In 1990, they launched the Rothbard-Rockwell Report, where they crafted a plan they hoped would midwife a broad new "paleo" coalition.
'Rockwell explained the thrust of the idea in a 1990 Liberty essay entitled "The Case for Paleo-Libertarianism." To Rockwell, the LP was a "party of the stoned," a halfway house for libertines that had to be "de-loused." To grow, the movement had to embrace older conservative values. "State-enforced segregation," Rockwell wrote, "was wrong, but so is State-enforced integration. State-enforced segregation was not wrong because separateness is wrong, however. Wishing to associate with members of one's own race, nationality, religion, class, sex, or even political party is a natural and normal human impulse."
'The most detailed description of the strategy came in an essay Rothbard wrote for the January 1992 Rothbard-Rockwell Report, titled "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement." Lamenting that mainstream intellectuals and opinion leaders were too invested in the status quo to be brought around to a libertarian view, Rothbard pointed to David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks," which would fashion a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition by targeting the disaffected working and middle classes. (Duke, a former Klansman, was discussed in strikingly similar terms in a 1990 Ron Paul Political Report.) These groups could be mobilized to oppose an expansive state, Rothbard posited, by exposing an "unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America."'
Plenty more of that sort of thing in the piece; do check it out.
Obligatory Brit-Brit Post
I suppose this was inevitable:
"The latest rumour of pop singer Britney Spears possibly converting to Islam and moving to Pakistan with her companion Adnan Ghalib has set off a debate among women in the country.
The grapevine is abuzz with twice-divorced singer Spear's romance with little known Ghalib, a man of Pakistani origin. Spears, according to Britain's Sun newspaper, wanted to fake her death and embrace Islam and move to Pakistan and start a new life! "
I mean, if you can't trust a British tabloid, who can you trust?
Maybe if she has to don a hijab or, dare we dream, burqa, Britney will stop wearing those horrible fedoras.
"The latest rumour of pop singer Britney Spears possibly converting to Islam and moving to Pakistan with her companion Adnan Ghalib has set off a debate among women in the country.
The grapevine is abuzz with twice-divorced singer Spear's romance with little known Ghalib, a man of Pakistani origin. Spears, according to Britain's Sun newspaper, wanted to fake her death and embrace Islam and move to Pakistan and start a new life! "
I mean, if you can't trust a British tabloid, who can you trust?
Maybe if she has to don a hijab or, dare we dream, burqa, Britney will stop wearing those horrible fedoras.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Hey Juno
Jim DeRogatis's review of Juno reads a lot like the one I might have written myself. Well, this part anyway:
"...I hated, hated, hated this movie. "
This part, too:
"But there's no arguing that the movie is anti-rock, at least if we still define rock as an honest expression of youthful rebellion.
"Sure, Juno gives lip service to Iggy and the Stooges and Patti Smith. But there isn't a hint of the anger and lust for life of those pioneering punks in the sort of twee indie-rock that Juno loves. The soundtrack is dominated by the sickeningly saccharine Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Antsy Pants and most of all Kimya Dawson..."
The rest of it not so much, particularly the part where its becomes clear that DeRogatis's distaste is little more than a symptom of early-onset fogeyism (of the type that was anatomized so powerfully in a far better teen movie). See, for example, that next-to-last paragraph, where he waves his cane in the air and wheezes:
"[Jason Bateman's character's] stunted growth is illustrated by the fact that he's nostalgic for that passe and played-out alternative rock, and he regrets quitting his touring underground band to write commercial jingles. Silly old Gen X'er -- doesn't he know Generation Y has rejected the very notion of "selling out" in the mad rush to buy iPhones, Uggs and Wii consoles?"
Dad gum kids, with yer iPhones and Wii consoles and pet rocks and disco music and Victoria Secret models giving Bob Dylan old man wood!! Even better is his explication of the 'anti-rock' point - tell us, Jim, who the Kids These Days ought to look to for 'anger' and 'lust for life' and 'youthful rebellion?'
"Yes, Sonic Youth also appears on the album. But the underground icons are represented by their ironic, smarmy cover of the Carpenters' 'Superstar.' And in the film, Juno actually mocks the would-be adoptive father, Mark Loring (Jason Bateman), for championing the Melvins and Sonic Youth, whom she dismisses as "just a lot of noise.""
Yes, the Sonic Youth, the same group whose last good record was released in 1988, a full 3 years before Juno MacGuff was born; I know when I want some 'youthful' energy out of my music, I reach straight for the new release by a quartet whose combined ages equal 198 (and since when has 'irony' or 'smarm' or for that matter 'noise' not been a part of said group's appeal?)!! The Melvins never released any decent LPs in Juno's lifetime either; problem is, they never released any good LPs in my lifetime, or Jim DeRogatis's lifetime, or the lifetimes of any of the band members.
I don't get it - DeRogatis was born in the early 1960s, and must've come of age, musically, in the late 70s/early 80s. Surely he's read enough "back in my day, the music meant something, maaaaaaaan!" screeds from boomer snobs to have been inoculated against such bullcrap?
"...I hated, hated, hated this movie. "
This part, too:
"But there's no arguing that the movie is anti-rock, at least if we still define rock as an honest expression of youthful rebellion.
"Sure, Juno gives lip service to Iggy and the Stooges and Patti Smith. But there isn't a hint of the anger and lust for life of those pioneering punks in the sort of twee indie-rock that Juno loves. The soundtrack is dominated by the sickeningly saccharine Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, Antsy Pants and most of all Kimya Dawson..."
The rest of it not so much, particularly the part where its becomes clear that DeRogatis's distaste is little more than a symptom of early-onset fogeyism (of the type that was anatomized so powerfully in a far better teen movie). See, for example, that next-to-last paragraph, where he waves his cane in the air and wheezes:
"[Jason Bateman's character's] stunted growth is illustrated by the fact that he's nostalgic for that passe and played-out alternative rock, and he regrets quitting his touring underground band to write commercial jingles. Silly old Gen X'er -- doesn't he know Generation Y has rejected the very notion of "selling out" in the mad rush to buy iPhones, Uggs and Wii consoles?"
Dad gum kids, with yer iPhones and Wii consoles and pet rocks and disco music and Victoria Secret models giving Bob Dylan old man wood!! Even better is his explication of the 'anti-rock' point - tell us, Jim, who the Kids These Days ought to look to for 'anger' and 'lust for life' and 'youthful rebellion?'
"Yes, Sonic Youth also appears on the album. But the underground icons are represented by their ironic, smarmy cover of the Carpenters' 'Superstar.' And in the film, Juno actually mocks the would-be adoptive father, Mark Loring (Jason Bateman), for championing the Melvins and Sonic Youth, whom she dismisses as "just a lot of noise.""
Yes, the Sonic Youth, the same group whose last good record was released in 1988, a full 3 years before Juno MacGuff was born; I know when I want some 'youthful' energy out of my music, I reach straight for the new release by a quartet whose combined ages equal 198 (and since when has 'irony' or 'smarm' or for that matter 'noise' not been a part of said group's appeal?)!! The Melvins never released any decent LPs in Juno's lifetime either; problem is, they never released any good LPs in my lifetime, or Jim DeRogatis's lifetime, or the lifetimes of any of the band members.
I don't get it - DeRogatis was born in the early 1960s, and must've come of age, musically, in the late 70s/early 80s. Surely he's read enough "back in my day, the music meant something, maaaaaaaan!" screeds from boomer snobs to have been inoculated against such bullcrap?
Monday, January 7, 2008
News of the Ninth Art
Comics fans, particularly those of us who've made it to our fourth decade with our obsession intact, tend to have terrible inferiority complexes, hence the pretentious term 'graphic novel.' I'm no better than the rest, so its with that in mind that I direct your attention to these news items.
First: I only read the first Flashman book last year (thanks entirely to Christopher Hitchens's Vanity Fair article on the topic), so I don't share a deep familiarity with Fraserainia with the series's long-term devotees, but I noted George MacDonald Fraser's recent passing with more interest than I might have otherwise. So here's my tribute: a 2000 article by the man himself, in which he attributes his interest in historical fiction to an early encounter with a 'tuppenny blood'; hey, Graham from Harry's Place seems to indicate that that's what early British comics were called, so I'm goin' with it.
Second: is there a better balm for cultural insecurity than a museum piece? Here's a bit from the Miami Herald about a new exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Florida on the Jewish roots of early American superhero comics (of course its called "Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books 1938-1950"). Though the article is a little stingy in describing the contents of the exhibit (original art? old issues? old, mimeographed scripts? what?!), its a pretty good Cliff Notes version of the contribution of Jewish artists and writers to the American superhero genre, and thus worth a look.
"Indeed, the first superhero, the aforementioned Superman, first published in 1938, was created by two Jewish boys from Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Batman followed in 1939, brought to life by two Jewish men, Bob Kane (born Robert Kahn) and Bill Finger. Captain America, born in 1940, was the brainchild of two Jewish artists: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg). In the early 1960s, Kirby, along with writer Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) reinvented the superhero genre with the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Thor, the Hulk and (with a non-Jewish artist named Steve Ditko) Spider-Man. And so on. In fact, one could argue that had there been no Jews, there might have been no superheroes."
First: I only read the first Flashman book last year (thanks entirely to Christopher Hitchens's Vanity Fair article on the topic), so I don't share a deep familiarity with Fraserainia with the series's long-term devotees, but I noted George MacDonald Fraser's recent passing with more interest than I might have otherwise. So here's my tribute: a 2000 article by the man himself, in which he attributes his interest in historical fiction to an early encounter with a 'tuppenny blood'; hey, Graham from Harry's Place seems to indicate that that's what early British comics were called, so I'm goin' with it.
Second: is there a better balm for cultural insecurity than a museum piece? Here's a bit from the Miami Herald about a new exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Florida on the Jewish roots of early American superhero comics (of course its called "Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books 1938-1950"). Though the article is a little stingy in describing the contents of the exhibit (original art? old issues? old, mimeographed scripts? what?!), its a pretty good Cliff Notes version of the contribution of Jewish artists and writers to the American superhero genre, and thus worth a look.
"Indeed, the first superhero, the aforementioned Superman, first published in 1938, was created by two Jewish boys from Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Batman followed in 1939, brought to life by two Jewish men, Bob Kane (born Robert Kahn) and Bill Finger. Captain America, born in 1940, was the brainchild of two Jewish artists: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg). In the early 1960s, Kirby, along with writer Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) reinvented the superhero genre with the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Thor, the Hulk and (with a non-Jewish artist named Steve Ditko) Spider-Man. And so on. In fact, one could argue that had there been no Jews, there might have been no superheroes."
Is Our Children Learning?
Dan Drezner has just revealed the results of his "Worst Student Sentences" contest. I clicked over, fully prepared to be shocked and horrified by the degrees of stupidity and illiteracy I'd find and...am somewhat underwhelmed.
Not to slag off a fellow Dan, but the lines he picked seem to me to be simply better-than-average examples of garden-variety imbecility. Sure, they're pretty bad, but, when I taught, I used to encounter sentences that were the written equivalent of this, no foolin'. I blame low voter turnout.
(Actually, the goofiest sentence to appear isn't even in the body of Dan's post but in his comments section. Some party animal named 'Trenchard Gordon' informs us that he doesn't find any of this funny, wondering if "perhaps you could post video clips of kids falling as they learn to ride their bikes, so those of us who already ride can sneer at them too." His equation of college students with young children - incapable of even riding their bikes without training wheels! - inadvertantly gets at the heart of the matter.)
Not to slag off a fellow Dan, but the lines he picked seem to me to be simply better-than-average examples of garden-variety imbecility. Sure, they're pretty bad, but, when I taught, I used to encounter sentences that were the written equivalent of this, no foolin'. I blame low voter turnout.
(Actually, the goofiest sentence to appear isn't even in the body of Dan's post but in his comments section. Some party animal named 'Trenchard Gordon' informs us that he doesn't find any of this funny, wondering if "perhaps you could post video clips of kids falling as they learn to ride their bikes, so those of us who already ride can sneer at them too." His equation of college students with young children - incapable of even riding their bikes without training wheels! - inadvertantly gets at the heart of the matter.)
The Other Song of the Day (1.7.08)
Squeeze - "Up the Junction." You're going to have to turn it up a bit to hear this one, and I'll admit that this isn't really the most visually exciting video (but get a load of Jools Holland as the Coolest Guy in the Room, playing the organ in mirror shades while smoking a cigar! The mind reels...). Its been so long since I posted anything that I figured I may as well cram in another Song of the Day, so here ya go: another one of my faves (this one may even crack the all-time top ten), a three-minute distillation of British working-class life, like a Mike Leigh movie translated into Pop Song. If you've got a few extra bucks in your pocket, you really ought to go out an grab the LP, Cool For Cats, about as perfect a power-pop LP as the UK ever produced.
Song of the Day (1.7.08)
"They Don't Know," written by Kirsty MacColl. The human race will forever be in Tracey Ullman's debt for two reasons: 1) giving us THE SIMPSONS and 2) this great, great, sad, funny song. This is easily one of my 25 favorite singles and I can't figure out why it wasn't a bigger hit.
"Tell me about it, STUD."
You may or may not know that I'm a huge fan of Grease. It was the first movie I ever saw projected - imdb says that it was released on June 16, 1978, so, assuming I caught it somewhere near the tail end of its long and successful first run, I was slightly less than three years old. My 'rents tell me that, when the credits came up, I yelled "AGAIN! AGAIN!!" at the screen (I actually think I remember that last bit, though its so vague and hazy that I can't honestly tell if its a genuine recollection or just some weird fantasy I came up with to accompany a nifty story. Anyway, it seems like something I might do.).
My favorite characters were and remain the various Pink Ladies. John Waters knew it, so did the New York Dolls: nothing is cooler than a girl gang. The other day, I found that Steve & Barry's are selling t-shirts with the Pink Ladies logo on it - pink-on-black or black-on-pink, depending on your preference. I almost bought one of the pink-shirt / black-logo models when I was there, figuring that any traveling salesman, neighborhood-canvasser, utility grunt or evangelist who shows up uninvited to my door would get one look at the bleary-eyed, unshaven, frowning figure who answered, note that said person was clad only in a pair of boxer shorts and a pink shirt with the words PINK LADIES embossed thereupon in black and immediately get the message: I am not one to be trifled with.
The spirit of Rizzo, Frenchy, Sandy & Co. lives on in other parts of the world:
"The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials....
"Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.
"They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case."
You really ought to read the rest; I feel that the specifics of India's crushing poverty, misogyny and government incompetence ought to interest you than one man's Stockard Channing obsession, no?
(via Drink Soaked etc.)
My favorite characters were and remain the various Pink Ladies. John Waters knew it, so did the New York Dolls: nothing is cooler than a girl gang. The other day, I found that Steve & Barry's are selling t-shirts with the Pink Ladies logo on it - pink-on-black or black-on-pink, depending on your preference. I almost bought one of the pink-shirt / black-logo models when I was there, figuring that any traveling salesman, neighborhood-canvasser, utility grunt or evangelist who shows up uninvited to my door would get one look at the bleary-eyed, unshaven, frowning figure who answered, note that said person was clad only in a pair of boxer shorts and a pink shirt with the words PINK LADIES embossed thereupon in black and immediately get the message: I am not one to be trifled with.
The spirit of Rizzo, Frenchy, Sandy & Co. lives on in other parts of the world:
"The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials....
"Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.
"They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case."
You really ought to read the rest; I feel that the specifics of India's crushing poverty, misogyny and government incompetence ought to interest you than one man's Stockard Channing obsession, no?
(via Drink Soaked etc.)
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