Sunday Screening

Everybody, this is Corb Lund. Corb, this is everybody. Now that we're all acquainted, let's hear some music.

CORB LUND is Canadian -- I know, me writing about Canadian music, you're shocked -- from Alberta, to be specific, and he plays country music (variously, along "the Corb Lund Band" or, lately, the wonderfully named "Hurtin' Albertans"). But it's not really country like most people understand it. Yes, there's yodeling in this song (which is part of a long tradition, actually, going back to Jimmie Rodgers who is arguably the founder of country music); but more than that, Corb Lund's music is just weird. Dense, inscrutable, sometimes deliberately stupid and sometimes deadly serious; you won't hear much else like it. Here's another example:

Now, I'm no fan of that video -- can't quite tell if it's a deliberate throwback to grunge, or just cheap and ADD-addled, but either way I'll pass -- but the song is just great. (That line: "This is grape juice and cheap vodka, man! This isn't even wine!" kills me every time. Not to mention it's an excuse to bring up the recent ridiculousness involving PZ Myers and a Communion wafer, which you should look at if you need more proof that this country's religious right is completely unhinged). You can hear the obvious Dylan influence in this one, but it's got that rootsy twist to it that adds a new dimension. Here's another, much more serious (and political) song -- follow the lyrics now:

Corb Lund's music, like a lot of Canadian rock, is an acquired taste. (I'm thinking here specifically of the Tragically Hip, whose songs are so dense both lyrically and musically that it often takes dozens of listenings before you can unravel them -- and that's not counting the YEARS of radio acclimation you need before you can get past Gord Downie's weird-ass voice.) But once you acquire it, man, do you ever acquire it; I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to tease out "Expectation and the Blues," under the logic that any country song which rhymes "over-intellectualize" with "self-actualize" must be worth understanding. (Here's a little low-quality snippet, if you're hardy enough to try it for yourself).

And it's not like he doesn't have a sense of humor. Here's "The Truck Got Stuck," one of Corb's most irresistibly dumb and catchy songs -- I warn you now, this is a talking blues about trucks getting stuck in mud, and if you hear it you WILL have it playing in your head for days. Listen:

(Agriculture Canada is our equivalent of the USDA, incidentally. Many Canadian federal agencies are just the name of what they do with the word "Canada" tacked on -- "Health Canada", ""Environment Canada", "Sport Canada", "Western Economic Diversification Canada", etc. You get used to it.)

Anyway; if you want to hear more Corb Lund, his albums are in all the usual places. I recommend eMusic, which sells real DRM-free MP3s at sensible prices ($10 for 30), and has a catalog of everything you need (they just don't carry the major labels, which is fine, because all that mainstream shit is on the filesharing networks anyway). Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of your weekends; this is an open thread.

Good taste

Any reservations I may have had about Barack Obama -- ok, ok, shut up. But if I had had any reservations at this point, they would be gone, after I read this:

The Democratic presidential candidate discusses the music he listened to while growing up -- Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Elton John, the Rolling Stones -- and the music on his iPod -- all of the above plus Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Howlin' Wolf, Yo-Yo Ma, Sheryl Crow, the Grateful Dead and others.

But perhaps Obama's most intriguing response came when he was asked to name his favorite Dylan songs.

"Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is 'Maggie's Farm,' " he replied. "It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."

MAGGIE'S FARM. What a classic. Most people know that when Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he played the revolutionary "Like A Rolling Stone" -- but fewer people know that the first song he played, the shot heard round the world, was "Maggie's Farm." Picture yourself at a folk festival, listening to placid acoustic songs, and then suddenly you're facing this (actual 1965 footage):

That right there is one of the most historic moments in rock music. Make sure you watch all the way through so you can hear the booing at the end. (There's a better version on DVD -- The Other Side of the Mirror, which I had the privilege to watch in its entirety during a PBS pledge drive -- that captures the boos and shouting from the crowd right from the first notes on that guitar.) Good choice, Sen. Obama; good choice.

Sunday Screening

Why don't more people listen to bluegrass?

That's Chatham County Line, an amazing semi-traditional bluegrass band from Raleigh, NC. I don't have time to write at length about anything today -- if I were a sane person I'd be starting my paper about Irish revolutionary Patrick Pearse right now -- so I'll just urge you to check out their new album, IV. (Or at least download the leadoff single "Chip of a Star," which is truly beautiful and has a hook worthy of pop radio, here.)

Here's more Chatham County Line...

(That last one, "Company Blues," is probably my favorite of their songs; the album cut from Speed of the Whippoorwill is even better, since they all sing the chorus with this incredible hair-raising harmony. Go get it if you can.)

Anyway. Good luck with all the schoolwork everyone undoubtedly has, and I'll see you on the other side; this is an open thread.

Against Radiohead, or, Contrary To Popular Belief Music Existed Before 1990

I have made no secret of the hatred I reserve for the writing of James Poulos (a.k.a Postmodern Conservative, a.k.a. "annoying guy from American Scene"). His work is pompous, overwrought, rancid with unnecessary polysyllabic voodoo, and tries desperately to sound intellectual; he's like a smart Paul J. Cella, or a 21st-century Chris Lacaria. Reading his work is like beating yourself in the face with a thesaurus. (Probably Poulos angers me so much because I'm projecting my own fear of academicism and my cripplingly low self-esteem onto him -- but that's not important right now.)

Less often do I take issue with Poulos' actual arguments. Usually they're so far out in conservative neverland that I can see his preconceptions coming and take his (generally sound) logic for what it is. But this week, he's produced a great big article about a subject very close to my heart -- the generational politics of rock music -- that is so completely misinformed and profoundly wrong that's it's driven me to new levels of wild, head-through-monitor frustration. Here's a sample:

For the generations that came of age as Radiohead got huge, patterns of life seem to have emerged that mutually reinforce and confirm a downward revision of expectations. The band’s catalog tracks the increasing acceptance of a newly fundamental degree of contingency, incompleteness, and transience. It extends across careers and love lives, shaping attitudes reaching from domestic politics to cosmic fate. Many now seem happy just to find or help create the passages of experience that permit momentary and communal escapes. Immanent and transcendent, such fugitive moments of therapeutic authenticity ameliorate the painful costs of being comprehensively compromised.

OMFG SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS. Even if you shear away the clearly compensatory Hegelian verbosity, this is nothing more than self-important superfan wanking mixed with pop-sociology bullshit and -- typically of the "classical liberal" set -- a complete and voluntary divorce from historical context. It's just crying out for a response.

So I'll provide some of my trademark fair-minded rebuttals, some music criticism, and an explanation of why Radiohead actually sucks, after the jump.

Read more »

Sunday Screening / Sonntag Siebung

You know what this blog needs? Some retarded German electropop from the 80s! (This video takes about a minute to get going):

Sie wissen, was dieses blog benötigt? Etwas verzögertes deutsches electropop vom 80s! (dieser Bildschirm dauert eine ungefähr Minute, um gehend zu erhalten):

That is Joachim Witt, who apparently was a big star back in the day. And I can see why -- he has moves.

Das ist Joachim Witt, das anscheinend eine grosse Sternrückseite am Tag war. Und ich kann sehen warum -- er hat Bewegungen.

Witt was among the prominent names of "Neue Deutsche Welle," the German component of New Wave -- not to be confused with Deutsche Welle, the bilingual Berlin cable-news channel seen in Britain and North America as DW-TV. Known as NDW, you're likely to remember it for crossover success stories Nena (of "99 Luftballons") or Falco (of "Rock Me Amadeus"). But there was more to German new wave than synthpop novelties. Here's a fun medley of three hits by the distinctly retro Spider Murphy Gang of Munich:

Witt gehörte zu den vorstehenden Namen von "Neue Deutsche Welle," der deutsche Bestandteil der neuen Welle -- nicht mit Deutsche Welle, die zweisprachige Berlin Kabel-Nachrichten Führung verwirrt zu werden, die in Großbritannien und in Nordamerika als DW-TV gesehen wurde. Bekannt als NDW, sind Sie wahrscheinlich, sich an es für Überkreuzungserfolggeschichten Nena (von "99 Luftballons") oder Falco (von "Rock Me Amadeus"). Aber es gab mehr zur deutschen neuen Welle als synthpop Neuheiten. Ist hier ein SpaßGemisch von drei Erfolgen durch die deutlich retro Spider Murphy Group von München:

That last one, "Skandal im Sperrbezirk", is irresistible and was a smash hit. (For a less inspiring example, check out this montage from 1983, when NDW was already beginning to cannibalize itself. Except for the proto-ska at the beginning, it's pretty bad stuff.)

Daß letztes, "Skandal im Sperrbezirk", unwiderstehlich ist und ein Smasherfolg war. (auf einem weniger anspornenden Beispiel, überprüfen Sie aus diesem montage von 1983, als NDW bereits anfing, sich auszuschlachten. Außer dem proto-ska am Anfang, ist es recht schlechtes Material.)

Of course you will notice the Spider Murphy Gang's notable absence of dance moves. (At least Joachim Witt tried.) Now, I hate to be someone who stereotypes cultures, but I think is this a good choice; the Teutonic peoples just don't seem suited to choreography. German ballet, while technically superb, is often weird and uncomfortable -- here is a good example -- and their folk dances, I think I can say this, are rather silly:

Ich liebe, das schönen und den ausgezeichneten deutschen Tanz aufzupassen. Ihr Ballett ist vollkommen und ihr Volkstanz ist ausgezeichnet. Deutscher Tanz gibt mir Thrills in den privaten Plätzen. Bitte verletzen Sie mich nicht:

But I have to give the Germans credit -- when they make an effort, they go ALL-OUT. I'll leave you with a YouTube classic, Dschingis Khan's legendary performance of "Moskau". This video gives me hope for the world. Enjoy the night, everyone...

Aber ich muß den Deutschen Gutschrift geben -- wenn sie eine Bemühung bilden, gehen sie ALL-OUT. Ich lasse Sie mit einem YouTube Klassiker, Dschingis Khans legendäre Leistung von "Moskau". Dieser Bildschirm gibt mir Hoffnung für die Welt. Genießen Sie die Nacht, jeder...

Sunday Screening: Super Bowl Edition

Well, normally football-blogging here falls under the purview of the estimable Eva Lam; but I understand she's still mourning her Packers (my position, for the record, is that any enemy of the Patriots is a friend of mine), so I figure I should step in. Are you ready for some football?

That video will have been like nails on a chalkboard for many of you; it's Hank Williams Jr. performing his famed Monday Night Football intro, in a particularly tasteless 1995 cut. (There's no video of the 1989 original, which is probably just as well.) By any objective measure this is an AWFUL piece of music, especially in contrast to the great production Monday Night Football had in the 70s; the L.A. Times when this theme debuted called it "grating". But it stuck. And I can see why; for all its ostentatious stupidity, this song and its history capture so much of the gaudy, senseless exuberance that underlies American culture. Football has that effect; it brings out our wild side.

...Hank Williams Jr. actually had a number of other hits in the 1970s and 80s, though he never came close to his father's enormous impact. The most interesting thing he recorded was the 1981 single "A Country Boy Can Survive", a rather creepy survivalist anthem:

There was a mini-boom of this sort of stripped-down, angry country music in the 1980s; another good example is Charlie Daniels (of "Devil Went Down to Georgia" fame), whose proto-fascist ode to vigilantism "Simple Man" still sends chills down my spine whenever I hear it:

I should note that "Simple Man" went certified-platinum in 1989; it prompted a small storm of consternation among the usual suspects (talk shows, etc). But this strain of country-xenophobia (which came back with a vengeance after 9/11, most obviously in the form of Toby Keith) doesn't amount to anything real; it's a fantasy, just gangsta rap for farmboys. There are very few actual survivalists or vigilantes out there. At most it taps into a bit of cultural anxiety around political radicalism -- which brings me to a video I've wanted to use for some time.

This is Red Rider, the Canadian band which spawned Tom "Life Is A Highway" Cochrane; 1981's "Lunatic Fringe" was their biggest hit. Cochrane wrote it as an angry response to anti-Semitism, and you can hear that it has those same subtly gothic elements that underly the extremism of Williams and Daniels. (It also, from a pure music perspective, demonstrates in both its sound and video the precarious position of serious rock in the early 80s -- this is half prog and half new-wave, which is a hell of an awkward combination. Consequently the band just looks like they're afraid of their own song.) Watch:

...I seem to have drifted away from the football topic. Hell. Let me close, then, with the ultimate football video -- this is a 1994 high school match from Texas, and it's the kind of ridiculous phenomenon you only see in video games. (Plus, the announcers, who really deserve a gig on ESPN. "I done wet my britches!") You absolutely MUST watch this:

That's all. Enjoy the game, everybody -- and to the Giants, well, if you're not going to beat the Patriots, then at least try to beat the spread, eh? For me...

Sunday Screening

When I put together the Sunday Screening, usually I start from one thing that interests me, then ramble off in whatever direction looks fun. But in this case, I came to something that hit me right in the gut, and I threw out everything that had brought me there -- so I'll just dispense with the usual pretense and bring you several videos of the great jazz singer Lena Horne.

To begin with, here she is on the Bell Telephone Hour in 1965. If this video does not move you in some way, you're not human:

From the same year, a more remarkably aggressive performance (I love the way she looks not at the camera but just past it, as if to say, "You're not quite worthy of my attention") on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall:

Here's a much older clip, from sometime in the 1930s, an incredible musical short. (A lost genre; they would show these in theaters before the main feature, alongside newsreels & cartoons. Some of the great jazz and swing performances of all time can be found in musical shorts -- especially by African-American musicians, since short clips could be easily swapped out by Southern theaters that weren't allowed to show black people on film. This is also why Lena Horne, like almost all the great black musicians, was restricted to brief appearances in Hollywood films and rarely got the chance to act.) Her attitude behind the mic here predates Janis Joplin by 30 years:

This is a fun one -- with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, performing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (probably best remembered today as the leitmotif of the 1938 Cary Grant-Katherine Hepburn screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, which you owe it to yourself to see if you haven't already). From the 1943 film "Stormy Weather":

And finally -- you knew this was coming -- Lena Horne's signature song, "Stormy Weather." This is a slightly kitschy arrangement (from the same movie as above -- it's a real classic, BTW, also featuring a jaw-dropping performance by Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers), but true to form, Lena makes it sizzle anyway. Watch:

My God I wish people still sang like that.

Anyway. I hope you're all enjoying your intersessions, and if you've left, have a safe trip back to campus. This is an open thread.

There Is Justice In The World

According to a Seattle Police Department report, a copy of which you can find below, Lindsey Lawrence, 21, assaulted the unnamed victim while he was performing with "two other subjects" at Changes Tavern, where patrons sing karaoke Wednesday and Thursday night from 9 PM until 1 AM. When the assault victim launched into Coldplay's "Yellow," Lawrence allegedly told the man that his "singing sucked" and that the song "fucking sucked." She then grabbed at the man's microphone and "pushed him and punched him in order to get him to stop singing," cops reported.

From The Smoking Gun, via Drudge. Offered without comment.

...If you want better music, here are some blogs that provide mp3s of quality. Friends, feel free to add your own to this list.

Music For Robots
Badminton Stamps
Headphones On
Songs: Illinois
Quick Before It Melts
Aquarium Drunkard
Obscure Sound
Jefitoblog
and of course, the irreplaceable WFMU

Happy weekend!

Sunday Screening

You know what I wish I had been around for? Disco.

Don't laugh, now. Disco gets a bad rap. Sure, a lot of it was generic commercialized pablum designed simply to be consumed & discarded; but for every KC & The Sunshine Band there was, for instance, a Thelma Houston:

This lady had so much soul she could make GERMANS get up and clap.

(In fairness to the Germans and their discomusik, they did give us Dschinghis Khan, for which I among others will be forever in their debt. But really, the Teutonic mindset was a lot more effective inventing techno, which would come later.)

"Don't Leave Me This Way" was originally a rather boring Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes tune; it was this disco arrangement that sent it up the charts in '77. And in turn, Thelma Houston's version was covered in 1986 by the Communards (the mostly-inconsequential solo project of Jimmy Somerville from Bronski Beat). You need to watch this video, not because it's a good cover (although it is, and the presence of jazz singer Sarah Jane Morris adds a lot), but because Jimmy Somerville's incredible vocal range emphatically does not translate to dancing skills. Just... just watch.

Anyway I'm getting off track here. DISCO! I bring this up because the other day I watched Boogie Nights again -- it's a phenomenally good movie, by the way, and if you haven't seen it you really should . The tracking shots alone are worth it. But I just couldn't get past the awesomeness of this disco scene:

Say what you want about the 70s -- any culture where you could get away with that had to be doing something right. (The song in the background is "Machine Gun", by the Commodores, who before the days of Brick House and then those sappy 80s ballads were actually a pretty serious funk machine.)

Speaking of funk, I have to wonder about Senator Obama's new South Carolina radio ad (go to that link then hit "play" under On The Air). "It's Obama time"? Seriously? And there's nothing tasteful you can say about that music. I have previously suggested that the media's perception of Obama was stuck in the 1970s, but I gotta say, his own ads aren't helping. This is one step removed from "Barack Obama: Bow chicka wow wow."

Wait, was that someone's cue?

If you're not familiar with Red vs. Blue, which came to its tragic conclusion last month, that clip probably won't have made any sense to you. Just as well. But you should get familiar with Red vs. Blue -- videos can be found here or just by searching YouTube/Google Video -- if you have some time on your hands. It's one of the most genuinely funny things the Internet has ever produced.

That's all the energy I have. Enjoy what's left of the weekend, everybody.

Byproduct

I've plugged John Vanderslice in the past as one of the few modern musicians actually trying to make some use of the national drama in the employ of some art. He's just released a new album, Emerald City, which is pretty heavily drenched in 9/11, Iraq, and the situation at home. It's well worth a listen—if we're going to be caught in a foreign tragedy, we may as damn well get some good music out of it.

Mini-Roundup: I'm Going To Die

No full-length roundup today, because it's the hottest week of the summer down here in North Carolina and my skin is slowly melting off my face. However, read:

--TEACHERS' UNIONS: THREAT, OR MENACE? Kevin Carey and our boy Ezra Klein look at the peculiar tendency of liberal elites to blame teachers' unions for everything, including the weather. In rebuttal, Tim Lee at the newly redesigned American Scene thinks Kevin and Ezra are peculiar.

--NOT ACTUALLY A SQUARE-DANCE CALL: Open Left, Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers' new project (as well as some guy named Mike I've never heard of), kicks off with a bang. Read Chris with a long, possibly definitive study of the condition of the netroots.

--I PREFER THE FRENCH "EUH": Language Log, which is always worth your time, looks at differences in pausing between gender and age groups. Check this out:

Turns out "um" and "uh" are pretty reliable identifiers of gender. ...There is a moment in "Clue" that has bothered me for years, where Wadsworth the butler (played by Tim Curry) is talking very quickly and says "the uh, um, uh, library." I had wondered why that phrase stuck in my brain. Now I know: it was essentially androgynous! (Of course for Tim Curry that's hardly a stretch.)

--SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Roy Edroso channels Dylan:

How long can a man scream epithets in a cemetery before he loses the status of outrage and devolves into a figure of fun?

--AND: You may know that "musician" Avril Lavigne has been accused of plagiarism by 70s bubblegum-rockers The Rubinoos. But you probably do not know that The Rubinoos also recorded the seminal theme to 1984's "Revenge of the Nerds." Yes! In honor of their reappearance, I present the wonderful first ten minutes of that godawful movie:

A tip to our incoming freshmen: that is exactly what's in store for you this fall.

That's all I got. Stay indoors, everyone.

NO, HILLARY, PLEASE, NO

She chose her campaign song. I am going to cry.

"You and I" by Celine Dion.

This shitty song has special significance for us Canadians, who have had to endure it on TV all through this decade in commercials for our shitty national airline, Air Canada. For instance, see the following video, which I should warn you is not for the weak:

(shudder)

Anyway, though, I'm sure a lot of people will try to make political hay out of this. They're going to accuse Hillary of choosing a Canadian song instead of an American one, and use that to suggest she's unpatriotic, or that she doesn't respect homegrown American music. That's bullshit and I'll tell you why: Celine Dion is not Canadian. Her music can probably be considered an act of treason against Canada; we have publicly apologized for her on multiple occasions; and besides, all her shows are in Vegas now. Celine Dion is about as Canadian as that Taliban spokesman guy is American. Of course I don't know if it's technically been said officially yet, so to be safe let me just get it out there:

On behalf of all Canadians, I hereby disown Celine Dion.

There. She's yours now. Deal with it, USA.

...And a message to the Clinton campaign: if you use this song as your telephone hold music, just FYI, it'll be a matter of weeks before some enraged vendor comes to New York and sets fire to the office. Might want to be careful about that.

Roundup -- Get It Off! Get It Off Me!

It's around this time -- the last real weekend before Reading Period comes to take our souls away -- that everyone on campus basically turns into a blithering idiot. YardFest, which helpfully caused everyone to go around singing Third Eye Blind songs uncontrollably for hours, did not help in that regard. At the moment, after spending hours today cleaning bathrooms as part of the Dorm Crew Day fundraiser (executive summary: "Eww! Hair!"), my body's limp and my brain feels like a boiled cabbage that's been repeatedly mashed with a fork. So I'm going to forego my usual discursive introduction and dive right into LINKS FOR YOU. Enjoy.

--The Stand For Security movement is picking up steam and needs everybody's support. (The backstory is basically that Harvard security workers are being screwed in their contract negotiations and they need our help.) First, if you haven't signed the petition, do that, and if you're a stronger person than me you can join the fast on Monday and Tuesday. But generally, we should do everything we can to help this campaign before the end of the year. These people put themselves on the line to protect us every day; at very least we owe the same back to them.
---UPDATED (2:00 AM): There is a sit-in or protest of some kind today at 1:30 outside University Hall. Also I'm told there's a big rally planned for Wednesday, 2:30, at Holyoke Center; and if after those events the demands are not met, a hunger strike starting Thursday is in the works. Keep an eye on this developing situation.

--Garrett linked to an amazing clip from that Bill Moyers documentary we've all been hearing about; turns out you can watch all 90 minutes of it, in excellent quality, at PBS. When you find the time, please do; it's a powerful look at how deeply fucked-up our media really is.

--In non-fucked-up-media news, the Indy has launched a blog! Awesome! Those who don't read the Indy are missing out, it's often hilarious. (Also fill out their annual sex survey, it'll make you think.)

--Loud cheers for our friend Andrew Golis, of Cambridge Common fame, who looks like he's made the jump from being TPMCafe's open-thread slave into a legit writer. And it's a great, erudite post, too, worth a read on its merits as well as for its awesomeness factor.

--Meanwhile at TPMCafe, it's about time someone made this argument: "The Case For Bureaucracy". ...God, I'm such a Democrat.

--From the NY Sun, a charming Mitt Romney story:

"I feel old," Ann Romney told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "You are!" her husband chimed in. The crowd winced. "It's a joke, we're the same age," he clarified.

I repeat: please, please nominate him. Please. (...via James Walcott, who incidentally is absolutely hilarious and should be read regularly. In this same post he compared Fred Thompson, wonderfully, to Wilford Brimley).

--From another excellent Pew poll (click for larger version):

People seem to have the ideological affiliations of Dem candidates exactly backwards. Edwards is way to the left of the other frontrunners on basically every issue; but that perception is not out there in the public yet. How will the structure of the race change as that comes forward?

--Paragraph Of The Week honors go to Whiskey Fire: "Harry Reid is not calling for "defeat." Liberals are not calling for "defeat." We're telling you that the bloody clown show is over. Take off your floppy shoes, doff your giant red noses, and go home."

--Mystery Pollster has wonderful tag clouds for the various Dems at the debate; it's a fun way to see how on-message they are and where their heads are at (if anywhere). You can make your own tag clouds, of anything, here.

--In unrelated debate news, note that when Williams asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed there was such a thing as the "global war on terror", the split was interesting -- Edwards, Biden, Kucinich and Gravel found themselves in agreement that there wasn't, while the other four agreed there was. Myself, I find "war on terror" to be a conceptual impossibility, or at best an absurdity, so I tend to agree with Edwards and Biden (a man who knows his stuff on foreign policy, one must admit). Thoughts?

--I have got to get a copy of Rahm Emanuel's new book, "The Thumpin'", if only because in it he apparently describes Washington as "Fucknutsville". A man after me own heart.

--Band Madness is down to the Elite Eight (thankfully, AFI finally got knocked out). Remaining: Queen, Bowie, the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd, and the Doors. While I'm still hurting over Neil Young (and also, I'm sorry but Queen did not deserve to beat Hendrix), we must soldier on. I'm pulling for The Who, underdogs to the end; who's with me? Voting opens Monday.

And I'll leave you with a quote. Michelle Malkin recently referred to Mike GW and his friends (who got arrested protesting that FBI speech last week) as evidence of liberal media bias, through logic I don't quite follow. In that spirit, I wondered if the Dems had ever been similarly held up by right-wing pundits as examples of evil liberalism. Sure enough -- National Review, 9/25/2001, from future "Corner" celebs John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru:

If there really were a Captain America, he probably wouldn't be a member of the Harvard College Democrats.

We must have been doing something right. Good night everybody. This is an open thread.

...Someone Still Loves You

I confess to having a very large soft spot in my heart for Boris Yeltsin (who died today). This is less for political reasons than emotional ones; while I have immense respect for the tireless work he did toward democratization and free speech in Russia, that's not what came back to me when I read about his passing. No, what I love is Boris the man.

He was a major world figure from the moment I came to any level of political consciousness (the early 90s), and appeared relentlessly in both the news and the sophomoric Canadian satire programs I liked to watch. For good reason -- Yeltsin, I contend, was the quintessential figure of the 1990s. The Cold War was over and he was the new, friendly face of Russia, a country suddenly totally absent of menace or hostility towards us; Boris, like his nation, was just a big guy who wanted to be loved. And that tapped perfectly into the zeitgeist of the decade -- the 90s West was exhausted from all the conflict, international and intellectual, it'd been dealing with since 1914. Our music was sloppy, our TV was silly; we just wanted to relax and have a good time.

Yeltsin spoke to that. You could see it a little bit in other leaders, like the saxophone-playing Bill Clinton; but even he was small-time compared to Premier Boris. Here was a man who was fat, drunk, happy, and totally unapologetic about it. Here was a man who ruled, often harsly, but always with a smile. HERE was a man who knew how to have a good time--

--while leading his country. Sure, he had personal problems. Sure, the geopolitical situation was often complex and hostile. Sure, Chechnya blah blah blah. DEEP DOWN everybody knew that Boris was the right guy for the time.

So to read about his death casts our current situation in stark relief. After all, that chilled-out 90s vibe is completely gone; our country is run by militaristic wackjobs again; and Russia! Russia is now ruled by a humorless prick named Vladimir who is diligently undoing all of Yeltsin's reforms en route to a 21st-century czarship. It's damn sad. I was particularly grabbed by these words from the Times article:

His death, at a hospital, came at 3:45 p.m., the Kremlin said, making the announcement without ceremony...

“I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country, and serious mistakes,” Mr. Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency...

Mr. Putin released a statement late Monday declaring that Mr. Yeltsin had given the country democracy as the first elected president of Russia. “Under this title, he has taken his place in the history of this country, and of the world,” Mr. Putin said. He made no mention of Mr. Yeltsin’s role in Mr. Putin’s rise to power.

Not only does it seem somehow wrong that Gorbachev outlived him, and not only does Putin come off here like the ungrateful little shit he is, but fundamentally I'm just so depressed by the thought that Boris Yeltsin wound up a political punching bag (if not punchline). He was one of the touchstone figures of the 90s, man! Surely he deserves better.

It is a great consolation to know that Boris lives on, in the name of a fun Missouri indie band who also provide the title for this post. But I nevertheless can't quite shake the thought -- and this startled me greatly when I realized it -- that we've lost someone important for the world's cultural history. There was a certain feeling that came with Premier Boris, and we may never get that feeling back.

Ah well. Rest in peace, Mr. Yeltsin. You earned it.

---Update, 2:30 AM: Jesus, James Lileks is channeling me. Or possibly vice versa. Who knows.

At the time he was a fresh wind, and he fit a Russian stereotype we hadn’t seen in decades. Instead of dour glowering technocrats or the tall Ivan-Drago Leninbots of fiction, he was a big rumpled Siberian who appeared to enjoy smiling for the simple human reasons. [...] I always had a soft spot for him. Seeing him stand on the tank, and watching the Soviet flag come down – one of the most remarkable moments of the end of the 20th century.

Ending CORPORATE Music Piracy

There was an opinion piece in the Crimson today by the President of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It bemoans the imminent destruction of music in this country due to piracy.

While we all may have our own opinions on music piracy, the idea that anyone should shed a tear over piracy is beyond me, given the obviously larger problems that afflict the recording industry.

The fact is, the music recording industry is monopolistic (or oligopolistic, if you prefer). 85% of all music released is done through only 5 labels/corporations. In comparison, the rest of the media industry in this nation is similarly monopolistic (which has even more corrosive effects on our democracy) but the level is significantly less bad with 8 companies controlling over 50%, a much smaller ratio (though still horrible and terribly unfair).

While the monopoly represented by the RIAA (the RIAA is mostly these 5 corporations) may not actually be engaging in price-fixing, as some accuse, its consolidation of the market leaves it open to those allegations. Furthermore, such consolidation is bad for competition, which is bad for consumers and for artists. It means we get worse products for higher prices and artists get treated worse for less money. If the RIAA actually cared about artists' wellbeing, they would pay them a fair amount of money for their music (and I am talking about the majority of artists that are on the major labels who have little job security and little compensation for their work, not the big, flashy pop stars).

The solution to the crisis in the music industry is not focusing on stopping downloading piracy but on stopping corporate piracy.