I've got work up in Maine at the end of June, and since I drive an old man car with just a CD player, I'm making a "Modern Bob Mould and Dinosaur Jr." mix CD and I'm going to take a day to drive around Mount Desert Island and just lose my shit all day.
He may not be making the best music of his career right now, but as far as straight forward, solid rock music that sounds amazing really loud in the car IN THE SUMMER TIME AND LIFE IS PERFECT AT THAT MOMENT, there aren't too many people doing a better job these days.
You do have it. My comment was a barely-editorialized quote, and thus all the upvotes it got were just an agreement that something Coyne said was "dumbest." I'll get Macklemore to tweet at you for me.
The heart-of-American-darkness in me does genuinely like a good beef. It's fun and voyeuristic in a base sense and I'm sorry.
This on the other hand is weird and fussy and I don't get what this guy's even talking about. Just say "I don't like that dude" so I can eat my popcorn and get back to work.
Favorite part: "The dog isn't our dog, the dog is a famous Instagram dog that we happened to be in the presence of – Mayor B is an Instagram dog. And he wears everything. He only wears things that obviously his owners must think are cool. One of them is a John Lennon New York shirt with glasses. I don't think Mayor B is saying, "Look how stupid and hateful I am" to John Lennon. I got the feeling that Mayor B was wearing [the headdress] for the same reasons that Gwen Stefani or anybody else would wear it, because it's cool-looking."
That really might be the dumbest thing I've ever read from a public figure.
The big danger of a lot of the language of this kind of stuff is a new power dynamic is emerging. I think the idea of privilege is really interesting and has a huge amount of value to it. BUT, it's turning into this "I'm so much more aware of my privilege than you are, here, read this blog post you piece of trash, your talking rights are revoked until then." It's almost pandering to people of oppressed groups. "See? I'm being aggressive and defending you! I am the great white hope." The language of privilege can just keep spiraling out: A white person might not have come from an economically privileged position of even being educated about white privilege in the first place, and on and on. Privilege as an all encompassing, all-motivating concept breaks down because it's always going to be more complicated than a binary; Power groups within groups are an inevitability, especially when unchosen position is used as leverage against someone up or down the social ladder. Again, it's all very interesting, important and true, but it has to have limits in conversation and praxis.
And also, does privilege prevent me as a white guy from having a legitimate moral stance on something? For example, I'm pretty numb to black men on TV calling women bitches. I think that's something we kind of need to talk about, but I don't know if I'm "allowed" to. We all have to share the same pavement, and we just can't afford constant shifting rules of who can speak and when and what about.
The one moment in the video that actually made me raise my eyebrows was when she was riding in the car in the front passenger's seat, and they pass a black guy crouching on the sidewalk in coveralls. That shot implied, to me anyway, the guy in the coveralls was looking at Sky in a way that one would look at a powerful crime boss, or at least someone who is notorious/intimidating/commanding respect. Anyway, it was not a casual glance at the very least. There's a lot of race-relation weirdness in that to me.
I'm not particularly interested in political correctness and the self-indulgent indignation that comes along with that kind of thing, and I don't think Sky Ferreira is a racist, or at least this video doesn't make me think that she's a racist: I just think the video is a bad idea.
Hip hop videos, for all of their issues, are kind of hard to divorce from the social and economic background most of the artists come from. Whether or not they glorify or critique drug-gang culture, it's a commentary from that experience (with varying levels of credibility) and being in that experience IS a product of a racist culture that puts a people group in a ghetto and leaves them to rot. Now, do I think white people can engage with that as an art form, talk about it, ask questions about it, criticize it? Yeah, I do. BUT: It's probably a crappy idea to appropriate it as the backdrop of your pop video that ends with you in jail and using your sex appeal to get out of trouble with the white cops.
I guess I'm just used to hostility to my beliefs from others, and nine times out of the ten that I face it, it's low-hanging fruit type material. I mean, I'm more or less un-offendable over it in any particular instance, it's just what it is, however over time it's taken it's toll on my general outlook. There's just no way around that. I'm not complaining, it's just what it is. That said, I would rather put nails in my knee caps than be in the same public position as Sufjan because you're going to have different groups of varying shittiness vying for you as a member of their tribe when they respect you, and using something that he's more or less kept in the background as fodder for yucks when they don't. I mean, I'm sure he has a sense of humor about it, because you kind of have to, but I think there's a more interesting conversation to be had about how faith, morality, art and generally goofing off play together.
This kind of thing is probably why Sufjan has been coy (or flat out reclusive) about the details of his faith. It's just going to be used as a sensationalist filter to run everything he does through. To reduce the complexities of Christian ethics in thoughtful people to youth-pastor hand wringing is exactly the kind of thing I'm sure he's tried to avoid.
They split in 2012, but they have a kid together. Her quote on the wikipedia page is cringeworthy:
"I think it’s weird. It’s not that I got with Ben and then suddenly I was a billionaire. You know? I got with Ben, and I realized that we do come from different worlds, but it’s interesting that it is more about the concepts of elitism and power."
I don't have the slightest issue with pop artists who focus a lot of energy and speech on philanthropy. I just think the attitude of the snarling deconstructionist clashes with the pop artist's complicit place in a wasteful culture. Our issues have complex overlaps of the philosophic, existential and practical, and we all participate in the problems in varying degrees, and I think that should discipline our tone. But in her case, when railing against western socio-economic problems, don't act all superior and socially-enlighteneder-than-thou when you're on camera AT THE SUPERBOWL SINGING POP SONGS.
I woke up on my 30th birthday and realized, very suddenly, so many of the things that I cared about between, say, 23-29, just didn't seem to matter anymore. I wear hiking pants and comfortable shoes pretty much every day now. I met my fiance. I was out at a crowded bar getting shoved from behind and was like "I can make a better cocktail at home." and 6 of us left and had a great night at the apartment. Things like that keep happening, and man I love being 31.
I was in something similar with my faith. I got to a point where Christianity was experientially a carrot on a stick. I went to a place that was recommended by a friend, and I'll leave it nameless to avoid seeming like I'm plugging something. Long story short I had a "tutor" and he asked me to tell my story, and I was DREADING some trope fix-you-up answer. He caught me off guard and said "Yeah. Your life is absurd and God is frustrating. We can't fix your problems, so that's not what we try to do." That was probably the most important thing I've ever heard. My faith, while undulating often violently, is something now that I consider "alive" and peace, at least my peace, turned out to be something I didn't expect. I don't begrudge the people who've tried to help, I think it's a cultural thing in and outside the church, but like you've seen, it's probably torturing and holding a lot of people back.
Yeah, but on the other hand, it's a spot on the internet where someone mentioned religion and people aren't ripping each other's throats out in the comments section. It's a fair trade.
First, LOL at the NFL. Yes, a veritable bastion of moral fiber whose honor is worth 15 million dollars. Nevermind the drinking game based around how many f-bombs you can see mouthed in slow motion every time there's a turn over.
Second, take it easy MIA. If you're SO mortified by the NFL on a moral basis, don't play their show.
These two sides can eat each other.
I mean there's a lot of stuff in this nu-media to get worried about. If the Atlantic is succumbing to it, that's a borderline national tragedy, some of the best articles I've ever read on any topic has come from that paper.
I was reading about Kierkegaard's ideas on the press in his day (OHMAIGAWD WHADDANERD) and it REALLY made me think of Gawker. He was talking about a "reflective age without passion." In other words, people would now have endless amounts of information on endless topics for people to sit, reflect upon and come to a conclusion and feel enlightened by that conclusion, without ever having to actually DO anything, or have an expertly informed opinion. There's no real decision to act to be made most of the time. It really made me rethink how I use the internet and where I go.
Yeah, Thurston isn't exactly in a position to be picking fights. My problem with Jezebel is that it shows how dangerous the Gawker system can be: Take a topic of real importance and need for thoughtful editorial, and then grind it through a click-baiting, dishonest-snark machine that just prints money in amounts directly proportional to internet outrage and ill will. IF the writers at Jezebel actually believe they are being earnest, that's sad, but ultimately there's no honesty there.
vandertramps, I have to disagree. There's no proxy, as in, there's no third party speaking on either of our behalfs. You typed in words with the expectation or motivation that I would see them. The medium is of course different than in meat-space, but I would say there are more proxies there than here. This is a space of zero consequence, where the only thing guiding our interactions is our respective motives with no social, economic or political influence to filter or affect our tones or ideas. Which is why it's so terrifying when millions of people are ready to spew bile at the drop of a hat, because it suggests consequence, whether internal or external, is the only thing keeping that at bay in the street.
I think the internet is fascinating because it pulls back this social barrier and exposes how personally everyone takes everything. I mean, people are ready to strangle each other over CELL PHONES. You've got enough people walking around with raw nerves, they're going to want a safe space to bite someone's neck. I also don't get the "it's just the internet" excuse. The internet is the guy sitting next to me on the subway who just posted to a gawker thread telling someone to go hang themselves. It's exhausting and scary.
Thank you. If Lemmy Kilmister says "I'll never do heroin." no one should ever try heroin.
Also, having a moral stance on addiction and addiction being a disease are not mutually exclusive, i don't know why people talk as if they are.
This season made me realize I only watch the show for the characters. It's not much of a mystery to me as it is "What are these two very charming characters going to do and say?"
It's wild. A buddy of mine just moved back to Boston from LA to be closer to his girlfriend. I try to tell him, the social circle that he left is just gone. I mean, people are still friends, and we turn up for important life events, but there's no more roaming pack of 25 people going to a bar in Cambridge every week. It hasn't sunk in with him yet, which is hard to watch.
I had my heart broken a while ago, I moved on and now I'm talking about marrying this red head who I'm still convinced isn't real and I'm just making her up all the time, which should be embarrassing. I've changed careers. All that since this video was posted, and I REMEMBER reading it. Of all the internet garbage that's been poured through my eyes, I remember this from a time of my life which is now totally unrecognizeable.
I know I'm more of a lurker than anything, but there are at least 4 or 5 Talking Heads songs that would absolutely set me off over this Videogum transition.
Yeah and maybe no publicity is bad publicity but still... My guess is he thought it was a really moving and personal message about his existential response to his dead brother (don't use your murdered brother in a commercial) and if the internet loves ANYTHING it loves to laugh at misappropriated sincerity. Or, then again, he could be a total sociopath who saw his brother's murder as a good business opportunity.
Ok. I'm... marginally sympathetic. With higher quality visual production being democratized more and more with technology, it's allowing for people who no creative background or training or fully-formed frame of reference to afford having some kind of presentation that has technical chops (because that wasn't exactly kid's play video production) but doesn't really have the... well. you know what I mean.
I just end up feeling bad for people like this because they get really convinced that this kind of thing is a good idea, and it's cool, and yeah, maybe they should be able to tell the difference, but they don't...
Lava invariably makes me sad. "I don't care about you. I just move forward and kill you in horrifying and ways that still make you wonder what it would be like. I don't care about you."
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